Developer Documentation for Konsole

Authors:        Robert Knight < robertknight@gmail.com >
Last Updated:   7th May 2007
Summary:        Introduction to Konsole developer documentation
===============================================================

Contents:

1.      Introduction
2.      Documentation format
3.      Documentation layout (aka. 'Where to find things')
4.      Contributing to Konsole
    4.1     Discussion and help
    4.2     Submitting code
    4.2.1   API documentation guidelines
    4.2.2   Code style guidelines

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1.  Introduction

This document explains the layout of the developer documentation folder,
and basic guidelines for contributors.

2.  Documentation format

To try and make it easier for developers to find the information they need
about Konsole, the use of a standard document template which answers the following
questions is encouraged:
    
    - What is this document?
    - Who wrote it?
    - When was it last updated?
    - What is it about?
    - Where can I find information about <subject> within this document?

The current template can be found in design/developer-documentation-template

There is older documentation in the old-documents/ folder which does
not follow this format.  This is kept as a reference.  Assistance
in tidying up documentation from that directory by using the documentation
template would be appreciated.

3.  Documentation layout

    design/           - Documentation about the design of Konsole, and templates 
                        for developer documentation.
    design/historic   - Documentation which was prepared during the KDE 4.0x development
                        cycle but which is no longer relevant.
    
    research/         - Results of research into user's experiences with Konsole

    user-interface/   - Documentation concerning design and analysis of the user interface.

    old-documents/  - An assortment of documentation which was created during earlier
                      releases of Konsole.  There is useful inforamtion here, particularly
                      about the type of terminal which Konsole emulates, but it is not
                      organised.

4.  Contributing to Konsole

Help with Konsole's development, whether it involves code, user interface suggestions or 
other resources is greatly appreciated.

4.1 Discussion and help

Discussion about Konsole development takes place primarily on the Konsole mailing list,
at konsole-devel@kde.org.  If you need help with Konsole development or wish to discuss
implementation of a feature, fixes to bugs etc., then this is an appropriate place to
do that.

4.2  Submitting code

Patches can be submitted for Konsole in a number of places:

    - For bugfixes, we recommend that you attach the patch to the relevant bug report on bugs.kde.org
    - For new features, a patch can be attached to a relevant wishlist report on bugs.kde.org if 
      there is one, and/or submitted to konsole-devel@kde.org
   
    If your patch adds new methods or classes then please ensure that there is API documentation for
    them in the code.  Looking at the header files for existing classes should give you an idea of 
    what is asked for.  

   
4.2.1  API documentation guidelines

   Good API documentation in the code is very helpful for other developers.  Here are a few guidelines on 
   writing API documentation for Konsole:

        - All classes should have documentation which describes the basic function of the class.
          Usage examples are appreciated.
        - All public and protected methods should have API documentation which describes what
          the method does and what the returned value (if any) means.
          Parameter documentation is encouraged if the method has more than a couple of parameters
          or if the use of a parameter is not immediately clear from its name and type.
        - All public and protected enumerations and constants should have API documentation which
          describes what the various values mean.
        - The usage of brief standard comments next to private methods is encouraged to
          provide a quick explanation of what that method does.

4.2.2   Code style guidelines

    The API style roughly follows that used in the Qt and KDE classes.  

    There are no strict guidelines on aspects of the code such as indentation, braces
    or spacing, although following the style of the existing code is a good idea.
    
    Below is a list of the most important style considerations which have been developed
    following experience working on earlier Konsole code:

    - Variables and methods should have CLEAR, verbose names.  The use of abbreviations
      should be avoided except for very common cases.

    - The use of named constants is preferred over literals for clarity, and also to prevent
      the need to edit each instance of a literal if the value needs to be changed.

    - The use of macros ( #define ) should be avoided where possible.  enums, inline methods
      templates, static constants etc. are strongly preferred. 
    - Inside classes, private member fields have an underscore prefix ( eg. _myPrivateField )
    - Private slots in classes DO NOT have a "slot" prefix before their name which is often
      seen in other KDE applications.

    Earlier Konsole code had a proliferation of two-letter variable names, which made it hard
    to read and understand in some places, and let directly to bugs in others.  Descriptive naming
    and sensible use of comments are strongly encouraged in new code.