I am struggling a little with folder organization to organize the many projects that I work on. I work on OS X - right now I am using ~/Development/ as the root folder, and I have many types of projects. For example, I have my iPhone apps under ~/Development/Xcode
I develop in many languages, from PHP, to Ruby, to Python, to Objective-C. So, for example, I might have a couple of open-source apps based on PHP where I am using the Zend framework. Some of these projects are for clients, others are tests/experiments when learning a new language or general experimenting.
I am really interested in how other developers have organized code/projects and could pass along some advice to make it very easy to navigate through code/projects related to many languages and types of projects.
I use a structure like this:
~/projects
clients
client_a
project_b
client_c
personal
project_d
experiments
ruby
block_experiment
lua
opensource
repo_name
I'm in a similar boat, and I have two folders in my home directory: Projects and Reference. I don't make any distinctions on the project's language. Code I'm working on goes in Projects and projects whose source I want to read go in Reference. This is useful because typing ~/PrTab and ~/RTab is quick on the command line and I empty my Downloads directory often.
I usually have aliases set up for working with projects on the command line. For example, my gerbils project has a Python virtual environment, so my g alias gets me going quickly from a new shell:
function g () {
export PIP_RESPECT_VIRTUALENV=true
cd ~/Projects/gerbils
. ../bin/activate
}
My advice is to always organise at the project level first. Then modules that make sense. Languages only seem to come into play when a module has multiple implementations. In those cases I find the making the module it's own project works best.
$/Project/XXX
$/Project/YYY/Lang1
$/Project/YYY/Lang2
Then if XXX uses YYY then it's binding is the output of YYY not the source of YYY
I'm just starting to explore these tools, but they're a good jumping point to find more (all free). I landed on these two, and am working with them now:
Benubird
M-Files, Express Version is free
Some other alternatives:
Flex TK
"Index Your files"
File Nexus and others are more just Windows Explorer replacements on steroids, but definitely have their use. I'm still looking for offline tools comparable to Evernote, Zoho, and such, that work with all my current files.
Like everything else with computers, "there's always a way, it's just a matter of how."
Related
I apologize if this this is an extremely amateur question. But before yesterday I had never even heard to tex, latex, mactex, all this stuff.
Basically I have cloned a git repo in which the UML documents appear to be in a .tex file. Following google, this has led me to install MacTex, try to open these files. Click 'typeset' which I presume is how it produces the document, but it gives an error about 'uml2' being invalid syntax.
What program, or what anything, am I supposed to use to open a .tex file which has stuff like this in it:
\tikzstyle{uml2} = [
fill=rupBody,
draw=rupBorder,
font={\ttfamily},
]
Is this even something your supposed to open in a program and view visually? I suppose this file named uml.tex will show a UML diagram once opened. Or do I have completely the wrong idea? Sorry if this is extremely amateur, like I said I've never heard of this since before yesterday, and google isn't turning up lots of information on this. Any direction would be much appreciated.
You need to install pgf from http://ctan.org/pkg/pgf The easiest is to use TexLive. Once you got all packages installed you can typeset the TeX file. I'm using TexShop which is a nice app for the Mac.
Since you indicate you never heard of TeX before: TeX is a program written by Donald Knuth many, many years ago when computers were engined with steam. But it's the best you can find for typesetting. It's mature, crude and more than 99,99% error free. Donald Knuth has a bounty for each error you find in the code and he did not have to pay since many years. What you do is to create those TeX files (there are different macro packages were LaTeX is the most famous) and send them to the TeX processor. That will create the output (now its PDF and formerly it was some DIV (device independent viewer IIRC)).
Edit I downloaded tikz-uml from here: http://perso.ensta-paristech.fr/~kielbasi/tikzuml/index.php and moved the tikz-uml.sty to folder where the main .tex source is placed. After including
\usepackage{tikz-uml}
in the header I was able to compile the source.
Note: there is a global location for .sty files but that depends in the app you use. Use Google to find this place. But putting .sty near your .tex is fine anyway. A \usepackage directive first looks in the source folder before looking into the global ones.
I saw that there is a lua plugin for eclipse and there is a docpage on the awesome main page api_doc and all the .lua files in /usr/share/awesome/lib.
So I thought it must be possible to create a Library or Execution Environment so that one has tabcompletion and docview.
So I tried making my own Execution Environment:
wrote the standard .rockspec file
downloaded the documentation made an ofline version of it and put it in docs/ folder
ziped the files and folders in /usr/share/awesome/lib
ziped all up
tried it out ... and it failed.
When I try to view a documentaion for a .lua file I get "Note: This element has no attached documentation."
Questions: Am I totaly wrong in my doing (because I have the feeling I am)? Is there any way to edit the rc.lua with tabcompletion and docview?
Koneki will probably take a while to setup, but it's definitly worth it. Going for the".doclua"(by using version 1.2) would certainly make it, but I doubt that using a script to generate the information you need, would work out on the long run.
Most likely, you'll probably pass a bit of time to define what kind of object you're dealing with every time you come across one. The right to do, would be to actually take the time to see if the object/module/inner type inherit from an another object, so can actually have more completion feature as you keep using autocomplete to go from one object to another by pressing "dot"+ctrl_space.
In an ideal world, one person could probably make it right and share to other, so they can enjoy a full featured autocomplete editor.
Found solution for eclipse.
First off the idea of setting up an Execution environment was the wrong one.
So the whole thing about downloading the doc although.
For more information on that visit eclipse Wiki for LUA Development Tool.
The right thing to do is to add a source folder which contains the /usr/share/awesome/lib directory.
The bad news is that my comment from above was totally right, which means one has to configure each .lib file in /usr/share/awesome/lib to meet the requirements of the Documentation Language described here.
Than editing the rc.lua (which one can add to the project in eclipse) works with tabcompletion and doc view.
Since the Documentation Language used in the lib files is similar to the one used by "LUA Development Tool" one has not to change many things. Maybe there are even scripts for that.
I've made a small script in my machine, and an alias in .bashrc that calls it. It's a bash script with 3 lines, but it can grow.
Now, some people in my team found it useful, and want to use it.
Instead of saying "copy this alias, do this, do that, install that lib" I was thinking about creating a simple package to be a little more professional. Fact is, I've never done something like this before. And the problem to me is not creating a package, is trying to decide what usually do you put in a package.
Suppose I want to take my script, and create myapplication. I want to create a .deb file that my team would install and:
Have a /usr/bin/myapplication or /usr/sbin/myapplication (what's the difference between them?), so they would just call myapplication at their terminal and it would work;
Have a man page; (Where are usually located man pages in a debian system?);
Have a possibility to read a .myapplicationrc in home folder with some configurations;
Have an entry for shortcuts in a gnome installation (is it possible to have an universal shortcut "format" that's is available to KDE and Gnome as well?);
Install dependencies.
I'm new to all that stuff. I usually code simple scripts and create an alias in my bashrc. I've never done a package before. Which guides do you know of that can help me accomplish what I thinking of above?
Here is a place to start, though I welcome a more succinct answer.
I couldn't find a complete guide. I think the best thing to do is download a package that does exactly what I'm thinking of and do some reading, like taskwarrior.
Maybe is a often repeated question here, but i can't find anything similar with the search.
The point is that i like to use Emacs for my personal projects, usually very small applications using C or python, but i was wondering how to use it also for my work, in which we have project with about 10k files of source code, so is veeeery big (actually i am using source insight, that is very nice tool, but only for windows), questions are:
Searching: Which is the most convenient way to search a string within the whole project?
Navigating throught the function: I mean something like putting the cursor over a function, define, var, and going to the definition
Refactoring
Also if you have any experience with this and want to share your thoughts i will consider it highly interesting.
Br
The "traditional" way of navigating C source files is to use "etags" to make a file called TAGS, then use ALT-. to go to functions across files.
For searching for strings in files, I usually use "grep". You could make a shell script with all the directories you want to search or something if you get tired of typing them in each time.
My projects typically live in git, so I put this together to quickly search them:
;; There's something similar (but fancier) in vc-git.el: vc-git-grep
;; -I means don't search through binary files
(defcustom git-grep-switches "--extended-regexp -I -n --ignore-case"
"Switches to pass to `git grep'."
:type 'string)
(defun git-grep (command-args)
(interactive
(list (read-shell-command "Run git-grep (like this): "
(format "git grep %s -e "
git-grep-switches)
'git-grep-history)))
(let ((grep-use-null-device nil))
(grep command-args)))
There is also the Emacs Code Browser. It makes exploring projects a lot simpler. See here and here for more information.
Regarding searches in the whole project, I find extremely useful the rgrep command.
Also, imenu is quite handy to jump to a function definition in the same file.
These are my 2p.
look to EDE from CEDET - it provide base support for projects...
ECB is too heavyweight for my taste. I have had good results with xcscope. Needless to say it doesn't help too much with Python.
http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/CScopeAndEmacs
In addition to using TAGS as others have mentioned, I find igrep and igrep-find very useful. There is also Emacs' built in grep and grep-find, but I find their interface more clumsy.
My standard search is:
M-x igrep-find some_regexp RET ~/work_area/*.cxx
Which will look for all *.cxx files under ~/work/area, and show results matching some_regexp. Like all the search utilities, it populates a compilation-like buffer you can navigate using C-x ` (aka M-x next-error).
There are many ways that Icicles can help with projects. Likewise, Bookmark+ and even Dired+.
These libraries can help you create, organize, and manage projects, wherever their files and directories might reside. And they can help you navigate and search in various ways.
Some of the features are unique -- quite different from other approaches. I could list some of the project support here, but this is the best place to start.
I come from a Java background, and the shop where I currently work refuses to use anything other than MS VC++ to build their legacy project. They don't appear to use any standards for setting up their build environment other than just building it using VS2005 and clicking the compile button.
I was wondering if there was anything closer to what Java had for instance:
A build tool like ANT or Maven
A directory structure that makes sense containing
src - Place for all my source files .c/.cpp/.h
lib - A place for any libraries that might be used in the project (.dll, .lib)
dist - A place for the output executable/distribution of the project
resources - A place for any images/sounds/text files that might be included in the project.
build.xml - Some sort of a build file (my guess would be something like ./configure or MAKEFILE)
Or am I asking too much from a C++ build environment? Is it just always as chaotic as the people in my shop make it out to be? I really have a hard time believing that considering the success of so many C++ projects on the internet.
It sounds like you have good intentions - coming form a non MSVC world I can see your points.
If I were in y our shoes I would definitely make a command line/automated build/build server.
You can use MSBuild for this - and hudson has a plugin for this. I usually have a "Build" directory near the root of the projects that contains scripts/etc that will call the appropriate MSBuild/.sln files.
The "makefiles" for Visual Studio are .sln and .vcproj files. You can call those with msbuild from the command line. You can also export a makefile (I think that is still an option) from within the IDE that you can run. I don;t recommend going that route though other than trying it out and seeing what is output - since that is what you are familiar with.
Both the vcproj and sln files are human readable - go through them - it will give you some useful information.
I would also agree that having a distributon directory is good - for building an installer/etc after the build. Copy all the needed binaries there - either in postbuild steps or in another script/etc.
Let us know what you end up doing.
I have one other piece of advice:
UPGRADE to VC/Dev studio 2008 or 2010. ASAP
MSVC does not impose any directory structure on you. There are some defaults, as mentioned above for the Debug and Release directories, for example, but even these can be overridden on a per-project basis. Use whatever directory structure makes sense to you.
Visual Studio does provide command line support if you don't want to use the IDE. See This MSDN Article for more information.
You can setup a proper build environment using Visual Studio (and for solutions with more than one project, you should), and there are a number of environment variables to use in the project configuration to set so that output files and intermediate files go to different folders than those defined by default.
In our large VS solution, we use e.g. obj/$(ProjectName)/$(ConfigurationName) as intermediate directory and bin/$(ConfigurationName) as output directory in all sub-projects.
All these things must be enforced by the user, and it seems that no single recommendation/best practice has evolved.
The standardized stuff:
The build tool: Visual Studio (doesn't need an extra product)
Build file: *.sln / *.vcproj (*.vbproj for Visual Basic, etc)
Directory structure: "Debug" and "Release" directories for the output binaries.
The rest isn't so much "chaotic" as "doesn't really matter". "Chaotic" suggests that it changes all the time, but in reality you just pick one for a project and stick with it. Companies may have internal standards across projects. It just doesn't matter enough to bother standardizing across companies. C++ is a complex language anyway; anyone with sufficient IQ to read C++ can deal with reasonable variation. The difference between \lib\ and \Library\ won't stop them.