Locating code with iclass and other tools

The iclass program provides an easy way to locate C++ classes and cruise their hierarchical structures. It is part of the ivtools source tree (borrowed from InterViews 3.1). iclass reads in a set of C++ header files, builds the class structure and displays several widgets containing the class information:

a string editor with the name of the current selected class
a list of the current selected class' base classes (parents)
a list of the current selected class' derived classes (children)
a text display of the current selected class definition
a list of all classes currently loaded into iclass

You can display a class definition by typing it into the string editor or by clicking on any class name in a list widget. It is a great way to quickly browse a class hierarchy and to explore the classes contained in any large C++ library.

To invoke iclass give it a list of header files to process, or use the -r (recursive) option and give it a directory name; it will descend recursively into the given directory structure loading all the .h header files it can find there. Some libraries (like vtk) use .hh header filename extensions; we have modified iclass to make it recognize these files as well in recursive mode.

An alternative class browser is found in the OO-Browser package, a part of XEmacs, which also contains xoobr, an X Window tool that displays class trees graphically.