From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Stefan Monnier " Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: reading the C source of Emacs Date: 12 Jan 2003 15:59:39 -0500 Organization: Yale University Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+gnu-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Message-ID: <5l3cnydqys.fsf@rum.cs.yale.edu> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1042442319 11111 80.91.224.249 (13 Jan 2003 07:18:39 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2003 07:18:39 +0000 (UTC) Return-path: Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 18Xyrl-0002sw-00 for ; Mon, 13 Jan 2003 08:18:38 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.10.13) id 18XyqQ-0001ew-04 for gnu-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Mon, 13 Jan 2003 02:17:14 -0500 Original-Path: shelby.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!newsfeed.utk.edu!news-hog.berkeley.edu!ucberkeley!news.ycc.yale.edu!rum.cs.yale.edu!rum.cs.yale.edu Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 17 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: rum.cs.yale.edu User-Agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.3.50 X-Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: rum.cs.yale.edu X-Original-Trace: 12 Jan 2003 15:59:40 -0500, rum.cs.yale.edu Original-Xref: shelby.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:108892 Original-To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1b5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Archive: List-Unsubscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+gnu-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:5421 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.help:5421 > Not surprisingly I am pretty lost. What is a good starting point to > read those sources? Is there any recommended order of reading? In my experience, the best way to start understanding a (large) piece of code, is to look at a small part of it that you expect you should be able to more or less understand, and once you feel like you understand it somewhat, change it in an apparently innocuous way. Most likely it will wreak havoc because you actually completely missed several important aspects of what the code does, but by looking at how it breaks, you'll get to understand those things you missed. Having knowledgeable people at hand makes the experience less painful, of course. Stefan