intro.htm

## Introduction

### What is Understand for C++?

Understand for C++ is a tool for helping programmers and teams of programmers understand their C++ software projects. Understand for C++ is a source code analyzer that helps you quickly answer questions such as:

- What is this entity?
- Where is it changed?
- Where is it referenced?
- Who depends on it?
- What does it depend on?

Understand for C++ answers these questions through interactive entity specific cross reference reports and graphical diagrams quickly showing the relevant information about a given entity.

### C/C++ Versions Supported

Understand for C++ analyzes K&R or ANSI C source code and most constructs of the C++ language. Understand for C++ works with any C compiler, and has been tested with most of the popular ones.

Note: C++ templates are not yet supported.
Note: Scientific Toolworks also offers similar tools for Ada and Fortran.

### Use the Server Mode To Integrate With Your IDE

Understand for C++ is designed to be used both for stand alone browsing/discovery as well as browsing that is controlled from another application.

You can control Understand for C++ from any editor or program where you can launch a simple program called "understand_c". The client accepts action commands for an entity name, and optional file, line, column specifiers.

understand_c -name entityname
[-file filename -line line -col column]
-actionCommand

Where:

· entityname is the name of the entity you wish to learn about
· filename is an optional argument of where you are looking at the entity
· line is optional argument indicating what line number in that file
· column is an optional argument indicating what column of that line
· actionCommand is the action you wish to perform on the entity

For example:

understand_c -name myFunc -file myFile.cpp -line 15 -ib

will tell Understand for C++ to update the Info Browser window with information about function myFunc as seen in file myFile.cpp on line 15.

Refer to Understand Client for details on using understand_c.

### For those who don't like to read manuals

If you are like many engineers at Scientific Toolworks, you like to just plow in and get going with software. We encourage that, or at least we are pragmatic enough to know you will do it anyway! So feel free to use this manual as a safety net, or to find the less obvious features. However, before you depart the manual read the remaining sections of this chapter for tips on effectively utilizing what Understand has to offer.

Scientific Toolworks, Inc. http://www.scitools.com Voice: (802) 763-2995 Fax: (802) 763-3066 support@scitools.com sales@scitools.com