Robert MacLean
3 January 2008
Static analysis is the process of having a tool scan at your compiled and/or uncompiled code for things like bad practises, maintainabilty, performance and security issues and so on. If you have Visual Studio Team Edition or better then you have the built in tool which is based on the free FxCop. Wikipedia contains a nice list of various tools available, but the reason why FxCop/VS is so much better is the help on the issues. All the help contains samples and information on the how and why of the problem and solutions for it. This actually becomes more than a tool to ship software but a great learning aid for the developer using it.