kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 3/4/2015 5:55 AM, Marc Jacobi wrote:
> Yes, I agree that bug fixing or adding simple features is a good way to
> ease into the code (complexity).
> 
> But I was hoping there would be some abstract picture of how the program
> is structured (internally - that it has modules is pretty evident on the
> outside) what components are identified and how the responsibilities are
> distributed among the classes...?

That's not likely to happen given our resource limitations.  KiCad is a
very large project and it takes a long time to wrap your head around all
of it.  It's definitely not a project for the casual developer.

> 
> Documentation at class level (doxygen) is nice for reference - when you
> already know where to look and what to look for...
> For getting to know a code base it is too much and too detailed IMHO...

Wow!  We might be the first open source project accused of having too
much detailed source code documentation. :)  All kidding aside, the
doxygen documentation is the best resource other than rolling up your
sleeves and figuring out how the code works.  At least you can get an
idea of the classes and how they fit together.

> 
> Marc
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> From: oe.nick@xxxxxxxxx
> Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2015 10:45:49 +0100
> Subject: Re: [Kicad-developers] Getting started?
> To: obiwanjacobi@xxxxxxxxxxx
> CC: kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> 
> Den 04/03/2015 10.03 skrev "Marc Jacobi" <obiwanjacobi@xxxxxxxxxxx
> <mailto:obiwanjacobi@xxxxxxxxxxx>>:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I am Marc Jacobi from the Netherlands and I want to get involved. 
>> I have found the source code but its rather overwhelming.
>>
>> Is there any documentation on the code architecture and/or patterns used?
> 
> I am not sure about architecture, but for patterns... there is the
> coding style policy [1], although I am not sure that is what you mean.
> 
>> Or anything on concepts and interaction?
> 
> I hope other devs has better answers than me, but there is also the
> KIWAY stuff with an overview on [2].
> 
>> What would be a good place to start...?
> 
> A good place to start is fixing bugs reported on the bug tracker, that
> leaves you with a starting point for exploration. It is very often
> better to have to have some goal, like a new feature to add or a problem
> to solve when digging into new stuff.
> 
>>
>> Thanx,
>> Marc
>>
> 
> [1] http://ci.kicad-pcb.org/job/kicad-doxygen/ws/Documentation/doxygen/html/md_Documentation_development_coding-style-policy.html
> 
> [2] https://github.com/KiCad/kicad-source-mirror/wiki/Modular-KiCad-with-Alternate-Top-Level-Launchers
> 
> 
> 
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