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CHDK Development : Which files do what ?

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Offline waterwingz

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CHDK Development : Which files do what ?
« on: 21 / June / 2011, 22:13:05 »
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Created a new wiki page today.  CHDK Development : Which files do what ?

I'm using it to capture everything that I wish I had know one year ago when I decided "Hey,  I can do one of these ports for my camera."    

I remember waking up in the middle of the night after I had started (and spent a ton of time) thinking .. "oh c.r.a.p. - one small road block and I'm done.  Maybe my camera will be the first one that cannot be ported."  Dancing bits gave me a couple of sleepless nights for example.

So far I've identified every file that I think you need to look at when doing a new port.  The plan is to plug in some text about what the file contains and what you need to worry about in the file.  With a little work, we should be able to indicate what will not work if things in the file are wrong.  And maybe where to look for clues as to what the file needs to contain.

This will not be CHDK development for Dummies - I think it's okay to assume it's for competent code mechanics.

It's a wiki.  I'm hoping I will not be doing this alone.  At some point it will probably need to be broken across several pages.

And maybe the next thing to do is describe the build tree directory structure - especially the one used by CHDK_Shell.  There are a lot of directories that do not need to be touched for a successful port but the first time you look at it,  its intimidating.

Help ?


« Last Edit: 21 / June / 2011, 22:25:35 by waterwingz »
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Offline reyalp

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Re: CHDK Development : Which files do what ?
« Reply #1 on: 22 / June / 2011, 22:28:37 »
There seems to be quite a bit of overlap http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Modifying_the_CHDK_Sources and also http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Adding_support_for_a_new_camera

Both of these are less specific than yours. The downside of being really specific is that it tends to get out of date quickly.

Another issue, IMO is that no matter how detailed the description is, you aren't really going to *understand* what things do with out a lot of reading/testing/greping/cursing. Or maybe that's just me ;)

It's hard to know where to draw the line, certainly quite a few of the things in your list are frequently missed by new porters.

Not really sure what the best approach is. If you do want to keep a detailed list, or detailed breakdowns on across several pages, linking it from the Adding_support_for_a_new_camera page seems like the way to go. Some of the general content could probably be rolled into that page.
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Offline waterwingz

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Re: CHDK Development : Which files do what ?
« Reply #2 on: 22 / June / 2011, 22:53:30 »
Good comments.  A few of my thoughts captured below.

Quote from: reyalp on 22 / June / 2011, 22:28:37
There seems to be quite a bit of overlap
Unavoidable I'm afraid.

Quote
Another issue, IMO is that no matter how detailed the description is, you aren't really going to *understand* what things do with out a lot of reading/testing/greping/cursing. Or maybe that's just me ;)
I agree 100%.   But the one thing I found (find) most frustrating was not knowing which files needed to be changed and what each file was for.  A "roadmap" to that would have been really helpful during the greping/cursing stage.

Quote
It's hard to know where to draw the line, certainly quite a few of the things in your list are frequently missed by new porters.
Q.E.D.

Quote
Not really sure what the best approach is. If you do want to keep a detailed list, or detailed breakdowns on across several pages, linking it from the Adding_support_for_a_new_camera page seems like the way to go. Some of the general content could probably be rolled into that page.
Once this list gets better filled out (I'm going to try for a "one file a day" rate), it should probably be linked to one of the development pages or maybe the root "For Developers" page down near the bottom?

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Offline reyalp

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Re: CHDK Development : Which files do what ?
« Reply #3 on: 22 / June / 2011, 23:15:00 »
The what each file is for should ideally be documented in each file, but the copy/paste cluster**** of the ports makes this difficult.

One way around this would be to have a template port, with all the platform specific replaced with comments describing what goes there. That (IMO) would be a better way to start than copying an existing port and trying to fix it. Would have a maintenance problem though...

Quote from: waterwingz on 22 / June / 2011, 22:53:30
Once this list gets better filled out (I'm going to try for a "one file a day" rate), it should probably be linked to one of the development pages or maybe the root "For Developers" page down near the bottom?
My thought was that Adding_support_for_a_new_camera already gives an overview, you could have some kind of "more details" link in each section that gave you the file by file breakdown.
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