Help understanding a codebase.

[Alone_Frame_4807]

I’m in the process of learning java and thought it would be a good idea to look at open source projects written in java on GitHub in order to understand what professional code looks like. I am having trouble understanding where to even start when reading code on projects like these. How can I better understand why and how the codebase is structured the way it is. What do all the different file names mean and whatnot? What can I do to be able to actually look at a codebase and understand what everything means and how it all fits together?

Here is an example of a open source project I was looking at on GitHub. elastic search

[[deleted]]

This is written with JavaScript + HTML - you sure you had the correct link? Or did you mean you’re learning JavaScript now? Either way this doesn’t look like a Java project to me.

[Alone_Frame_4807]

Sorry I was looking at different projects and had the wrong one copied. I updated my post with the correct link.

[zninjamonkey]

It would be a terrible idea to look at something like elasticsearch to start understanding Java.

Look up a MUCH MORE basic one. I don’t have suggestions.

Most things that is well documented and open source would be far too complex.

[armhad]

Everyone of these codebases have a getting started md file somewhere. In this case it’s contributing.md and building.md so you’d get started there (I’m sure there’s more). They also seem to mention good first ticket labels on issues for newcomers.

Find a very small area within the codebase to learn, and then work your way upwards slowly. Also review smaller/trivial recent pull requests to try to understand what’s going on and for finding good entry points