David Ostrovsky
96af392ba4
/debug:fastlink improve build performance and reduce resources consumption. When this linker oprion is used the linker-produced program database (PDB) files doesn’t have any private symbol information. Debug information is distributed among input object and library files, and the linker PDB just serves as an indexing database. Obviously, this provides a huge performance benefit for the daily developer builds. fastlink PDB files cannot be shared with another developer on the team or uploaded directly to symbol server. There is spcial tooling which is able to create a full PDB from the /debug:fastlink PDB on demand: mspdbcmf: [1]. The integration of mspdbcmf is beyond the scope of this change. [1] https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/vcblog/2016/10/05/faster-c-build-cycle-in-vs-15-with-debugfastlink/ Change-Id: I14e29cf116407b420598f692c8d6d851e686268b Reviewed-on: https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/34330 Reviewed-by: David Ostrovsky <david@ostrovsky.org> Tested-by: David Ostrovsky <david@ostrovsky.org>
LibreOffice
LibreOffice is an integrated office suite based on copyleft licenses and compatible with most document formats and standards. Libreoffice is backed by The Document Foundation, which represents a large independent community of enterprises, developers and other volunteers moved by the common goal of bringing to the market the best software for personal productivity. LibreOffice is open source, and free to download, use and distribute.
A quick overview of the LibreOffice code structure.
Overview
You can develop for LibreOffice in one of two ways, one recommended and one much less so. First the somewhat less recommended way: it is possible to use the SDK to develop an extension, for which you can read the API docs here and here. This re-uses the (extremely generic) UNO APIs that are also used by macro scripting in StarBasic.
The best way to add a generally useful feature to LibreOffice is to work on the code base however. Overall this way makes it easier to compile and build your code, it avoids any arbitrary limitations of our scripting APIs, and in general is far more simple and intuitive - if you are a reasonably able C++ programmer.
The important bits of code
Each module should have a README file inside it which has some
degree of documentation for that module; patches are most welcome to
improve those. We have those turned into a web page here:
However, there are two hundred modules, many of them of only peripheral interest for a specialist audience. So - where is the good stuff, the code that is most useful. Here is a quick overview of the most important ones:
| Module | Description |
|---|---|
| sal/ | this provides a simple System Abstraction Layer |
| tools/ | this provides basic internal types: 'Rectangle', 'Color' etc. |
| vcl/ | this is the widget toolkit library and one rendering abstraction |
| framework | UNO framework, responsible for building toolbars, menus, status bars, and the chrome around the document using widgets from VCL, and XML descriptions from /uiconfig/ files |
| sfx2/ | legacy core framework used by Writer/Calc/Draw: document model / load/save / signals for actions etc. |
| svx/ | drawing model related helper code, including much of Draw/Impress |
Then applications
| Module | Description |
|---|---|
| desktop/ | this is where the 'main' for the application lives, init / bootstrap. the name dates back to an ancient StarOffice that also drew a desktop |
| sw/ | Writer |
| sc/ | Calc |
| sd/ | Draw / Impress |
There are several other libraries that are helpful from a graphical perspective:
| Module | Description |
|---|---|
| basegfx/ | algorithms and data-types for graphics as used in the canvas |
| canvas/ | new (UNO) canvas rendering model with various backends |
| cppcanvas/ | C++ helper classes for using the UNO canvas |
| drawinglayer/ | View code to render drawable objects and break them down into primitives we can render more easily. |
Finding out more
Beyond this, you can read the README files, send us patches, ask
on the mailing list libreoffice@lists.freedesktop.org (no subscription
required) or poke people on IRC #libreoffice-dev on irc.freenode.net -
we're a friendly and generally helpful mob. We know the code can be
hard to get into at first, and so there are no silly questions.