Robert P. J. Day wrote:
On Sun, 19 Apr 2015, nick wrote:
On 2015-04-19 09:57 PM, r00nk@simplecpu.com wrote:
The following question gets asked a lot, "I know C, but reading the kernel source is hard, what should I do?" and the common response is "ctags." It's a lot like asking "how can I build a house?" and receiving the response "screwdriver." There is obviously more to it then learning C and installing ctags. As a newbie myself, I recently had to overcome this problem, Here's what I did: ... snip ...
The problem a lot of newbies are having is in 'separating the trunk from the leaves.' So my question is this: Experienced kernel developers, how do _you_ read source code? How do you separate the trunk from the leaves? What do you do when you read code you're not familiar with? How do you learn? What's your algorithm? *sigh* ... this is the wrong question, in the same way that asking, "how do i start writing kernel code?" is the wrong question. someone once made the brilliant analogy that asking how to start contributing to the kernel is akin to asking, "i want to write a book ... what should i write about?" if you don't already know what interests you, no one else can help you start writing.
<snip> Maybe it's the wrong question, but it's sure stimulating a lot of good (as in informative) answers. Miles Fidelman -- In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is. .... Yogi Berra