Seeking Profesional help.

[Road Runner]

I'm really trying to figure out how to get around in rockbox, but the documentation only gets you somewhere in compiling and patching up files in rockbox.

I've been learning C for a while from a book, but rockbox code is a whole different story, it's much more complex and packed up.

I'd like you to advise me on how should I carry on from here, This may sound a bit funny, but I even can't be more precise on what's the problem. It's just that I'm having difficulties in everything I do.

I've tried compiling pong.c to .rock file after making a really small change, but I couldn't go through the right commands to compile 
then i've tried croping the makefile everything that wasn't nececcery but it didn't really worked.

I'm using DEV-CPP as an editor, it looks good but i'm not sure if that's a preferred tool or not.

I don't feel like I can start making real changes in the code, maybe it is due to not knowing the firmware, the functions and the macros. would you suggest me going through the code? on which parts would it be important to go through and what is so lower-level that I don't have anything to deal with it corrently? (I'm only trying to alter the display and UI for now.)

Sorry for writing such a long letter, but this might be an indicator for a bigger problem: i've reached a point where I have no more manuals and texts to read, Feeling like no one really tries to help, only sometimes I get a respond for questions.(irc, newsgroup, forum...)

I do hope that this will be taken seriously, because I, Like many others, Am very excited about rockbox as a concept, And making _*great*_ deals of effort to catch up with you the digital flow. thanks.

[Travis]

Yeah, i wasnt too experienced with C and tried DEV-C, too...

Look in the iRiver H100 forum for that "easy guide to compiling rockbox" thing and follow the instuctions.  Its like a 10MB download and you get all the tools you need to compile and change the source code (except a text editor).  I think its called Rockbox DevKit

Its all done in Windows Command Promts, not really a gui.  But its easy to understand. Just make sure you follow the instructions.

I havent found any other compilers that will work with rockbox.

EDIT: Here's a link http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/SimpleGuideToCompiling

[Road Runner]

Thanks Travis, but really, have you seriously read my post?

I know how to compile & patch. I know a little about using the devkit & cygwin aswell, I know most of the stuff you can find in the documentation, I'm looking for a way to move on from that. to find out how and why was the code built like it is, To know where would I locate functions that are important to start manipulating the firmware, I've even mentioned I can't compile only a small part of the firmware (one .rock file), or one other time, that I've asked how should I recomile a file to an object file if that was the only thing I changed, or asking how can you debug your code if you can't even run it step by step. this questions of mine remain unanswered.

[tucoz]

When you build rockbox, you would run ../tools/configure from your build-dir followed by make. If you make changes to a plugin for instance, make will notice that that file has been changed and will under normal circumstances only compile that one. Example: you make changes to plugin_file.c, when you then run make under build, you will notice that this is the only file that is compiled (i.e. if you have run make before the change took place).
But that was maybe not what you were asking for.

[rasher]

The best path is to figure out something you want to change - some itch to scratch. Then try the best you can to figure out how this part of the code works. In the end, come on IRC and ask someone who knows.

There's really not much documentation to read about the internal workins of Rockbox. Get your hands dirty and ask people.

[Travis]

Oh yeah!  Sorry lol

[kenshin]

I got started by looking through the feature request and bug report pages to find something that sounded relatively simple. After digging around for about two hours I discovered tree.c had what I wanted and 30 minutes later I had my first patch ready for upload to the tracker. And since I'm way outside the timezone most of the devs live in (they're asleep when I'm writing code) I just had to pludge through the code getting my hands (and feet!) dirty. Don't give up. It's incredibly rewarding when you see your patch(es) accepted...

[XavierGr]

Road Runner.

I start coding similar to your way. First you must be ready and sure on how to apply and make patches and compile rockbox.
If you have mastered thi,s and you know to program a bit then you can contribute to the project.

Unfortunately the only way to understand part of the code is by the comments on the code /*""*/ and by making questions on the IRC channel.

The proccess of understanding the code is the most important and difficult step. If you manage to understand code bits then it should be easy to make your modifications.

Programming for Rockbox is time consuming especially for newbies like us. Keep trying and in the end you will succeed something (minor or major)

[kenshin]

I also found the DEBUGF (I think it was the one) macro quite useful since I couldn't get the simulator to run in gdb for some reason.

[Road Runner]

Thanks Guys!

When you build rockbox, you would run ../tools/configure from your build-dir followed by make. If you make changes to a plugin for instance, make will notice that that file has been changed and will under normal circumstances only compile that one.

Wow! So I don't have to re-build every day from scratch  that's explains alot!

kenshin, I feel the same way [gmt+2:Israel]

I also found the DEBUGF (I think it was the one) macro quite useful since I couldn't get the simulator to run in gdb for some reason.

Thanks I will also look for info about that. for now I don't understand how should you run and debug a code that you can't run on a pc. I mean, what procedure do you use to check if everything compiles properly, I guess debugf has something to do with it.

It will be nice to know what editor is good for that task/what do you use.

[Bagder]

Most code is actually very possible to test on your PC if you just build and run the simulator (on which you can also use an ordinary debugger etc).

On target, I recommend you to explore the world of logf().

[Road Runner]

Thanks Denial!


I've just made my first change, which is to put the playlist options first on the main menu, Thanks again!

Edit:  "View current Playlist" to be first item too.

2nd Edit: My first real patch!
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1307068&group_id=44306&atid=439120

does contributing more to rockbox gets you higher on the credit list? 

3rd Edit: Daaaaammmmnnn!!!
someone else already did it!  and better!!!
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1302165&group_id=44306&atid=439120

[kenshin]

does contributing more to rockbox gets you higher on the credit list? 

No. People are added in chronological order. The top will always have Björn, Linus, ... all the way to the latest contributor at the end. And thank goodness it's not alphabetical. I'd aways be at the end! LOL