source insight is a tool used to understand a project....You can
try......

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf
Of Indika Bandara
Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2007 1:06 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [c-prog] Re: tips to understand large project



im surprised about the numbers !!!

anyway, if say u want to understand the whole project, u r suggesting
to look at the sequence of it? ... ok .. it seems rough waters for
newbies.. 

--- In [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:c-prog%40yahoogroups.com> com, Thomas
Hruska <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Indika Bandara wrote:
> > hi, 
> > 
> > If u r put into a large project of several 10,000 lines how would
you
> > start from to understand it..?
> > 
> > could somebody give some tips?
> > 
> > TIA
> > 
> > indika
> 
> I'd probably call it a "small" to "medium" project. I can crank out 
> anywhere from 500-1000 lines per day (depending on what I'm doing
and if 
> I know how I want to develop whatever I'm working on).
> 
> It helps to get your feet wet in an existing project by having a
simple 
> task to do. Sitting there studying the source code is a waste of time.

> Ask your boss for a simple task to do involving the project (if you 
> don't already have one). Then build a debug build of the project and 
> fire up the debugger. Pause the application (using the debugger) when 
> you hit the section where you are supposed to add the code. You'll be 
> in the rough neighborhood - might take a couple tries. Then start 
> refining the place with breakpoints to get a feel for that section of 
> code. It helps to play with the application to get a good idea for how

> it works so when you look at the source code you can say, "okay, this 
> relates to that dialog" or "this drives the calculations for the next 
> part of the process."
> 
> For me, I can analyze most apps. by eyeballing the source usually
after 
> running it once to get an overview. Then again, I've been staring at 
> bad programming practices for years, so it just comes naturally. But 
> some apps. are just evil monolithic beasts (i.e. a hodgepodge of
code in 
> a big melting pot of awfulness) that you have to wade through. 
> Hopefully the code you have to change isn't like that.
> 
> Doxygen can help...but usually it isn't too helpful unless the code is

> already Doxygen-friendly (i.e. Doxygen is used internally).
> 
> This is why companies hate hiring new people: Training takes about 6 
> months to get the new employee's feet wet in both source code and
people 
> interaction. And that's just to get so you are functional on the 
> project. It can take significantly longer (depending on how good you 
> are to begin with) to become an expert on the codebase so that 
> modifications are second nature.
> 
> -- 
> Thomas Hruska
> CubicleSoft President
> Ph: 517-803-4197
> 
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>



 



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