78 lines
3.8 KiB
Markdown
78 lines
3.8 KiB
Markdown
# LibreOffice
|
|
[](https://scan.coverity.com/projects/211) [](https://bestpractices.coreinfrastructure.org/projects/307)
|
|
|
|
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](http://api.libreoffice.org/)
|
|
and [here](http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/DevGuide).
|
|
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:
|
|
|
|
http://docs.libreoffice.org/
|
|
|
|
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.
|