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Ask HN: What's your method for getting to know a new codebase?
When you start a new job with a large existing codebase, what are your techniques for getting to know it as quickly as possible?
- bradcomp 9y agoI generally go through something like the following steps: * I look at the readme if it exists * I pull down the project and run any setup steps (install dependencies, start up database, etc). * If there are tests, I try to get the tests to run (this may lead to additional setup) * Once I get the tests to run, I make sure they are all passing * If it's an application (as opposed to a library) I will get it up and running on my computer and play around with it as a user. * Finally I will start scanning the source code - Starting with the main app, and digging down where it seems relevant. * If I am looking for some specific functionality, I let that guide my perusal of the source, otherwise it's just looking at the major pieces - routes, views, models, etc. to get a feel for what the relevant parts of the app are.