5 ms·

I don't think I would have figured out how one adds a new token if not for Eli's post. This comment [0] perfectly explains the quirks I ran into. As an exercis

I don't think I would have figured out how one adds a new token if not for Eli's post. This comment [0] perfectly explains the quirks I ran into. As an exercise, can you help me figure out how to add a token just from the source and discover these quirks? On second thought, reading from the source and figuring it out could have been possible if you spent hours. But don't you think it should also have some comments to navigate? [0] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29489113 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29489113

londons_explore 5y ago
Google has an amazing code search tool. You can try it out here[1]. That generally makes browsing source code much quicker and easier, which in turn makes understanding the structure of huge codebases much easier. With that tool, I prefer to just dive into the source in most cases rather than read documentation, especially when there is a good chance the documentation is wrong/outdated. [1]: https://source.chromium.org https://source.chromium.org
- preseinger 5y ago
  Code explains what and how, but not why. Why is necessary for building a robust mental model of any system, and can only be provided by documentation (or other humans).
  - londons_explore 5y ago
    Googles source code files frequently have 50+ lines of comments at the top of the file to explain the why...
    - preseinger 5y ago
      Right, so, documentation... ?
- johnisgood 5y ago
  > https://source.chromium.org https://source.chromium.org Wow, it is pretty cool! Is there an open source software that is similar to this? It reminds me of https://elixir.bootlin.com/ https://elixir.bootlin.com/. I really want something like these two. A cross-referencer, but seems like the Chromium one does more (editing, for one). The Chromium one seems to do more git-related stuff as well. Currently checking out https://github.com/bootlin/elixir https://github.com/bootlin/elixir. Edit: Oh Wow, GitHub just improved their code search. Pretty cool. Seems like it can do cross-referencing (even between different repositories!).
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]

londons_explore 5y ago

Google has an amazing code search tool. You can try it out here[1]. That generally makes browsing source code much quicker and easier, which in turn makes understanding the structure of huge codebases much easier. With that tool, I prefer to just dive into the source in most cases rather than read documentation, especially when there is a good chance the documentation is wrong/outdated. [1]: https://source.chromium.org https://source.chromium.org

preseinger 5y ago
Code explains what and how, but not why. Why is necessary for building a robust mental model of any system, and can only be provided by documentation (or other humans).
- londons_explore 5y ago
  Googles source code files frequently have 50+ lines of comments at the top of the file to explain the why...
  - preseinger 5y ago
    Right, so, documentation... ?
johnisgood 5y ago
> https://source.chromium.org https://source.chromium.org Wow, it is pretty cool! Is there an open source software that is similar to this? It reminds me of https://elixir.bootlin.com/ https://elixir.bootlin.com/. I really want something like these two. A cross-referencer, but seems like the Chromium one does more (editing, for one). The Chromium one seems to do more git-related stuff as well. Currently checking out https://github.com/bootlin/elixir https://github.com/bootlin/elixir. Edit: Oh Wow, GitHub just improved their code search. Pretty cool. Seems like it can do cross-referencing (even between different repositories!).
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]