Learning BIRD source

[Brian Topping]

Developer team:

I’d like to get better with the source. Due to being an inferior specimen and/or too many other projects, I need help from tools like CLion to make sense of source trees within weeks instead of years.

Are others working on BIRD source within IDEs? I know "real programmers use vim and emacs”, etc, but please refer to previous paragraph in that case… For all it matters, I am not a bush league developer, I have written code using bison and flex and am super stoked to get my hands dirty here.

One option that presents itself to me is converting the build from Autotools to CMake. That’s sure to make someone’s blood boil. But if not (or there is a similarly worthy tool folks would accept), would such a transition be PR-worthy? Because it’s declarative vs. procedural, CMake is possible for IDEs to ingest and make sensible semantic presentations with. That leads to better productivity and more possible contributors in the long run.

I’m just poking the bear here with ideas and being as lazy as possible, but not afraid of the work at the same time. 

Grateful for any and all ideas! B