Looking At The Linux Kernel

A reader writes: "Some folks from The Boston Consulting Group with OSDN have been working on creating a visual representation of the Linux Kernel. It's been put online, complete with instructions with how to read it, and how to make sense of the information." There's also some new code checked into the Free Code Graphing Project, which enabled this to project to come together (look at CVS) - let's see if we can get people to do it with things like *BSD, Apache and some of the other great projects out there. This is a continuation with the other work being done, like the OSS demographic work. (Note: Slashdot is part of OSDN.) Karim Lakhani, progenitor in many ways of the project also commented: "The kernelmap shows beautifully the inherent modularity of the Linux Kernel. We think modularity of the source code is one of the important strategic advantages that the Linux Community has and we wanted to move beyond a magnifying glass on the kernel map poster to make it browsable and to let the community add new features. We hope that this can become a tool for navigating the kernel and learning more about how it works. Rusty Russel and Martin Pool did an incredible job creating the map and transforming it into html."

Comments

Flash or SVG, 3D versions

[pubjames]

This could be made into a great SVG or Flash interactive.

Also, what about the third dimension? there is a lot of info. there - perhaps it would be more managable to look at in 3D?

Question: is it really useful? I'm not a kernal coder, but it seems to me that this could be a neat way of identifying bad coding e.g. identifying variable and function scope and keeping it neat and modular. Could this be a feature of future IDEs for Linux programmers?

Congrats!

[FortKnox]

Congrats on the waste of money. Honestly, this is pretty and all, but hardly useful, and, most likely, not worth the money spent on the project.
What is the point of this? To sell it as posters and make a profit?
Who, in their right mind, would use this to change design, or track a bug?
This project is a waste of money that would be better off spent on the kernel itself, not a pretty picture of the kernel.

This is art

[possible]

I hate to be negative but this is not really useful. As Geek Art it's kinda cool -- but let's not kid ourselves about it having any value for kernel hackers. It's just some pretty pictures that Linux scene whores can look at and say "Oooh ahhh I grok the kernel now" -- but don't expect any of those people to submit patches or new device drivers anytime soon.

You know, the Linux kernel is not massive -- you can spend a couple hours looking at source code and get a much better idea than you would with these kinds of visualizations. And if you can't read source code like that, then you shouldn't really be wasting your time looking at pictures.

This DOES have value...

[release7]

...not for the hackers, but for the marketing of Linux. Imagine giving a presentation about Linux at your local school committee meeting. You can pull out a visually impressive 4' x 6' sketch of the kernel and say, "We know exactly what we're getting if we switch to Linux. We know every single line of code." Then while you hold up a small black box you say, "That isn't the case with other operating systems where we have no idea what we're getting and no way to fix any problems that crop up without spending even more money."

Also, a beautiful, visually appealing picture of the kernel can help non-techies understand that the kernel is a well-thought out piece of software engineering and not just some half-ass code pumped out by computer hippies and geeks with nothing better to do. Again, this can help further the cause of Linux with those in power who make purchasing decisions but have little technical expertise.

This is good work.