Amit Uttamchandani wrote: > Hey everyone, > > Just wondering how you guys go about studying code? Do you read every > single source file and then make notes? Or is there a tool that goes > about and draws out relationships between source code files? > > I ask this because I am looking into adding a feature/fix to pcmanfm > but it looks like its going to take me a while to understand how > everything works together. > > Thanks, > Amit
I might not be doing this efficiently but here is the general outline... First I run ctags -R on that source code's parent directory. That way when I am browsing the code, it will be easy to jump across different parts. See the declaration of variables etc., Next I try to compile the code using make and store the output on the screen. I use something like "make 2>&1 | tee make_$(date +%Y%m%d).log . This gives an overview of the dependencies... For example if I am interested in file10. I will now know that it depends upon file8, file5 etc., This in turn gives an idea of what files to browse and what files to skip ... After that it is pretty much looking at the code/comments (and pulling my hair figuring out stuff... :-)). hth raju -- Kamaraju S Kusumanchi http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/kk288/ http://malayamaarutham.blogspot.com/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
