How do you go about understanding the source code of an Open source project?

Posted by Anirudh Vemula on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by Anirudh Vemula
Published on 2012-12-08T19:35:33Z Indexed on 2012/12/08 23:35 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 330

Filed under:

open-source

|

python

|

machine-learning

|

computer-vision

I am planning to contribute code through patches to some open source organisations to become more aware of open source development. I have chosen some organisations but when I download their source code, I don't seem to understand even a bit of it.

How do I go about understanding their source code? I tried going through resolving a bug but finding the place in the source code where the bug is present is also difficult when you have no idea about how the code is structured and implemented.

I need help on this so I can start working on an open source code.

© Programmers or respective owner

Related posts about open-source

Introducing Java/Open Source Daily, All the Java/Open Source Information You Need in One Newsletter

as seen on Internet.com - Search for 'Internet.com'
Internet.com launches a new daily newsletter to provide one-stop coverage of all the Java and Open Source information that matters to you. >>> More
Introducing Java/Open Source Daily, All the Java/Open Source Information You Need in One Newsletter

as seen on Internet.com - Search for 'Internet.com'
Internet.com launches a new daily newsletter to provide one-stop coverage of all the Java and Open Source information that matters to you. >>> More
The Open Source Open Source Conference

as seen on Internet.com - Search for 'Internet.com'
Portland, OR open source advocates took the loss of OSCON in stride: They launched their own open source conference. How did it stack up against the heavyweight, top-down competition? >>> More
Open Source: Open Source Contributions

as seen on Oracle Technology Network - Search for 'Oracle Technology Network'
Oracle investments in Linux yield substantial returns. >>> More
What are the strategies to become a good open source developer?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I always hear that involving with open source projects is good for career and the more (good) open source you release, the closer you will be to getting your dream job before you've even had an interview.I am expert in Java and I am trying to become fluent in Scala. I always think about getting involved… >>> More

Related posts about python

unmet dependencies in Ubuntu 12.04

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I tried today to install a dvb-card on my Ubuntu 12.04 (Linux blauhai-linux 3.2.0-25-generic #40-Ubuntu SMP Wed May 23 20:30:51 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux ). The installation failed with an error. After that, i tried to install python (it was already installed but i got this error): linux:~$… >>> More
How can I get sikuli-ide to work?

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I installed sikuli-ide with sudo apt-get install sikuli-ide Everything was fine until I tried to start it from the terminal. I typed sikuli-ide But the only response I got was [info] locale: en_US The application was not started, furthermore there is no desktop file and sikuli-ide does not… >>> More
Getting PATH right for python after MacPorts install

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I can't import some python libraries (PIL, psycopg2) that I just installed with MacPorts. I looked through these forums, and tried to adjust my PATH variable in $HOME/.bash_profile in order to fix this but it did not work. I added the location of PIL and psycopg2 to PATH. I know that Terminal is… >>> More
call python with system() in R to run a python script emulating the python console

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I want to pass a chunk of Python code to Python in R with something like system('python ...'), and I'm wondering if there is an easy way to emulate the python console in this case. For example, suppose the code is "print 'hello world'", how can I get the output like this in R? >>> print… >>> More
Python - Calling a non python program from python?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi, I am currently struggling to call a non python program from a python script. I have a ~1000 files that when passed through this C++ program will generate ~1000 outputs. Each output file must have a distinct name. The command I wish to run is of the form: program_name -input -output -o1 -o2… >>> More