Annotation of loncom/html/adm/help/tex/About_Developers_Manual.tex, revision 1.1
1.1 ! bowersj2 1: \label{About_Developers_Manual.tex}
! 2:
! 3: The purpose of this document is to introduce developers people to
! 4: LON-CAPA, and enable them to start doing real work with the system
! 5: as quickly as possible. This should prove useful both to people who
! 6: already intend to develop with LON-CAPA, and to technical people who
! 7: are evaluating LON-CAPA to see if it suits their needs.
! 8:
! 9: The most daunting task facing new developers is understanding how
! 10: the whole system fits together; individual pieces are usually sensible
! 11: but like any large program it is difficult to understand the forest
! 12: by looking at just the trees. Therefore, this document will start
! 13: out with the highest-level overview of the system, which can be safely
! 14: skipped if you already know what LON-CAPA is.
! 15:
! 16: Next, we'll look at the major subsystems of LON-CAPA and how they
! 17: fit together at a high level, with enough detail to understand the
! 18: context a given piece of the system functions in. Appropriate pointers
! 19: will be given to the detailed documentation on the various subsystems,
! 20: so this section can be used as an expanded {}``Table of Contents''.
! 21:
! 22: Then a brief tutorial in adding a {}``handler'' to LON-CAPA will
! 23: be given, enabling you both to understand how to add brand-new functionality
! 24: to LON-CAPA, and better understand the majority of the code in the
! 25: system which is in the form of handlers.
! 26:
! 27: Finally, the last and largest portion of this document will be extremely
! 28: detailed examinations of the subsystems from a technical point of
! 29: view, including API descriptions suitable for use in programming.
! 30: Obviously you will not need to read this over entirely, unless you
! 31: really want to know what the system can do.
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