Last time https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8263402 article appeared in 2014, I wanted to see if there are methodologies that people have adopted not listed in this article?
I would like to hear your experiences. Feel free to contribute here or at https://gist.github.com/hhimanshu/714962f4205d7dddc7e5991a86412805. I would make notes and update the page. Thanks
Ask HN: What are some of the ways to learn codebases
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Re: Ask HN: What are some of the ways to learn codebases
#2Learning a codebase requires fast navigation. ctags or a good IDE help with that.
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the ways to learn codebases
#3"Follow the money!" - but instead of money, follow the data;
- sort source code by filesize
- look at the large methods / code blocks
- browse through the /examples/ and /tests/ dirs to familiarize yourself with typical usage
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the ways to learn codebases
#4Runtime call tracing is the missing methodology. I haven't found anything better over the years and always implement them if I have to learn things quickly. Made one for nginx even.
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the ways to learn codebases
#5[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the ways to learn codebases
#6Runtime call tracing is the missing methodology. I haven't found anything better over the years and always implement them if I have to learn things quickly. Made one for nginx even.
thank you. Could you elaborate on this method please?
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the ways to learn codebases
#7Biggest thing for me is to talk to whomever wrote it, or if they're not available, whomever has the most knowledge of the codebase.