What does a Rustc Reading Club do?
This is the question we are trying to answer with our pilot program to bring Code Reading Club techniques to understanding the rust compiler.
We started with experimentation in the exercises used to examine rustc source code. We continue to refine and adjust including introducing new tools to help us understand what the name resolver does and how it works.
In a Code Reading Club the goal is to get better at reading unfamiliar code, so a random section of code that is unknown to participants is presented. The code is read and participants record their observations after examining the code for some short period of time. Those observations are then shared with the group and discussed.
Rustc Reading Club differs from the original in that we are trying to understand a specific code base as opposed to getting proficient at reading various code bases. Our version of code reading benefits from the opening exercise of the Code Reading Club. We started by Niko choosing a crate for us to read through. Our goal differs from the Code Reading Club as it seeks to build code reading skill and we are trying to get better at reading rustc source code.
The first of Rustc Reading Club session focused on reading the rustc name resolver crate. The plan involved reading code at a broad level, then going deep into the code and finally zooming back out to the broad level.
