How do programmers find the correct files and lines of code to edit in an open source project when they want to add or improve functionality.

Question

How do programmers find the correct files and lines of code to edit in an open source project when they want to add or improve functionality.

In: 58

Answer 1

Well, a good OSS project will have their source structured in a way that makes sense.

So it could be by layer (a folder for everything that does DB access, a folder for business logic, a folder for UI, etc.), by feature/components (a folder for the dropdown, a folder for the toggles, a folder for the cards, a folder for the router, etc.) And so on and so forth, but it is usually quite easy to get a grip on the organization and get a rough idea about where the change needs to be made.

Once you drill it down to a couple of files, the classes, methods and functions should have relevant names that help to find a good starting point to explore the code itself.

You don’t really need to find the entry point of the feature (i.e., the first bit of code executed for that feature), just something that’s probably executed most of the time the feature is used. From there, you can look at what calls and is called by it to pinpoint what you need to change.

Also, nowadays, most of the time, unit tests and documentation will help to find the correct file and function.