MetzNet
/
dfhack
3
0
Fork 0
Code Issues Pull Requests Packages Projects Releases Wiki Activity

Move general dev info to a separate doc (Dev-intro)

develop
lethosor 2020-07-08 22:52:20 -04:00
parent 858e90e6c2
commit 87fd32d330
4 changed files with 87 additions and 81 deletions
Show Stats Download Patch File Download Diff File Expand all files Collapse all files

65
docs/Contributing.rst
Unescape Escape View File

@ -42,71 +42,6 @@ How to get new code into DFHack
will take priority over ideas or suggestions.
Using the library as a developer
================================
Currently, the most direct way to use the library is to write a script or plugin that can be loaded by it.
All the plugins can be found in the 'plugins' folder. There's no in-depth documentation
on how to write one yet, but it should be easy enough to copy one and just follow the pattern.
``plugins/skeleton/skeleton.cpp`` is provided for this purpose.
Other than through plugins, it is possible to use DFHack via remote access interface,
or by writing scripts in Lua or Ruby. There are plenty of examples in the scripts folder.
The `lua-api` is quite well documented.
The most important parts of DFHack are the Core, Console, Modules and Plugins.
* Core acts as the centerpiece of DFHack - it acts as a filter between DF and
SDL and synchronizes the various plugins with DF.
* Console is a thread-safe console that can be used to invoke commands exported by Plugins.
* Modules actually describe the way to access information in DF's memory. You
can get them from the Core. Most modules are split into two parts: high-level
and low-level. High-level is mostly method calls, low-level publicly visible
pointers to DF's data structures.
* Plugins are the tools that use all the other stuff to make things happen.
A plugin can have a list of commands that it exports and an onupdate function
that will be called each DF game tick.
Rudimentary API documentation can be built using doxygen (see build options
in ``CMakeCache.txt`` or with ``ccmake`` or ``cmake-gui``). The full DFHack
documentation is built with Sphinx_, which runs automatically at compile time.
.. _Sphinx: http://www.sphinx-doc.org
DFHack consists of variously licensed code, but invariably weak copyleft.
The main license is zlib/libpng, some bits are MIT licensed, and some are
BSD licensed. See the `license` for more information.
Feel free to add your own extensions and plugins. Contributing back to
the DFHack repository is welcome and the right thing to do :)
DF data structure definitions
-----------------------------
DFHack uses information about the game data structures, represented via xml files
in the ``library/xml/`` submodule.
See https://github.com/DFHack/df-structures, and the documentation linked in the index.
Data structure layouts are described in files following the ``df.*.xml`` name pattern.
This information is transformed by a perl script into C++ headers describing the
structures, and associated metadata for the Lua wrapper. These headers and data
are then compiled into the DFHack libraries, thus necessitating a compatibility
break every time layouts change; in return it significantly boosts the efficiency
and capabilities of DFHack code.
Global object addresses are stored in :file:`symbols.xml`, which is copied to the dfhack
release package and loaded as data at runtime.
Remote access interface
-----------------------
DFHack supports remote access by exchanging Google protobuf messages via a TCP
socket. Both the core and plugins can define remotely accessible methods. The
``dfhack-run`` command uses this interface to invoke ordinary console commands.
Currently the supported set of requests is limited, because the developers don't
know what exactly is most useful. `remotefortressreader` provides a fairly
comprehensive interface for visualisers such as :forums:`Armok Vision <146473>`.
Other ways to help
==================
DFHack is a software project, but there's a lot more to it than programming.

66
docs/Dev-intro.rst
Unescape Escape View File

@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
===========================
DFHack development overview
===========================
Currently, the most direct way to use the library is to write a script or plugin that can be loaded by it.
All the plugins can be found in the 'plugins' folder. There's no in-depth documentation
on how to write one yet, but it should be easy enough to copy one and just follow the pattern.
``plugins/skeleton/skeleton.cpp`` is provided for this purpose.
Other than through plugins, it is possible to use DFHack via remote access interface,
or by writing scripts in Lua or Ruby. There are plenty of examples in the scripts folder.
The `lua-api` is quite well documented.
The most important parts of DFHack are the Core, Console, Modules and Plugins.
* Core acts as the centerpiece of DFHack - it acts as a filter between DF and
SDL and synchronizes the various plugins with DF.
* Console is a thread-safe console that can be used to invoke commands exported by Plugins.
* Modules actually describe the way to access information in DF's memory. You
can get them from the Core. Most modules are split into two parts: high-level
and low-level. High-level is mostly method calls, low-level publicly visible
pointers to DF's data structures.
* Plugins are the tools that use all the other stuff to make things happen.
A plugin can have a list of commands that it exports and an onupdate function
that will be called each DF game tick.
Rudimentary API documentation can be built using doxygen (see build options
in ``CMakeCache.txt`` or with ``ccmake`` or ``cmake-gui``). The full DFHack
documentation is built with Sphinx_, which runs automatically at compile time.
.. _Sphinx: http://www.sphinx-doc.org
DFHack consists of variously licensed code, but invariably weak copyleft.
The main license is zlib/libpng, some bits are MIT licensed, and some are
BSD licensed. See the `license` for more information.
Feel free to add your own extensions and plugins. Contributing back to
the DFHack repository is welcome and the right thing to do :)
DF data structure definitions
-----------------------------
DFHack uses information about the game data structures, represented via xml files
in the ``library/xml/`` submodule.
See https://github.com/DFHack/df-structures, and the documentation linked in the index.
Data structure layouts are described in files following the ``df.*.xml`` name pattern.
This information is transformed by a perl script into C++ headers describing the
structures, and associated metadata for the Lua wrapper. These headers and data
are then compiled into the DFHack libraries, thus necessitating a compatibility
break every time layouts change; in return it significantly boosts the efficiency
and capabilities of DFHack code.
Global object addresses are stored in :file:`symbols.xml`, which is copied to the dfhack
release package and loaded as data at runtime.
Remote access interface
-----------------------
DFHack supports remote access by exchanging Google protobuf messages via a TCP
socket. Both the core and plugins can define remotely accessible methods. The
``dfhack-run`` command uses this interface to invoke ordinary console commands.
Currently the supported set of requests is limited, because the developers don't
know what exactly is most useful. `remotefortressreader` provides a fairly
comprehensive interface for visualisers such as :forums:`Armok Vision <146473>`.

20
docs/index-dev.rst
Unescape Escape View File

@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
========================
DFHack Development Guide
========================
These are pages relevant to people developing for DFHack.
.. toctree::
:maxdepth: 1
/docs/Dev-intro
/docs/Contributing
/docs/Compile
/docs/NEWS-dev
/docs/Lua API
/docs/Documentation
/library/xml/SYNTAX
/library/xml/how-to-update
/docs/Memory-research
/docs/Binpatches

17
index.rst
Unescape Escape View File

@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ User Manual
/docs/Core
/docs/Plugins
/docs/Scripts
/docs/index-dev
Other Contents
==============
@ -51,19 +52,3 @@ Other Contents
/LICENSE
/docs/NEWS
/docs/Removed
For Developers
==============
.. toctree::
:maxdepth: 1
/docs/Contributing
/docs/Compile
/docs/NEWS-dev
/docs/Lua API
/docs/Documentation
/library/xml/SYNTAX
/library/xml/how-to-update
/docs/Memory-research
/docs/Binpatches