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What's your approach for understanding a big codebase? (self.experienced_devs)

submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by alexdeathway to c/experienced_devs

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understanding a big codebase you have never worked.

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[–] MagicShel 10 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Look at the packages. Try to break it down into architectural layers. Understand in a broad sense what each layer adds to the one before. Rage that it wasn't so much architected as cobbled together from pieces never designed to fit together. Decry it as total garbage and recommend total rewrite.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago (2 children)

As an advanced technique, you can usually skip the first half of this.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

Everything except last 3 words.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

Yes, I'd start from "Rage".