3 ms·

Guys, we need a better way for exploring big open source projects (like Android, for example), preferably online. Google Code Search is pretty good, but I think

by sofal 17y ago

Guys, we need a better way for exploring big open source projects (like Android, for example), preferably online. Google Code Search is pretty good, but I think there is so much more that can be done.

alexgartrell 17y ago
The most striking thing is how few people here have addressed this point. Everyone seems to be living in a fantasy land where "learning APIs" is as hairy as it gets. I've messed with portions of the Linux Kernel, Chromium, Mozilla, and Coda Filesystem codebases. In each occasion, tools like code-search (provided by lxr.linux.no, mxr.mozilla.org, Google COde, and even `find . | xargs grep`) have been invaluable in getting anything done. Chromium, Mozilla, and the Linux Kernel were unpleasant, but manageable with the existing tools, because of the incredibly strict guidelines imposed upon contributors as far as code style and other things. On the flip side, the Coda Filesystem, which has grown as the result of many relatively disjoint Ph.D. research projects) requires a whole lot of help and handholding from the guys who have put a decade into it already. I can only imagine private code bases being a LOT worse. An IDE that makes semantic relationships more obvious to the new guys would do a lot to ramp new people up faster and would really be a huge benefit from a community standpoint as well as just being generally helpful to existing developers. That said, this is a good first step, and not necessarily perfect. It kind of looks like a toy now, so managing screen real-estate better would be the next big step, I think.
- nitrogen 17y ago
  Do you find that "find . | xargs grep" is more useful than "grep -HnR" in some way? I recommend setting up cscope for hacking the kernel. I haven't done any kernel hacking for a while, but when I did I found cscope (and vim+cscope) very helpful. Since it's database-driven and designed to run on systems from the 80s, it's still extremely fast.

by sofal 17y ago

alexgartrell 17y ago

The most striking thing is how few people here have addressed this point. Everyone seems to be living in a fantasy land where "learning APIs" is as hairy as it gets. I've messed with portions of the Linux Kernel, Chromium, Mozilla, and Coda Filesystem codebases. In each occasion, tools like code-search (provided by lxr.linux.no, mxr.mozilla.org, Google COde, and even `find . | xargs grep`) have been invaluable in getting anything done. Chromium, Mozilla, and the Linux Kernel were unpleasant, but manageable with the existing tools, because of the incredibly strict guidelines imposed upon contributors as far as code style and other things. On the flip side, the Coda Filesystem, which has grown as the result of many relatively disjoint Ph.D. research projects) requires a whole lot of help and handholding from the guys who have put a decade into it already. I can only imagine private code bases being a LOT worse. An IDE that makes semantic relationships more obvious to the new guys would do a lot to ramp new people up faster and would really be a huge benefit from a community standpoint as well as just being generally helpful to existing developers. That said, this is a good first step, and not necessarily perfect. It kind of looks like a toy now, so managing screen real-estate better would be the next big step, I think.

nitrogen 17y ago
Do you find that "find . | xargs grep" is more useful than "grep -HnR" in some way? I recommend setting up cscope for hacking the kernel. I haven't done any kernel hacking for a while, but when I did I found cscope (and vim+cscope) very helpful. Since it's database-driven and designed to run on systems from the 80s, it's still extremely fast.