The codebase is just too huge, I just feel lost when trying to read it.
Thanks!
+1
A:
Start with smaller bits of functionality - no one understands a large codebase, certainly when first starting with it.
Concentrate on subsystems that you find interesting, for example:
- Rendering engine, javascript engine, network stack for firefox
- SQL parser, IO subsystem for MySQL
Once you understand a piece of code, see how it interacts and connects to other parts.
One thing I do is run in debug mode using an interactive debugger, setting a breakpoint in a point of interest and following the code from there and back up the stack.
Oded
2010-08-15 16:01:34
How to debug these projects in visual studio ? Seems there is only a makefile for linux,but not .sln
wamp
2010-08-16 03:58:35
I'm also wondering about this.
2010-08-17 11:44:59
@wamp - If it's not a VS project/solution, you will not be able to debug with VS. You may be able to import it, but then you need to build the project yourself with all dependencies.
Oded
2010-08-17 13:09:08
How's the windows version built if you say it's not a VS project/solution?
wamp
2010-08-18 05:28:19
@wamp - There are make files, and ports of make and c/c++ compilers for windows. Visual Studio is _not_ the only way to compile windows applications.
Oded
2010-08-18 06:36:54
@Oded,how did you debug these projects in linux? I don't there is a good GUI debuger in linux yet...
wamp
2010-08-18 06:41:58
@wamp - I never did debug these. I only said that is my normal approach on large code bases. Sorry for the confusion.
Oded
2010-08-18 07:15:18
A:
One way you might approach this is to find a minor (and hopefully interesting) issue from the project's bug tracker. If it's small in scope, fixing it will force you to learn a bite-sized piece of the project (as well as how to build the whole project, which is useful). If its not apparent which bugs are the right size and scope, a post to the developer's mailing list would probably be illuminating.
This way, you'll learn the code better than you would just from eyeballing and make a contribution to boot!
Greg Harman
2010-08-15 16:35:12