Hi Saifi Thanx Saifi.Your description gives a good description on how to move forward to familiarise ourself with a new platform. With no doubts your steps along with valuable suggestion others have given will help .
With Regards Varunjith > > Hi Varunjith: > > When travelling to a new city it is important to carry a map ! > > So we know the main landmarks, the intersections, transit points, > tourist attractions, eat outs, localities and other road details > at a glance. > > First time visitors will also go for local sight-seeing tours > that help understand the city better and develop an appreciation. > Additionally, one may make choice of mode of travel to spend more > time on some visits. > > There is also a lot of difference between "sight seeing" and "roaming" ! > > The above highlighted "common sense" using a tour analogy is also > "required" when looking a large, professionally written code base > like FreeBSD OS, Linux kernel, Open Office, Firefox, KDE, QT, PostgreSql > etc. > > Here are some things that i would do everytime i had to work with > a large code base: > > 1. get the code base > > 2. get a top level functional view of the various components > > 3. get familiarized with the module names > > 4. identify the task or goal to achieve > > 5. if the task maps to hardware, read up the specs > > 6. make use of search database creation tools > > 7. use the tool to look at the code > > 8. establish the sequence of inovacations in a framework > > 9. try and build the select module or the code base > > 10. refine the goal and goto step 4. > > 11. if task accomplished, exit by documenting what i did. > > It would help a lot to look at very specific situations or cases > or even better, start with a bug, so that the goal is always very > clear ! > > Most kernel code bases also require you to discern between > . normal function calls > . call backs > . and very importantly trampolines > > This kind of approach when iterated over few specific situations > will lead to better understanding of some of the parts of the code > base. > > The knowledge you gain is the new platform on which you can base > your further explorations. > > Hope this helps. Good luck. > > thanks > Saifi.
