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Ask HN: Is there a tool you use just for reading code?

21 points by kanonieer ↗ HN
When writing code, I'm a huge fan of using keyboard driven development. But sometimes I just want to read code, either to review or to learn things in a mouse-driven and read-only environment. Git forges seem like the obvious answer to this but they're slower to browse and not as customizable as your favorite text editor/IDE.

Is there an application you use to read code? And am I alone in feeling the need of such tool?

15 comments

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pmontra
Most of the times I use less in the terminal. Or vi, it's not easy to accidentally make a change and save it. Or the browser in GitHub, Bitbucket or what else hosts the project.

I write code with emacs. I could turn a file in read only mode but I prefer not to mix what I'm working on with what I'm only reading.

OrderlyTiamat
Have you considered turning to the dark side? You can have vim keybindings in emacs with evil, so you can stay in the normal state like in vi, so accidental changes should than be caught identically as in vi.

But I guess having different tools for reading and writing is valuable in itself, too.

water8
Find and grep.

I don’t understand what is special about what you’re describing that isn’t done in hundred different IDEs

tgflynn
I don't see the need. If you're worried about making accidental changes there are many ways to prevent that, depending on editor/IDE and OS. For me almost all the code I look at is checked into some git repo so accidental changes are a non-issue.
MatthiasPortzel
If it’s a project I already have open in VS Code, I won’t use a separate tool.

If it’s a single file I want to check out, I have an alias for “nvim -R” which I use a lot. Vim’s syntax highlighting is very good, prevents me from making accidental changes, and is very convienent if I’m in the terminal already.

If I’m looking at code on GitHub then their code-search feature is very cool (cs.GitHub.com or by pressing cmd+shift+f on GitHub).

fxtentacle
The JetBrains IDEs are fantastic for exploring unknown code.
neutered_knot
I do code review for legal cases on occasion. When I do, and when possible as sometimes the tools I can use are specified before I get the job, I like to use doxygen (https://www.doxygen.nl/) to convert the code to html. It also creates call graphs.

It is nice because it links to function and method definitions where it can, so as I go through the code I open each function I am teaching in a new tab - the open tab set simulates the call stack.

kingkongjaffa
Hmm I’m familiar with generating documentation for functions with doc strings but how do you convert the code to html and generate the graphs?
mellosouls
Not quite what you're asking but once I've narrowed down a code base to the particular area of interest, I use an old school method for grokking:

Print the relevant sections off to read and use pen to mark and note against them; I find it extremely useful (and less tiring on the eyes) for linking functions and clarifying code.

blt
Many features in IDEs like "jump to definition" and "find references" are already designed for reading code. Reading code is a huge part of software development, so generic software development tools should already be good for reading code.
busterarm
Not an application but a process:

1) Run it. See what it does.

2) Read it. Identify main function(s).

3) Trace it. Use a debugger w/ breakpoints for this. See if you can follow how it runs.

4) Print it. Review interesting parts that you don't quite understand away form a computer.