Code2flow: Pretty good call graphs for dynamic languages

https://github.com/scottrogowski/code2flow

by nothrowaways • 5 years ago

135 17 5 years ago

habitue• 5 years ago

I could have used something like this numerous times whenearning a new codebase (or a new part of a big codebase). I wonder why this tooling isn't more popular.

The next thing that would be great is hyperlinks to the source code from each node in the graph

ReleaseCandidat• 5 years ago

Well, there is Understand https://www.scitools.com/ Source Insight https://www.sourceinsight.com/ Imagix 4D https://www.imagix.com/

nothrowaways• 5 years ago

But it is not open source

zadwang• 5 years ago

This actually should be the way codes are written. This is how we reason about codes in our minds.

emteycz3• 5 years ago

Not really... I built a block-based IDE like that which compiled to TypeScript/React (you could switch to writing code and back to blocks at any time)... And I just never used it, writing code was much faster, even though it supported custom "macro" blocks and other new ways of making programs.

nitrogen• 5 years ago

It depends on what kind of problems you're solving. System integrations and ETL-type stuff where it's mostly data transformation and not too much logic are great for visual dataflow programming. It's a lot easier if you can have code-within-blocks and blocks-within-code, too.

Also, I suspect there's going to be a correlation between a preference for spatial vs. lexical reasoning and a preference for visual vs. textual development.

hutzlibu• 5 years ago

How about writing code and then looking at it through blocks?

That might be superior, if done right.

woodruffw• 5 years ago

Very cool! It always makes me happy to see people develop tools that are useful without tying themselves in knots over the general case (total callgraph generation).

It's worth noting that it's impossible in the general case to generate a perfect callgraph for static languages as well. Function pointers in C are the obvious example, but more generally anything that converts control-flow into data-flow (like a dispatch table) causes the same problem.

feanaro• 5 years ago

Isn't this something already accomplished by Sourcetrail (a FOSS tool!) with much better UX? It's unfortunate that it is now dying.

scottrogowski2• 5 years ago

The two are very similar. I wrote the first version of this almost 10 years ago and only became aware of the existence of Sourcetrail while doing the rewrite a few months back.

On the surface - there is a difference in languages. Sourcetrail explicitly supports C/C++/Java/Python while Code2flow supports Python/JS/PHP/Ruby.

I would love to give code2flow the capability of Sourcetrail but would need to feel very good about it making money before I devoted that time to it.

ashton314• 5 years ago

Under the "Known limitations" section, the author mentions that anonymous functions get skipped. That might be a dealbreaker for some.

Since this program just walks the statically apparent callgraph, you'll get an under-approximation of the behavior of your program. If you'd like an over-approximation, something like control-flow analysis can handle cases with anonymous functions. [^1] [^2] [^3] There are still some limitations, but CFA is really powerful.

(Anyone curious can contact me (see my blog) if you want more information on CFA.)

[^1]: https://lambdaland.org/posts/2021-05-20_cfa/

[^2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_flow_analysis

[^3]: https://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/shivers/papers/pldi88.pdf

scottrogowski2• 5 years ago

Wow. Seeing your open source project while scrolling through hacker news is something that really brightens your day. I’m happy to answer any questions people have.

soldeace• 5 years ago

This project is AMAZING. Earlier this week I had the exact same idea of a project while disentangling a bowl of spagetthi code. I'm glad I've seen it here today so I didn't have to reinvent the wheel. Also, I'm impressed by the quality of the documentation. It's pure eyecandy. Kudos!

jtwaleson• 5 years ago

Can't get it to work well with flask route annotations but the basics are really great!

Code2flow: Pretty good call graphs for dynamic languages

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