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

2020-07-08 22:52:20 -04:00 · 2020-07-08 22:52:20 -04:00 · 87fd32d330
parent 858e90e6c2
commit 87fd32d330
4 changed files with 87 additions and 81 deletions
--- a/docs/Contributing.rst
+++ b/docs/Contributing.rst
@ -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.
--- a/docs/Dev-intro.rst
+++ b/docs/Dev-intro.rst
@ -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>`.
--- a/docs/index-dev.rst
+++ b/docs/index-dev.rst
@ -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
--- a/index.rst
+++ b/index.rst
@ -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