02 · Business rules
Find the rules before you count screens
A window count tells you how much interface exists. It does not tell you where the business decides whether a customer is active, a record may be saved, or a user may proceed.
Look beyond the obvious procedure
A Save button can validate an identifier before HAdd. A query can define an active customer. A stored procedure, a GLOBAL variable, project initialization, or a COMPILE IF branch can change behavior just as decisively. Some intent may exist only in a former analyst's memory.
- Control events and local procedures
- Queries and stored procedures
- Global state, startup code, and conditional compilation
Give every rule a source
WXCode catalogs discovered rules with a category, confidence, and the procedure, window, or query where the rule came from. In the Knowledge Base, rules from screen events and procedures can be reviewed together. The source link makes an ambiguous description a question you can investigate, not an assumption you must carry into new code.
Decide what still applies
A catalog is evidence, not policy. Review rules with the business: confirm current behavior, flag exceptions, and disable a rule that no longer applies. The conversion agent's rule lookup then excludes disabled rules, while rule history records later changes.
