= Technical Documentation =

This is the central station for technical documentation about Vespa. It's 
''not'' likely to be of interest to those who just want to use Vespa.
It's for those who want to know more about Vespa's development as a software
project, including how to contribute. 

Here you can find high level overviews of various topics (Python, wxPython, 
SQLite, C++, compilers, 3rd party libraries, etc.) as well as detailed
notes written by the technical team.


== General ==

 * SubversionRepositories - A list of our SVN repositories with links to each
 * TracInstances - A list of our Trac instances with links to each
 * [wiki:Licensing] - About our open source license

== Getting Started ==

 * DeveloperSetup - Everything you need to get started as a Vespa developer
 including how to get Vespa's source code, how to set up the UI design tools, 
 and various technical notes.

== General Technical Notes About Vespa ==

 * CodingStandards
 * [wiki:Dependencies] - A complete, technically-oriented list of 3rd party libraries that Vespa 
 uses, including minimum acceptable versions.
 * VespaDataDirectory - How to find Vespa's data directory
 * IniFiles - About Vespa's INI files
 * ExceptionHandler - How Vepsa's custom exception handler works (and how to disable it)
 * SetupPy - What Vespa's `setup.py` does and doesn't do, how it works, etc.
 * [wiki:VIFF] - An overview of VIFF (Vespa Interchange File Format), the XML format Vespa uses for imports and exports
 * ExportFormat - A little about importing and exporting
 * [gamma:wiki:GammaSwigImplementation Swigging Gamma Implementation] and [gamma:wiki:GammaSwigIssues Issues & Solutions]
 * [wiki:Python3Issues] - A summary of changes in Python 3 that we should keep in mind
 * ThePerilsOfStr - Why we should stop using `str()` on strings
 * ImportSubtleties - Some subtle points about Python's `import`, especially for file in `vespa/common`

== Database Topics ==
 * SqliteVersions - Some notes about why we must support SQLite 3.3.4
 * ChangingTheDatabaseStructure - How to change the SQL that defines Vespa's database
 * DatabaseUuidEfficiency - An examination of the efficiency of our use of UUIDs in the database and an exploration of alternatives.
 * DatabaseArrayBlobs - How we store arrays as SQLite BLOBs

== GUI Development ==

Documents about wxWidgets, wxPython and wxGlade and how we use them in our apps.

 * GuiDevelopmentOverview - An overview of how we organize our GUI code
 * WxCommon - A description of the `vespa.common.wx` library
 * WxGladeCustomControls - About wxGlade and custom controls
 * WxTipsBugsAndQuirks - Miscellaneous Tips, Bugs and Quirks
 * InstallingWxGladeUnderWindows - A special note about installing wxGlade under Windows
 * DicomBrowserDemo - A functional DICOM browser that also serves as a wx sample app


== Other Technical Notes ==

 * [wiki:LambdaSetOperations] - useful in many places to get unique lists or compare two lists 
 * MsvcVersionNumbers
 * SwiggingHlsvd - Philip's experiment with SWIG-ing the HLSVD library
 * InstallerGenerators - Philip's research on tools to generate installers for Windows 
 * [wiki:Py2Exe Py2Exe] - Philip's description of his experiments with Py2exe
 * LinuxBinaryCompatibility - some notes about generating binaries compatible across multiple versions of Linux
 * [wiki:SciPy2009] - Notes from the SciPy 2009 conference 
 * SiemensCsaHeaderParsing - Philip's travelogue of an expedition through a Siemens DICOM CSA header
 * [wiki:AddingProjectsToEclipse] - How to add an existing projects code base to Eclipse.