Thread: finding where the functions are defined and implemented

Hi,
As a newbie to C, I'm not familiar yet with finding your way around bigger projects. But it seems to me, that finding where a function is implemented is a bit problematic with C, as header files include other header files, which include others, etc etc.

Is there an easy way to find out where the functions are located? Do I need an IDE for this?

In regards to IDE's, the projects here are simply maintained in directories. There are no "project" files, like some IDE's create. KDevelop is able to understand this directory based structure, but QDevelop is not. KDevelop, however, doesn't let you go to where the function is.. you have to do that grep, which sometimes returns 200+ results.

What good IDE can handle a directory-based structure and allows you to find where functions are declared/implemented easily?

Originally Posted by Elysia

There is no "easy" way. How could there be? An IDE/compiler cannot know where something is defined. Usually they're categorized somehow, so that's your best bet. Alternatively, some IDEs have code completion tools which can find where a function is defined. May not always find the right function, though.

Well, Eclipse can do it quite easily with Java, so I'm assuming something can be done with C. With eclipse and Java, you just right click the function and select "go to definition".

I don't think Eclipse handles a directory structure for projects well.

Java != C

In Java, there is a class per file rule. It's as simple as figure out the class being used and find the file containing it. C is much more open ended in where functions are declared and defined. In fact, in Java, there is no differentiation between declaration and definition. The act of defining declares.

Originally Posted by dayalsoap

Hi,
Is there an easy way to find out where the functions are located? Do I need an IDE for this?

What good IDE can handle a directory-based structure and allows you to find where functions are declared/implemented easily?

You could probably pull this off quite nicely with Pelles C. The IDE is very complete and it allows you to create project files and workspaces in existing directories, adding files as you need them.

Even if you don't use the IDE the LIBs, Headers and help file are very complete for both windows and C-99.