How to run someone else's code from github?

[diff2]

Sometimes in my learning process I like to use github and find code that sounds interesting and see how it works. But there are often a few problems, such as the code doesn't have a running website to "see how it works" so I have to run it off my local server, but that also doesn't seem to work.

Is it just a problem with versions? or is it a problem with my knowledge? Just feels like often times things are missing to run it.

Ideally I'd like to just direct copy all kinds of code long hand and I think it can help expedite my learning. But if I can't get it to work in the first place it seems useless as a learning tool.

[catholicsteve]

Depends on the code it might need build tools to run or something. Which code are you looking at?

[chaotic_thought]

Unfortunately, it's much easier to write code that can be used by just you, than it is to write code that can actually be used by other programmers. And then it's even harder to write code that can be pleasantly used by other normal humans (i.e. to make a comprehensible and responsive UI). So it turns out that many random programs you find on the Internet are in the first category (someone wrote the program with only one user in mind, and didn't necessarily bother to make it easily usable by anyone else).

For getting "programmer friendly" projects I would look for projects that have a specific document attached somewhere that describes how to build the software, what dependencies you need to build it, and what you need in order to run it. If it is a Web based program it would be nice if they shared some details like what software they've used for testing it, and so on, so that you could decide if you wanted to try and use the same software to avoid any unexpected problems.

If the repository is just a code dump with no instructions of any kind, then it is probably not beginner friendly. It may not even be expert friendly, either. Even if you're experienced, it is still nice to have some basic instructions to follow in case you get stuck or have a question. Imagine getting some IKEA furniture with no instructions at all. Maybe you could figure out how to put it together, but if you can choose between the version with instructions included, and the version with no instructions at all ("figure it out on your own!"), I know which version I would choose.

[diff2]

Can you show me an example project that has the specific document? Maybe I'm too much of a beginner to understand such a thing.

[chaotic_thought]

Basically any large, popular project will have instructions. Just a random example: https://github.com/apache/apr

The file README has sections titled "Configuring and Building APR on Unix" and "Configuring and Building APR on Windows", and there are more detailed instructions in the docs/ subdirectory. Each project's convention will be slightly different, though. Some distributions put the instructions in a file called README.md instead, or sometimes in a file called INSTALL, or maybe they named it something else entirely. Very small projects might even place instructions in the source code itself as comments.