Finding Code

There's an art to quickly finding code in unfamiliar territory

Last week, a friend of mine asked me if I could help on a project of his. It was built over two years ago. It uses NextJS for the frontend, and various AWS technologies on the backend.

He tasked me with a simple task of fixing a small bug, and told me to “spend some time looking around the codebase.” At this moment, I immediately thought of Mike, and how this could be a useful learning opportunity.

When I’m entering a new codebase, all of the things I do to figure out the code structure feel second nature to me.

One of the most crucial things I’ve learned, is finding code from the user interface, without needing to understand the structure from the original author.

This might sound a little crazy, especially if you’re new to programming, but I’ve learned over the years, even the most messy, and poorly thought out systems, have some easy tricks to find the underlying code! I’ll share three ways with you today.

If you have a tip of your own, please consider sharing it with us!

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