POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.off-topic : How to read source code? : Re: How to read source code? Server Time
28 Jul 2024 20:22:47 EDT (-0400)
  Re: How to read source code?  
From: Kenneth
Date: 6 Feb 2013 18:25:00
Message: <web.5112e48bf5f10c30c2d977c20@news.povray.org>
Hey, this is really fantastic! So I downloaded POV-Ray's 3.62 source code, and
it shows up in Windows Notepad, EditPadLite--even in POV-Ray itself! (I think
the latter is my favorite 'reading platform' so far.)

Thanks to everyone who posted about this. I didn't know it was so easy.

Hey, there are LOTS of separate source code files for POV-Ray! Where to begin...
 I naively thought that *whatever makes POV run* would be just one big file. Am
I correct in thinking that the program's source code is actually split up into
lots of little (therefore manageable) chunks?

One other thing: Does POV-Ray (or any of the other text reader apps I mentioned)
need ...uh... built-in 'code libraries' or something, to show *correct*
C/C++/whatever syntax? In other words, does a particular app 'substitute' its
own syntax for the correct one, if it doesn't have certain code libraries? (I
hope I'm asking this in a meaningful way.) Am I *seeing* the code correctly?
These questions are based on something I read on a Wikipedia page:

"Notepad++ supports syntax highlighting and code folding for over 50
programming, scripting, and markup languages. It attempts to automatically
detect the language that a given file uses, using a modifiable list of file
extension bindings. Users may also manually set the current language, overriding
the extension's default language."

Or does that mean just what it says--only for "syntax highlighting and code
folding"? If so...no problem! (Clipka's response re: ASCII makes me think so
anyway.)

Off-off-topic: While I was doing my research into this stuff, I read about 'hex
editors.' Apparently they can open an executable (.exe) file for editing?? (Not
in a higher-level language, of course.)


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