[Asterisk-Dev] readable code /* New subject */

[Robert Webb]

On Wed, 02 Mar 2005 16:01:56 +0100
  "Olle E. Johansson" <oej at edvina.net> wrote:
> Preston Garrison wrote:
>> You know something that is highly overlooked is learning 
>>to write 
>> understandable code.  Alot of programmers like to write 
>>code that is a 
>> mess to understand.  Just because you can do something 
>>in the C language 
>> doesn't mean you should :)  However i have to admit out 
>>of all the open 
>> source projects, asterisk has some of the easiest to 
>>understand code.
>> 
> Great. That statements tells me we are heading in the 
>right direction.
> 
> Let's make it better by adding more comments and 
>developer
> documentation. Personally, I've added quite a lot of 
>comments to chan_sip in order to understand it better. 
>Also to other modules as I explore them. Funny part was, 
>some of my comments that was commited to cvs was totally 
>wrong and no one seemed to bother (or propably did not 
>understand the code themselves). So I've changed them as 
>I have learned
> more about the inner workings. :-)
> 
> As I wrote earlier, let's clean up 1.2 and make it easy 
>to understand and easy to work with. Join the 
>asteriskdocs project. Fix errors in
> README files and sample configs. Add comments. Add 
>doxygen documentation.
> 
> You will not get customers to pay for this, but it will 
>make it much easier the next time your customer wants a 
>customization of some kind.
> 
> /Olle

Not intending on hijacking this thread, but since it is 
talking about readable code and such...

What would you guys/gals out there recommend as a good 
primer for learning C that will teach the correct way of 
coding from the beginning. I would like to understand more 
of what the code is about, how it works, and maybe in a 
year or so be able to contribute a little more.

I have an IT background in hardware, networks, some 
database, but no real programming. Can pick my way through 
something that is already written if I have a handy 
reference available.

Feel very free to send all comments off line and not to 
the thread if you wish..

Robert