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I previously asked this on StackOverflow, but was advised it was a better fit for Programmers.

I have recently begun working on a codebase (as a Java developer) with the following characteristics:

  • Roughly 800,000 lines of source (including whitespace and comments). Primarily Java, but also XML, PHP, Shell scripts, JSP, JS, HTML, CSS
  • Frameworks: Mainly Stripes, a bit of Struts, and some quite old customised Hibernate (and I expect lots of other bits and bobs).
  • No particular methodology for stories, sprints etc.
  • No tests
  • No build process
  • No dependency management (everything is just setup in IDEA)
  • Some very old code dating back as far as 2002
  • No coding standards
  • Masses of code redundancy, though given the lack of tests this is difficult to track down
  • Multiple modules and inter-dependencies
  • A massive 10,000 line XML file containing named Hibernate queries
  • 'Dump-all' classes at the top of the inheritance tree containing references to multiple services that may only be used in a handful of child-classes (As an example, one class is extended by 573 classes. A particular service contained in it is used by only 3 children)
  • Demotivated developers

I know this a really open-ended question: Where would you start in trying to tidy up this system?

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Will
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    @WorldEngineer this question is "how should I tidy up this system?" while the other one was "what would be a good way to teach people not to do it again?". I think even if the title resembles each other they are not duplicates – pqnet Aug 18 '14 at 05:18
  • http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/194476/someone-flagged-my-question-as-already-answered-but-its-not – gnat Aug 18 '14 at 07:12
  • Personally I'm happy with the duplicate question, but if others feels modifying my question could make it more useful, please do :) – Will Aug 18 '14 at 22:54

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