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tdevelop/doc/kdevelop/getting-started.docbook

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<chapter id="getting-started">
<chapterinfo>
<authorgroup>
<author><firstname>Bernd</firstname><surname>Pol</surname></author>
<!-- TRANS:ROLES_OF_TRANSLATORS -->
</authorgroup>
</chapterinfo>
<title>Getting Started with &kdevelop; &mdash; a Guided Tour</title>
<para>Now that you have got your new &kdevelop; &IDE;, how are you going to make
good use of it? As this is a complex application, the learning curve may be
somewhat steep, especially if you are not already used to this type of an
Integrated Development Environment.</para>
<para>We will try to soften this learning curve a bit by stepping through the
makings of a simple KDE C++ application. Thereby we will have a (cursory) look
at:</para>
<simplelist>
<member><link linkend="gettingstarted-overview">A first look &mdash; the user
interface elements of the &kdevelop; &IDE;.</link></member>
<member><link linkend="gettingstarted-configure">Doing some initial
configuration.</link></member>
<member><link linkend="gettingstarted-new">How to create a new project.</link>
</member>
<member><link linkend="gettingstarted-edit">Some tips about dealing with
documents.</link></member>
<member><link linkend="gettingstarted-compile">How to compile the application in
this project.</link></member>
<member><link linkend="gettingstarted-extend">How to add classes and other
detail to your project.</link></member>
<member><link linkend="gettingstarted-debug">What to do to debug the
application.</link></member>
<member><link linkend="gettingstarted-doc">Some basic tools to build program or
user documentation.</link></member>
<member><link linkend="gettingstarted-keys">Last but not least, keyboard
shortcuts</link></member>
</simplelist>
<para>Before we start, one important concept should be made clear.</para>
<formalpara>
<title>What to expect?</title>
<para>As said, &kdevelop; is an <emphasis>Integrated Development
Environment</emphasis>. That means in essence that &kdevelop; is no development
tool by itself but rather a graphical front end to easily access a wide range of
development tools, many of which actually would require complex keyboard
commands run from a text console.</para>
</formalpara>
<para>While &kdevelop; eases many of those programming tasks, much of the
complexity from this bundle of tools still remains which means that in order to
fully understand the &kdevelop; &IDE; you will still need to comprehend these
tools actually running beneath the surface.</para>
<para>Hence, we cannot teach you how to build software, but rather introduce you
to some of the ways &kdevelop; was designed to ease such a software building
process. If you want to learn more about what an Integrated Development
Environment is meant for, you might want to have a look at the <link
linkend="unixdev">Development on &UNIX;</link> historical overview and there
especially at the <link linkend="unixdev-ide">Integrating Concepts and
Tools</link> chapter.</para>
<note>
<para>The following discussions apply to the default case, where &kdevelop;
starts up in the <guilabel>Simplified IDEAl Window Mode</guilabel>. If you
already did switch to another user interface mode some items may not be there as
described or will behave slightly different. If in doubt which user interface
mode your &kdevelop; currently uses, check with the
<menuchoice><guimenu>Settings</guimenu> <guimenuitem>Configure
KDevelop...</guimenuitem> <guimenuitem>User Interface</guimenuitem></menuchoice>
dialog.</para>
</note>
<sect1 id="gettingstarted-overview">
<title>A Very First Look at &kdevelop;</title>
<para>This is all about what you will see when you first started &kdevelop;.
You will find preliminary information about:</para>
<simplelist>
<member><link linkend="gettingstarted-overview-basic">What is there on the
surface?</link></member>
<member><link linkend="gettingstarted-overview-help">How to get some
help.</link></member>
<member><link linkend="gettingstarted-overview-menu">What is in the
menus?</link></member>
<member><link linkend="gettingstarted-overview-tools">What are those tool views
for?</link></member>
</simplelist>
<sect2 id="gettingstarted-overview-basic">
<title>On the Surface</title>
<para>When you start &kdevelop; for the first time you will get a display
similar to this one:</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="empty-ide.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<caption>
<para>The &kdevelop; initial layout</para>
<para>(Actually the initial &kdevelop; window will be larger, but the elements
you see are the same.)</para>
</caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<formalpara>
<title>Workspace Area and Tool View Tabs</title>
<para>In this initial case &kdevelop; uses the so-called <link
linkend="uimodes-survey">IDEAl user interface mode</link>. A workspace area of
maximum possible size is surrounded left, bottom, and right by a series of
buttons which act similar to tabs on a tabbed display. If you click on one of
those tabs, a so-called <emphasis>tool view window</emphasis> will open which
allows you to work on a specific task.</para>
</formalpara>
<formalpara>
<title>Menu and Toolbars</title>
<para>On top there is the usual menubar, followed by several rows of toolbars,
some being initially empty. They will get populated once there is a project open
for actual work.</para>
</formalpara>
<formalpara>
<title>Status Bar</title>
<para>Finally, there is a status bar on the bottom of the window where short
informations on several tasks will be shown.</para>
</formalpara>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="gettingstarted-overview-help">
<title>How to Get Some Help</title>
<para>Besides the <guimenu>Help</guimenu> menu which offers answers to specific
questions, the status bar and two kinds of tool tips provide some quick
information.</para>
<formalpara>
<title>What Does This Menu Entry Do?</title>
<para>When you place the mouse cursor on a menu entry, there will usually some
short information be displayed in the status bar. While in most cases this
repeats just the name of the selection, in some cases it will provide additional
information about the purpose of the menu command.</para>
</formalpara>
<formalpara>
<title>What Is the Name of This Item?</title>
<para>On many items a short function name tool tip will pop up when you place
the cursor on it for a few seconds. This is useful for quick orientation on
toolbar or tool view tabs in IDEAl mode when the &IDE; has been set up to
display icons only on these buttons.</para>
</formalpara>
<formalpara>
<title>What Does This Item Do?</title>
<para>More information is available through expanded tool tip help for many
items on the &IDE;. Select <menuchoice><guimenu>Help</guimenu>
<guimenuitem>What&apos;s This?</guimenuitem></menuchoice> or press
<keycombo><keycap>&Shift;</keycap><keycap>F1</keycap></keycombo>, then with the
question mark cursor select the item you want to know more of. You can as well
open any menu this way and click on a specific menu entry (active as well as
greyed disabled ones) to see if more information is available.</para>
</formalpara>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="gettingstarted-overview-menu">
<title>What is in the menus?</title>
<para>There are ten menus selectable on the menubar. Most of them get fully
populated once a project is open for actual work while others require at least
one document be open in an editor window. In short, they will allow the
following action types.</para>
<note>
<para>This is only a preliminary overview. For a detailed menu description see
the <link linkend="commands">Command Reference</link>.</para>
</note>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><guimenu>File</guimenu></term>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>Usual Actions</title>
<para>This is pretty standard. It allows to create, open, save, print, and close
document files as well as quitting the &kdevelop; application as usual.</para>
</formalpara>
<formalpara>
<title>Revert All</title>
<para>This allows to revert all recent, yet unsaved changes by reloading the
file from the disk. This works on any file you edit, not only on those which are
part of a project.</para>
</formalpara>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guimenu>Edit</guimenu></term>
<listitem>
<para>This menu is useful only if a document is opened.</para>
<formalpara>
<title>Usual Actions</title>
<para>It provides the usual undo/redo and cut/copy/paste actions.
Furthermore it allows to select text blocks in various ways.</para>
</formalpara>
<formalpara>
<title>Search and Replace</title>
<para>There are two very powerful search facility available,
<menuchoice><guimenu>Edit</guimenu> <guimenuitem>Find in
Files...</guimenuitem></menuchoice>, and <menuchoice><guimenu>Edit</guimenu>
<guimenuitem>Find-Select-Replace...</guimenuitem></menuchoice>. These allow, in
addition to the usual search and replace actions limited to the the current
document, to conduct global search or search-and-replace actions in one single
turn.</para>
</formalpara>
<formalpara>
<title>Advanced Text Edit</title>
<para>There are provisions to reformat the current document and to automatically
complete partially typed texts in various ways.</para>
</formalpara>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guimenu>View</guimenu></term>
<listitem>
<para>Like the <guimenu>Edit</guimenu> menu, this menu is useful only if there
is an open project. I this case there will be the following actions available
(amongst others):</para>
<formalpara>
<title>Navigation History</title>
<para>Switch back and forth through the documents &etc; you visited.</para>
</formalpara>
<formalpara>
<title>Error Tracking</title>
<para>Navigate to the source lines of the errors encountered in the most recent
compilation/build process.</para>
</formalpara>
<formalpara>
<title>Editor Related Actions</title>
<para>Some entries in the <guimenu>View</guimenu> menu control the look and view
of the editor you use. In case of the &kate; Part (Embedded Advanced Text
Editor) there will be the following controls available:</para>
</formalpara>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Control the word wrap behavior in the document window.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Show or hide several border displays in the document windows: line
numbers, icons, and, additionally, bookmark marks in the scroll bar.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Control the display of folded (temporarily hidden) sections in a source
text.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guimenu>Project</guimenu></term>
<listitem>
<para>All work of &kdevelop; is based on <emphasis>projects</emphasis> which
basically collect source files, build management files, and other information in
one project directory. In this menu you control which project to use, which
properties it has, and some other managing actions.
In particular:</para>
<formalpara>
<title>Open a Project</title>
<para>Allows to create new projects, open existing ones, and import projects
from other environments.</para>
</formalpara>
<formalpara>
<title>Project Options</title>
<para>Allows to define a whole bunch of different project properties.</para>
</formalpara>
<formalpara>
<title>Classes Management</title>
<para>Add new classes to the project and traverse the inheritance tree of a
class.</para>
</formalpara>
<formalpara>
<title>Distribute Project</title>
<para>Helps to build distribution packages of the project.</para>
</formalpara>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guimenu>Build</guimenu></term>
<listitem>
<para>This menu is all about compiling and documenting the project. Thus it is
of use only when a project is actually open. In this case it provides the
following actions:</para>
<formalpara>
<title>Compile, Link, Execute</title>
<para>Allows to compile and link the whole project or parts of it as well as run
the application from within the &IDE;.</para>
</formalpara>
<formalpara>
<title>Prepare Build Operations</title>
<para>This actually depends on the make system you use for this project. In the
case of automake projects it allows to run <filename>Makefile.cvs</filename> and
<filename>configure</filename> on their own. There are also provisions to remove
translated files from the project in various stages of intensity.</para>
</formalpara>
<formalpara>
<title>Install the Application</title>
<para>Allows to install the application both in local directories as well as in
system directories only accessible to the root user.</para>
</formalpara>
<formalpara>
<title>API Documentation</title>
<para>Build or remove a doxygen-based API documentation of the project as
defined in the project options.</para>
</formalpara>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guimenu>Debug</guimenu></term>
<listitem>
<para>Although this menu will be filled once a project is active, it of course
is useful only if the actual project has been previously compiled with debugging
information (this is basically set up in <menuchoice><guimenu>Project</guimenu>
<guimenuitem>Project Options..</guimenuitem></menuchoice>). There are the
following actions available in this case:</para>
<formalpara>
<title>Usual Debugger Actions</title>
<para>The first section in the <guimenu>Debug</guimenu> provides a graphical
interface to the GDB &GNU; symbolic debugger. It allows to start and stop your
application in the debugger and step through it in various ways.</para>
</formalpara>
<formalpara>
<title>Breakpoints</title>
<para>&kdevelop; provides several means to set breakpoints in your application
sources. One is through the use of the <guimenuitem>Toggle
Breakpoint</guimenuitem> menu entry.</para>
</formalpara>
<formalpara>
<title>Advanced Debugging</title>
<para>Other <guimenu>Debug</guimenu> menu entries allow more sophisticated
program analysis. Use
<keycombo><keycap>&Shift;</keycap><keycap>F1</keycap></keycombo> to get more
information about their purpose.</para>
</formalpara>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guimenu>Scripts</guimenu></term>
<listitem>
<para>You can call various scripts from this menu to more easily accomplish
tedious actions on the text in the currently selected editor window. The
available actions depend on the selected script, however.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guimenu>Window</guimenu></term>
<listitem>
<para>This is fairly standard. You may select any open document window as well
as close one or more documents windows in here. You may even select a set of
document windows to be closed in one single turn.</para>
<para>Depending on the editor plugin you use may there be other menu items as
well. So will the default Kate editor plugin additionally allow to split the
editor window horizontally as well as vertically.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guimenu>Tools</guimenu></term>
<listitem>
<para>&kdevelop; is highly customizable.
You may select a favorite editor for your documents as well as provide external
and plugged-in tools to extend the basic &IDE; capabilities. The
<guimenu>Tools</guimenu> menu reflects most of this setup.</para>
<formalpara>
<title>Advanced Editing</title>
<para>The upper set of <guimenu>Tools</guimenu> menu entries will be provided by
the editor plugin which is in use. You may select your favorite editor via
<menuchoice><guimenu>Settings</guimenu> <guimenuitem>Configure
KDevelop...</guimenuitem> <guilabel>Editor</guilabel></menuchoice>. Once an
editable document file is selected, the upper part of the
<guimenu>Tools</guimenu> menu will provide advanced editing commands specific to
the editor part in use.</para>
</formalpara>
<formalpara>
<title>Web Side Handling</title>
<para>In case the active document window contains a HTML page (&eg; displayed
from a <guilabel>Documentation</guilabel> selection), the
<guimenu>Tools</guimenu> will show additional menu entries which provide various
means to handle Web pages.</para>
</formalpara>
<formalpara>
<title>Other Tools</title>
<para>Usually there will be a bunch of other entries according to the currently
available tools. Use <keycombo><keycap>&Shift;</keycap>
<keycap>F1</keycap></keycombo> to get more information about their
purposes.</para>
</formalpara>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guimenu>Settings</guimenu></term>
<listitem>
<para>This menu allows you to show and hide menubar, toolbars and statusbar.
Also, you can configure shortcuts, toolbars, notifications, the editor and
&kdevelop;&apos;s general behavior.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guimenu>Help</guimenu></term>
<listitem>
<para>Here you can open this KDevelop manual, look up terms in various
documentation files, open man pages (the traditional UNIX manual format) and
info pages (the GNU manual format). Furthermore you can report bugs here or get
some info about your current KDevelop version and its authors.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="gettingstarted-overview-tools">
<title>What are those tool views for?</title>
<para>In the IDEAl user interface mode the workspace will be surrounded by three
areas of buttons, so-called <emphasis>tool view tabs</emphasis>. They provide
access to <emphasis>tool view windows</emphasis> which accomplish main tasks
during software development. Each of these three tool view areas serves a
different main purpose.</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>Left Side</title>
<para>Provides access to navigation and selection tools</para>
</formalpara>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>Bottom</title>
<para>These views display messages produced by various tools.</para>
</formalpara>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>Right Side</title>
<para>Provides access to documentation and source management tools.</para>
</formalpara>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>The number of tool view tabs shown will change once a project is open for
actual work. More tools to work on that project will be available then. The
actual number of tool views depends on the <link linkend="plugin-tools">Plugin
Tools</link> being currently available to &kdevelop;. You will find more on this
topic in the <link linkend="setup">Configuring KDevelop</link> chapter.</para>
<para>Currently, with no project open and the default number of plugin tools
loaded, you will find the following tool views. Clicking on a tab will open
respectively close its tool view window.</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>Navigation and Selection</term>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>File Selector</title>
<para>Provides a panel to navigate the directory tree and select files for work
just like you do in the &konqueror;. Clicking a file will open it in an
appropriate editor window in the workspace area. A right click in the file
selector area will pop up a navigation and file manipulation menu.</para>
</formalpara>
<formalpara>
<title>File List</title>
<para>Lists the currently open files. Clicking on a file will usually select its
editor window in the workspace area. Use this to quickly navigate in a large
number of open files. Furthermore this view provides a means to organize the
open files into different <emphasis>sessions</emphasis>. This is particularly
useful in very large and complex projects to help the developer concentrate on
different tasks. Right clicking a file will pop up a file manipulation
menu.</para>
</formalpara>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Messages Displays</term>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>Application</title>
<para>Displays the output from an application started from within
&kdevelop;.</para>
</formalpara>
<formalpara>
<title>Diff</title>
<para>Used to display patch file contents.
Displays the output from the difference viewer tool started from the
<menuchoice><guimenu>Tools</guimenu> <guimenuitem>Difference
Viewer...</guimenuitem></menuchoice> menu.</para>
</formalpara>
<formalpara>
<title>Messages</title>
<para>Displays messages produced by the build tools called from within
&kdevelop;, usually from the <guimenu>Build</guimenu> menu.</para>
</formalpara>
<formalpara>
<title>Find in Files</title>
<para>Displays the list of items found by the global search operation started
from the <menuchoice><guimenu>Edit</guimenu> <guimenuitem>Find in
Files...</guimenuitem></menuchoice> menu. Clicking on a line here will
automatically open that file at the specified position in an editor
window.</para>
</formalpara>
<formalpara>
<title>Replace</title>
<para>Lists the results of the global search-and-replace operation issued from
the <menuchoice><guimenu>Edit</guimenu>
<guimenuitem>Find-Select-Replace...</guimenuitem></menuchoice> menu. In this
view you can decide on every found item whether you really want it be replaced
or not.</para>
</formalpara>
<note>
<para>This global search-and-replace facility is actually available only after a
project has been loaded into &kdevelop;. Otherwise the global replace tool in
the <menuchoice><guimenu>Edit</guimenu>
<guimenuitem>Find-Select-Replace...</guimenuitem> </menuchoice> menu will in
fact be be disabled.</para>
</note>
<formalpara>
<title>Konsole</title>
<para>Opens a &kde; <application>Konsole</application> like terminal emulator
window where you can use keyboard commands in a traditional &UNIX; command line
interface.</para>
</formalpara>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Documentation and Source Manipulation</term>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>Documentation</title>
<para>&kdevelop; provides access to a whole bunch of documentation through this
tool. You may here access document files, usually online from remote locations,
in a structured way. And there are several ways available to directly access
valuable information from &kde; or &Qt; manuals.</para>
</formalpara>
<para>See the <link linkend="documentation">Documentation</link> and <link
linkend="setup-docu">Configuring the Documentation</link> chapters for more
details.</para>
<formalpara>
<title>Code Snippets</title>
<para>This tool allows you to permanently store selected texts for later use in
other editing cycles. It is a very flexible tool, as any text snipped stored
here may contain a set of variables which will get their actual values at the
time when you insert such a snippet in some other text.</para>
</formalpara>
<para>More information on this is available in the <link
linkend="editing-snippets">Code Snippets</link> and <link
linkend="setup-snippets">Setting Up the Code Snippets Tool</link>
chapters.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="gettingstarted-configure">
<title>A Bit of Configuration</title>
<para>Before we actually start a first example project, we should tailor the
&kdevelop; behavior to our needs. Although most of the default settings will be
appropriate for now, there are a few places which better should be
adjusted.</para>
<note>
<para>If you want to know more about &kdevelop; configuration, have a look at
the <link linkend="setup">Configuring KDevelop</link> chapter.</para>
</note>
<sect2 id="gettingstarted-configure-general">
<title>Some General Settings</title>
<para>To configure &kdevelop;, click the
<menuchoice><guimenu>Settings</guimenu></menuchoice> menu and select
<menuchoice><guimenuitem>Configure KDevelop...</guimenuitem></menuchoice>. The
<guilabel>Configure KDevelop</guilabel> dialog will pop up, showing the
following <guilabel>General</guilabel> settings page to the right.</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="configure-general.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<caption>
<para>The &kdevelop; general configuration dialog</para>
</caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>Most of the defaults will be o.k.
But you will probably want to change two of those settings.</para>
<formalpara>
<title>Default projects directory</title>
<para>At first start of &kdevelop; this will most likely be preset to your home
directory. Most people however prefer a dedicated projects directory for
software development. Change the text box to your preferred parent development
directory. You may select it from the directory tree if you press the
<guilabel>Open file dialog</guilabel> button labeled with a folder icon to the
right of it.</para>
</formalpara>
<para>In our examples we will assume a (somewhat artificial) user called
<filename class="directory">devel</filename>.
Thus always replace this <quote>devel</quote> by your user name. Our devel user
will utilize the <filename class="directory">/home/devel/projects</filename>
parent directory for actual development. Again, replace <filename
class="directory">projects</filename> with your development directory name.
</para>
<para>&kdevelop; will by default set up an own subdirectory below this parent
for every new project you create. So will &eg; all files of a project named
<quote>Hello</quote> in our case be located in the <filename
class="directory">/home/devel/projects/hello</filename> directory.</para>
<para>You may of course temporarily override these directory settings if you
need to. See the <link linkend="applicationwizard">&appwizard;</link> chapter
for more info on this.</para>
<formalpara>
<title>Compiler output</title>
<para>Whenever &kdevelop; compiles some source, it will display the messages of
the <application>make</application>, etc. build tools in the
<guilabel>Messages</guilabel> window in the lower part of the workspace area.
Usually these messages will be overwhelmingly wordy. To keep a better overview
of what happens, &kdevelop; has some means of shortening those messages built
in.</para>
</formalpara>
<para>Depending on the &kdevelop; version you use, the <guilabel>Compiler
output</guilabel> selection may be preset to <quote>Long</quote>, which will
cause all message contents be fully shown. You may probably want to change this
to the far more convenient <quote>Very Short</quote> setting. Just select this
from the drop down box.</para>
<caution>
<para>Be aware that only <emphasis>most basic</emphasis> information will be
shown in the <guilabel>Messages</guilabel> window this way. In case of errors
during &eg; a build run you will most likely want to see more, if not all, of
the message texts. They are not lost, however. Just right click into the
<guilabel>Messages</guilabel> window and select &eg; <quote>Full Compiler
Output</quote> from the popup menu.</para>
</caution>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="gettingstarted-configure-search">
<title>Initializing Documentation Search Indexes</title>
<para>There is another, not so obvious, item which preferably should be
initialized before you start actual development work. This is because you will
want to perform documentation search regularly during development. &kdevelop;
requires some search indexes be created before such search operations can be
performed. So let&apos;s initialize them before we attempt our first steps
toward actual &kdevelop; work.</para>
<para>Open the <guilabel>Documentation</guilabel> tool view at the right side of
the &kdevelop; main window. There open the <guilabel>Search</guilabel> dialog
page.</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="documents-search.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<caption><para>Where to generate the search indexes.</para></caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>Now press the <guibutton>Update Config</guibutton> button to make sure the
basic search tools are properly set up. A dialog should pop up, telling
<quote>Configuration file updated</quote>. Click <guibutton>OK</guibutton> to
make it disappear.</para>
<para>This done, &kdevelop; will be ready to parse the documentation it knows of
and build some useful search indexes from it. Press the <guibutton>Update
Index</guibutton> button to the right. Now the <guilabel>Generating Search
Index</guilabel> dialog will pop up showing the progress of the index build
operations.</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="configure-docu-indexgen.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<caption><para>&kdevelop; is generating documentation search
indexes.</para></caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>This will take some time depending on the size of documentation and the
speed of your machine. But finally the <guibutton>Cancel</guibutton> will make
place to <guibutton>OK</guibutton>. Just press this button to proceed.</para>
<note>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>This usually should work out of the box. In some cases the
<application>htdig</application> application &kdevelop; uses to perform its full
text searches might not be properly set up. Refer to the <link
linkend="setup-docu-textsearch">Setting Up Text Search Indexes</link> chapter
for more help in this case.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>To be able to look up &kde; and &Qt; specific API documentation, it is
mandatory that the <emphasis>KDELibs Apidocs</emphasis> were present when
&kdevelop; was installed. If you experience problems building the indexes or
perform the <link linkend="gettingstarted-edit-defs">identifier lookup
examples</link> later in this chapter, make sure that this documentation exists
and is accessible to &kdevelop;. See <link linkend="kdevelop-install">Installing
KDevelop</link> fore more detail.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</note>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="gettingstarted-new">
<title>Starting a New Project</title>
<para>Almost any application will consist of dozens, hundreds, even thousands of
files which need kept structured and maintainable. To accomplish this,
&kdevelop; organizes software development tasks in
<emphasis>projects</emphasis>. Thus the first practical step to develop software
in &kdevelop; usually is to create a new project.</para>
<para>Fortunately this is fairly easily accomplished. &kdevelop; provides the
so-called &appwizard; tool for this. (See the <link
linkend="applicationwizard">Getting Started &mdash; the &appwizard;</link>
chapter for more.)</para>
<para>We will now start a simple &kde; application project to illustrate how
easily this is accomplished and which files and tools &kdevelop; will have
provided. Thereby we will have a short look at:</para>
<simplelist>
<member><link linkend="gettingstarted-new-setup">How to create a new project
with the help of the &appwizard;.</link></member>
<member><link linkend="gettingstarted-new-files">Which files the &appwizard;
initially did set up.</link></member>
<member><link linkend="gettingstarted-new-toolviews">What about the additional
tool view shown with the project?</link></member>
</simplelist>
<sect2 id="gettingstarted-new-setup">
<title>How to Create a New Project</title>
<para>Let us create a rather simple <quote>Hello World</quote> &kde; project.
Just follow these steps.</para>
<procedure>
<step>
<para>To start the &appwizard; click the <menuchoice><guimenu>Project</guimenu>
<guimenuitem>New Project...</guimenuitem></menuchoice> menu.</para>
</step>
<step>
<para>The <guilabel>Create New Project</guilabel> dialog will pop up. In the
upper left <guilabel>All Projects</guilabel> window there will be a number of
programming languages listed.</para>
<substeps>
<step>
<para>We want to build a &kde; C++ application as usual, thus click on the
<guilabel>+</guilabel> label left of the <guilabel>C++</guilabel> label to open
this branch.</para>
</step>
<step>
<para>A series of possible application targets will be displayed. We will build
a &kde; application, thus open the next sub-branch via the
<guilabel>+</guilabel> label next to <guilabel>KDE</guilabel></para>
</step>
<step>
<para>Now you will be offered a series of possible <emphasis>project
templates</emphasis>. Navigate down to the end of this branch and click
<guilabel>Simple KDE Application</guilabel>.</para>
<para>A preview and short description of the application this project template
will produce pops up in the two windows to the right.</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="tutorial-new-project.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<caption>
<para>Selecting a <quote>Hello World</quote> project template</para>
</caption>
</mediaobject></screenshot>
</step>
<step>
<para>Our application will need a name. Find the <guilabel>Properties</guilabel>
area on the dialog bottom and enter a suitable name into the
<guilabel>Application name</guilabel> input field.</para>
<para>We use <quote>Hello</quote> in our example, but you can use whatever you
like, provided the name consists of letters, number digits, and underlines only.
You will find that the &appwizard; rejects any other character.</para>
</step>
<step>
<para>Make sure the <guilabel>Location</guilabel> text box below the input field
shows the name of your top project directory as set up in the <link
linkend="gettingstarted-configure">A Bit of Configuration</link> chapter above.
If it does not do so, enter a suitable directory name or select one from the
directory list provided by the folder labeled button to the right.</para>
<para>If all went well, the <guilabel>Final location</guilabel> line at the
bottom will show the directory path your new project will use. In case there was
an <quote>(invalid)</quote> suffix appended, try another name for your project
and/or make sure the top project directory in the <guilabel>Location</guilabel>
text box really exists and is writable.</para>
</step>
<step>
<para>Once everything is right, the <guibutton>Next</guibutton> button in the
bottom row of the dialog will be enabled. Click it to proceed.</para>
</step>
</substeps>
</step>
<step>
<para>This will lead you to the <guilabel>Project Options</guilabel> dialog
page. Make sure the <guilabel>Author</guilabel> and <guilabel>Email</guilabel>
text boxes are properly filled in. Usually they will default to your general
&kde; user settings as given in the <guilabel>Password &amp; User
Account</guilabel> dialog of the &kde; Control Center. If not, change them to
some settings you prefer for your application.</para>
<screenshot id="gettingstarted-new-setup-options">
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="tutorial-hello-options.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<caption>
<para>Provide your name and (optionally) email address.</para>
</caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<note>
<para>You must provide an <guilabel>Author</guilabel> name at least. This is
mandatory for the application files setup.</para>
</note>
<para>If all is right, the <guibutton>Next</guibutton> button will be enabled.
Click it to further proceed.</para>
</step>
<step>
<para>The following <guilabel>Version Control System</guilabel>,
<guilabel>Template for .h Files</guilabel>, and <guilabel>Template for .cpp
Files</guilabel> dialog pages are not of interest for now. Skip them by clicking
the <guibutton>Next</guibutton> buttons and, finally, the
<guibutton>Finish</guibutton> button.</para>
</step>
</procedure>
<para>That was all!
The &appwizard; will take over and construct a series of initial files in the
<guilabel>Final location</guilabel> directory you provided in step 2c
above.</para>
<para>Once this file creation phase is finished, &kdevelop; will open an editor
window for the <emphasis>application main window</emphasis> implementation file
(which is <filename>hello.cpp</filename> in our example), so you can readily
proceed.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="gettingstarted-new-files">
<title>Initial Project Files</title>
<para>Even if our sample Hello project is fairly simple, the &appwizard; did
create a whole bunch of source and project management files. You will most
easily list them if you open the <guilabel>File Tree</guilabel> tool view on the
bottom left. This will open a file list similar to the one below.</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="tutorial-hello-new.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<caption>
<para>Initial files in our <quote>Hello World</quote> project</para>
</caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>To demonstrate the main bunch of files the &appwizard; produced, we did
open most of the directory branches in the left-hand <guilabel>File
Tree</guilabel> tool view window. Just click the branch names in the tree to see
for yourself.</para>
<para>Additionally, just for demonstration, we did as well open most of the
branches the <guilabel>Automake Manager</guilabel> tool view window to the right
where some of the project sources are listed, too.</para>
<sect3 id="gettingstarted-new-files-copyright">
<title>Copyright Issues</title>
<para>All &GNU; conformant applications must be copyrighted. There are two
levels which require copyright notices, <emphasis>individual source
files</emphasis> and <emphasis>run-time application level</emphasis>. The
&appwizard; did already put appropriate copyright and licensing information into
the project files.</para>
<formalpara>
<title>Source File Level Copyrights</title>
<para>Do you remember the <link linkend="gettingstarted-new-setup-options">
<guilabel>Project Options</guilabel></link> dialog page in the new project
setup? You had to provide your (the developer&apos;s) name and optionally an
email address there. Now refer to the top of the <guilabel>hello.cpp</guilabel>
editor window currently displayed in the workspace area. The &appwizard; did
enter these statements on top of the licensing header of every source file it
created.</para>
</formalpara>
<programlisting>
/***************************************************************************
* Copyright (C) 2006 by Joe User *
* joe@user.com *
* *
* This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify *
</programlisting>
<para>You will find exactly the same text headers in every source file you will
create inside &kdevelop; (provided you use the proper built in tools for file
creation). &kdevelop; remembers these settings in some template files you may
find in the <filename class="directory">templates</filename> directory.</para>
<formalpara>
<title>Application Run-Time Copyrights</title>
<para>Once your &kde; application runs, the user may display some
<guilabel>About</guilabel> data, usually from the <guimenu>Help</guimenu> menu.
The &appwizard; did also take care of this. If you have a look at the
<filename>main.cpp</filename> file, you will find an entry similar to the one
below.</para>
</formalpara>
<programlisting>
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
KAboutData about("hello", I18N_NOOP("Hello"), version, description,
KAboutData::License_GPL, "(C) 2006 Joe User", 0, 0,
"joe@user.com");
about.addAuthor( "Joe User", 0, "joe@user.com" );
</programlisting>
<para>This will put the main developer&apos;s name (<quote>Joe User</quote> in
our case) and email address into the <guilabel>About</guilabel> copyright page
in the display and list this name and address on the
<guilabel>Authors</guilabel> page there as well.</para>
<important>
<para>Whenever you make substantial changes to an existing project, be sure to
enter your name and email address to the copyright notices on every file you
changed and to the run-time copyright display as well. Don&apos;t be shy, you
help the open source society considerably if you do so.</para>
</important>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="gettingstarted-new-files-source">
<title>Initial Source Files</title>
<para>The &appwizard; did put the source files into the <filename
class="directory">src</filename> sub-directory of the project&apos;s directory.
You will find the <filename>main.cpp</filename>, <filename>hello.h</filename>,
and <filename>hello.cpp</filename> files there as you may have possibly
expected.</para>
<para>There are some additional files you usually will find in a typical &kde;
application, namely</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><filename>hello.desktop</filename> contains some meta data used by
&kdevelop; to maintain and start the application.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><filename>hi16-app-hello.png</filename>, and
<filename>hi32-app-hello.png</filename> contain some initial default icons,
&kdevelop; will use for application display.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Finally, <filename>helloui.rc</filename> contains a description of the
application&apos;s user interface, currently the menus the application will
provide.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="gettingstarted-new-files-doc">
<title>Initial Application Documentation</title>
<para>In the <filename class="directory">doc/en</filename> subdirectory of the
project you will find the <filename>index.docbook</filename> file. This is a
default template from where you can start to write a suitable user
documentation.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="gettingstarted-new-files-project">
<title>Project and Auxiliary Files</title>
<para>You will have noted that the files we introduced so far are listed in
boldface in the <guilabel>File Tree</guilabel> tool view while most of the other
files are not. This depicts the substantially different tasks these files are
used for. The contents of those bold listed files directly influence the
application. Source files will produce the code to be run, others will provide
necessary data or documentation. These files must be maintained and orderly
processed in the build stages by the project, hence they are called
<emphasis>project files</emphasis>.</para>
<para>If you have a look at the lower <guilabel>Automake Manager</guilabel>
window to the right of the workspace area you will find all project files listed
as well. The &automanag; tool uses this knowledge to take care of the build
control as we shortly will see.</para>
<para>The other, non-bold listed files are of more auxiliary nature. They belong
to several distinctive classes as follows:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>Project Build Control</title>
<para>These files control the compile, install, documentation building, &etc;
processes. If the project utilizes the &GNU;
<application>autotools</application> machinery as our example does, you will
find a <filename>Makefile.am</filename> file in each project directory. These
are kind of basic make core files which contain build control commands and will
be processed in conjunction with various <filename>configure</filename> files
during the build stages. Such a build produces a final
<filename>Makefile</filename> in every directory. And from these in turn the
<application>make</application> utility will finally build the binaries of the
application.</para>
</formalpara>
<para>Those <filename>Makefile.am</filename> files need to be maintained
throughout the development process. Luckily, &kdevelop; relieves you of most of
this burden by the &automanag; tool, which basically is a graphical front end to
maintain <filename>Makefile.am</filename> contents.</para>
<para>Other project build control files currently listed are
<filename>configure.in.in</filename> and <filename>subdirs</filename> in the
project root directory. They will be processed by some of the files in the
<filename class="directory">admin</filename> &kde; specific administration
directory to produce more <filename>configure</filename> and
<filename>Makefile</filename> type files and finally the application&apos;s
binaries.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>&kdevelop; Control Files</title>
<para>&kdevelop; needs some control and administration data on its own. These
are located in the project root directory, in our example
<filename>hello.kdevelop</filename>, <filename>hello.kdevelop.pcs</filename>,
and <filename>hello.kdevses</filename>.</para>
</formalpara>
<para>Of particular importance in each project is the
<filename>xxx.kdevelop</filename> (where <quote>xxx</quote> denotes the project
name) file. It is the main <emphasis>KDevelop 3 Project File</emphasis> and
needed if you later want load this project into the &IDE;.</para>
<warning>
<para>Never do manually modify, rename, or even delete any of these &kdevelop;
control files! The &IDE; will most likely not function properly on your project
afterwards.</para>
</warning>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>GNU Project Description Files</title>
<para>Some files in the project root directory are mandatory in any &GNU;
conformant application. These are: <filename>AUTHORS</filename>,
<filename>ChangeLog</filename>, <filename>INSTALL</filename>,
<filename>COPYING</filename> (which contains the GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE),
<filename>INSTALL</filename>, <filename>NEWS</filename>,
<filename>README</filename>, and <filename>TODO</filename>.</para>
</formalpara>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>Other Files</title>
<para>A few more files, not mentioned yet, are:</para>
</formalpara>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><filename>Doxyfile</filename> controls the creation of the project
specific &API; internal programming interface documentation.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The <filename class="directory">templates</filename> directory containes
file templates the &IDE; uses as stubs to create new source files.
You may at any time edit these templates. The new contents will be reflected in
the next source files you create of the related types.</para>
<para>You may &eg; want to realign the right hand stars in the copyright lines
the &appwizard; inserted into the <filename>cpp</filename> and
<filename>h</filename> template files, so the source files created from them
will look less awkward.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The <filename class="directory">po</filename> directory will be used for
localization purposes. It is essentially part of the project files (contains a
<filename>Makefile.am</filename>) but will mainly be used in translation
processing. Not of main interest to the application developer, however.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Finally, the <filename class="directory">admin</filename> directory is
specially needed in &kde; oriented applications. It provides a whole bunch of
files necessary to maintain the application&apos;s sources and binaries so they
will integrate properly into the &kde; environment.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect3>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="gettingstarted-new-toolviews">
<title>Additional Tool Views</title>
<para>As you will have noticed, as soon as the &appwizard; had the new project
ready, several additional tool views were provided. These make sense during
project development only and, in short, provide the following
functionality.</para>
<note>
<para>The tool views actually visible depend on the plugins currently loaded
into &kdevelop;. There are ways to control this. See the <link
linkend="setup-plugins">Plugin Tools</link> chapter for instructions.</para>
</note>
<sect3 id="gettingstarted-new-toolviews-left">
<title>Navigation and Selection Tools (left side)</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>Bookmarks</title>
<para>You can mark any text file line in order to quickly return to this
position from everywhere. &kdevelop; will remember all those
<emphasis>bookmarks</emphasis>, even if you close the editor window afterwards.
The <guilabel>Bookmarks</guilabel> tool view lists all those bookmarks by file
name and line number. You need only click such an entry to open the editor
window accordingly and position the cursor on that line.</para>
</formalpara>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>Classes</title>
<para>Lists classes, methods, &etc; known in the project. Clicking the entry
opens the appropriate header or source file in an editor window and positions
the cursor at the respective declaration or definition.</para>
</formalpara>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>File Groups</title>
<para>Sorts the files in the projects into various utility groups, &ie; Sources,
User Interface, Icons, Translations, and Others. Clicking an entry opens that
file in an editor window.</para>
</formalpara>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>Variables</title>
<para>This is used by the debugger tool to display, evaluate, and watch
variables during debug runs.</para>
</formalpara>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="gettingstarted-new-toolviews-bottom">
<title>Messages (bottom)</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>Valgrind</title>
<para><application>Valgrind</application> is a run-time program analyzer. This
tool view lists the results of such an analyze run. It is used &eg; to find
memory leaks.</para>
</formalpara>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>Security Problems</title>
<para>There is a <guilabel>Security Checker</guilabel> plugin tool for
&kdevelop;. It analyzes the currently edited source file for several common
security problems which may occur in the application and notifies the user in
this tool view window.</para>
</formalpara>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>Breakpoints</title>
<para>This tool view allows to explicitly set, clear, and manage debug
breakpoints in the application source files. It is used in conjunction with the
debugger.</para>
</formalpara>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>CTags</title>
<para>Allows to create a database of identifier indexes using the popular
<application>CTags</application> application. This tags database may then be
used from out this tool view window to look up any needed identifier in the
project sources. Clicking a thus found item line will open an editor window and
position the cursor on the appropriate identifier there.</para>
</formalpara>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>Problems</title>
<para>&kdevelop; keeps track of common programming problems in the currently
edited source file and notifies the user in this tool view window.</para>
</formalpara>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="gettingstarted-new-toolviews-right">
<title>Source Management (right side)</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>Automake Manager</title>
<para>The &automanag; tool is basically a graphical front end to maintain the
contents of the <filename>Makefile.am</filename> files located in each project
directory. This tool view uses two windows to control its work. The upper window
mirrors part of the project subdirectories, namely those which explicitly
contain <emphasis>project files</emphasis>. Each subdirectory of this kind must
contain a <filename>Makefile.am</filename> file and is termed a
<emphasis>subproject</emphasis> in the &automanag; context.</para>
</formalpara>
<para>Clicking a subproject entry opens a suitable display of the project files
in this subproject in the lower window. The files listed there will be grouped
according to their <filename>Makefile.am</filename> functionality in this
subproject.</para>
<para>The &automanag; is a very powerful tool to manage the project and its
subprojects as well as the roles project files play in building the application.
We will have a short look at a few major details <link
linkend="gettingstarted-extend-automake">below</link>. See the <link
linkend="project-management">Building and Project Management</link> chapter for
a more extensive description.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect3>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="gettingstarted-edit">
<title>Some Tips About Dealing With Documents</title>
<para>In our example project the &appwizard; did leave the
<filename>hello.cpp</filename> file open in an editor window, so you can
immediately start working. Now, we may well assume your are knowledgeable about
using an editor, so we do not need talk much about this here. But there are some
handy &kdevelop; specifics about dealing with such tabbed editor windows and the
documents you are working on. We will have a short look at some of them,
namely:</para>
<simplelist>
<member><link linkend="gettingstarted-edit-headers">How to easily switch between
header and implementation files.</link></member>
<member><link linkend="gettingstarted-edit-defs">How to quickly access
declarations and definitions.</link></member>
<member><link linkend="gettingstarted-edit-arrange">How to arrange editor
windows to your current needs.</link></member>
<member><link linkend="gettingstarted-edit-problems">How to keep an eye on
common problems.</link></member>
</simplelist>
<sect2 id="gettingstarted-edit-headers">
<title>Switching Between Header and Implementation Files</title>
<para>&kdevelop; provides a quick and easy way to switch from a given
implementation (<filename>.cpp</filename>) file to the corresponding header
(<filename>.h</filename>) file and vice versa. Just right click into the editor
window you want to switch. A menu similar to the following will pop up.</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="editor-switch-header.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<caption><para>How to switch between implementation and header
files.</para></caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>Find the <guimenuitem>Switch header/implementation</guimenuitem> entry and
select it. &kdevelop; will look up the corresponding header or implementation
file and open it in another editor window. In our example, if you did right
click into the <filename>hello.cpp</filename> source, the
<filename>hello.h</filename> file will be displayed and the cursor positioned
there.</para>
<para>There is even more. If you do right click inside the text of a class
implementation, &kdevelop; will position the cursor on the corresponding
declaration line in the header file. And vice versa, right clicking on a
declaration line will bring you to the corresponding class
implementation.</para>
<para>If the editor window with the file to be switched to already exists,
&kdevelop; will of course activate this one and reposition the cursor there if
necessary.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="gettingstarted-edit-defs">
<title>How to Access Declarations and Definitions</title>
<para>But what if you are working on a source file and want to look up the
declaration or definition of an identifier you just found there? Well, this is
equally easily accomplished. Basically all you need to do is to right click on
the identifier in question.</para>
<para>There are two different cases to consider, however, namely:</para>
<simplelist>
<member><link linkend="gettingstarted-edit-defs-external">Accessing externally
defined identifiers</link>, and</member>
<member><link linkend="gettingstarted-edit-defs-project">dealing with project
internal text items</link>.</member>
</simplelist>
<sect3 id="gettingstarted-edit-defs-external">
<title>External Declarations and Definitions</title>
<para>In a most common case you want to look up an identifier which was defined
externally to your project. In &kde; projects such identifiers are most likely
documented in various &kde; or &Qt; libraries. If &kde; and &kdevelop; were
properly installed, &kdevelop; will be able to access such so-called API
documentation and be able to search it for identifiers of this kind.</para>
<para>Let us look at an example. In the <filename>hello.cpp</filename> editor
window find the following lines.</para>
<programlisting>
Hello::Hello()
: KMainWindow( 0, "Hello" )
{
</programlisting>
<para>Right click on <classname>KMainWindow</classname>.
A menu will pop up. There select the <guimenuitem>Search in Documentation:
KMainWindow</guimenuitem> entry and release the mouse button. Now the
<guilabel>Documentation</guilabel> tool view will open, showing the
<classname>KMainWindow</classname> entry as search item on the
<guilabel>Search</guilabel> sub-page. And a short while after another editor
window will open in the workspace area, showing the KDE API Reference page of
the <classname>KMainWindow</classname> class.</para>
<para>This all will look like the following. (We deliberately opened the
<guilabel>Documentation</guilabel>, <guilabel>Search</guilabel> page already to
illustrate the result of the menu selection.)</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="editor-search-doc.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<caption><para>How to look up an externally documented
identifier.</para></caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>You might as well select <guimenuitem>Find Documentation:
KMainWindow</guimenuitem>. In this case the <guilabel>Finder</guilabel> sub-page
of the <guilabel>Documentation</guilabel> tool view will show up, usually
providing a selection of pages containing the search term. (In our example this
will probably be the <classname>KMainWindow</classname> and
<classname>KMainWindowInterface</classname> classes. Select the one you are
interested in and the corresponding documentation will be displayed in an editor
window.</para>
<note>
<para>If this did not work, then there is probably no documents index yet. Did
you initialize the indexes as shown <link
linkend="gettingstarted-configure-search">above</link>? If not, please do so,
then come back here and try again.</para>
</note>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="gettingstarted-edit-defs-project">
<title>Project Internal Declarations and Definitions</title>
<para>Such search facilities in external documentation have their limitations,
however. Of course one cannot look up an identifier externally if it is only
defined and used inside the current project. But there is help. &kdevelop; can
use indexes built by the <application>CTags</application> application to search
the sources in your project.</para>
<para>Before we can use this on our Hello example project, we must however first
generate a suitable index. This is done by the <guilabel>CTags</guilabel> tool
view at the bottom of the workspace area.</para>
<para>When you click the <guibutton>CTags</guibutton> tab, a dialog window will
open where you will find the following key in the lower right corner.</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="editor-ctags-regenerate.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<caption><para>Build a CTags index with the <guibutton>Regenerate</guibutton>
key.</para></caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>Press the <guibutton>Regenerate</guibutton> button and wait a few seconds.
Then the <guilabel>No CTags Database Found</guilabel> will be replaced by the
current date. Now you are ready to perform some identifier look ups in your
project source.</para>
<tip>
<para>The date next to the <guilabel>Regenerate</guilabel> button is there to
remind you of possibly too old indexes. Whenever you are obviously not able to
look up some identifier in your project, consider regenerating the index. On
large projects this might take considerable time, but you should make it a habit
to regenerate the index regularly after extensive source file changes.</para>
</tip>
<para>To look up an identifier in your project sources there are several
possibilities.</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>Use the CTags tool view</title>
<para>This is easy.
Just start typing the identifier name you are interested in into the
<guilabel>Lookup</guilabel> input field in the bottom left. &kdevelop; will try
to complete the word you have typed so far and show all occurrences of those
identifiers which start with this character sequence.</para>
</formalpara>
<para>If for example you want to know wherever the <quote>Hello</quote>
identifier was used in our example project, type an "H" into the
<guilabel>Lookup</guilabel> input field. &kdevelop; will immediately start
working and present you a result like this:</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="editor-ctags-lookup.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<caption><para>How to look up an identifier in the <guilabel>CTags</guilabel>
tool view.</para></caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>If you click one of the listed entries, &kdevelop; will open an editor
window with this file and position the cursor on the appropriate place.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>Use a context menu in a source file</title>
<para>This is handy while you are working on a certain source file.
Assume you are studying the <filename>main.cpp</filename> file of our Hello
example project. There you find the following line</para>
</formalpara>
<programlisting>
Hello *mainWin = 0;
</programlisting>
<para>and wonder whatever the <quote>Hello</quote> was used for in the program.
To find out, simply right click on this Hello identifier. A menu will pop up in
response to this right mouse click, featuring the following lines near the
bottom.</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="editor-ctags-menu.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<caption><para>Getting <application>CTags</application> information on a project
internal identifier.</para></caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>Click what you are interested in, say <guilabel>CTags - Go to Definition:
Hello</guilabel>, and &kdevelop; will immediately open the
<filename>hello.cpp</filename> editor window and position the cursor right in
front of this class definition:</para>
<programlisting>
Hello::Hello()
: KMainWindow( 0, "Hello" )
{
</programlisting>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>Do a global search</title>
<para>This is especially useful if you want to look up arbitrary text in your
project source. There are two possibilities to start a global search from within
&kdevelop;.</para>
</formalpara>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Start a global search from the <menuchoice><guimenu>Edit</guimenu>
<guimenuitem>Find in Files...</guimenuitem></menuchoice> menu.
Or</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Directly make use of the context menu with a right mouse click in the
editor window.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>We will illustrate the second possibility on our Hello example project.
The outcome of the menu call will essentially be the same. Let us assume you are
studying the <filename>hello.cpp</filename> source file and have the cursor
positioned on the first Hello occurrence there. Now you wonder, where this one
word <quote>Hello</quote> was used in the project source and how many
occurrences there are. This is a typical case where to use &kdevelop;&apos;s
global search facilities.</para>
<para>Now, still keeping the cursor somewhere on this <quote>Hello</quote> in
the source text, click the right mouse button. The now well known context menu
will pop up, where you should select the <guilabel>Grep: Hello</guilabel>
line.</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="editor-find-menu.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<caption><para>Initiating a global search from within an editor
window.</para></caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>This will pop up the following <guilabel>Find in Files</guilabel> dialog
(exactly the same as if you did use the <menuchoice><guimenu>Edit</guimenu>
<guimenuitem>Find in Files...</guimenuitem></menuchoice> menu).</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="find-in-files.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<caption><para>A versatile graphical front end to perform global searches in the
project.</para></caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>As you see, this is a very versatile tool to initiate
<application>find</application>-and-<application>grep</application> searches
throughout your project. We won&apos;t delve further into details here, but you
may want to experiment with this facility on your own. For the moment, there
should be our <quote>Hello</quote> be preselected in the
<guilabel>Pattern</guilabel> field. If it is not, just type it in, then press
the <guibutton>Search</guibutton> button at the bottom right.</para>
<para>Now the <guilabel>Find in Files</guilabel> tool view will open at the
bottom, showing you file names and lines of all literal occurrences of
<quote>Hello</quote> in our example project. As usual, if you click an entry,
&kdevelop; will get you to exactly that position in an editor window in the
workspace area.</para>
<para>There are two lines of special interest in the tool view window.</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Right on top you will find the command sequences &kdevelop; did actually
use to perform the search. This will be useful to more precisely control the
search outcome.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>On bottom the number of occurrences found in these search run will be
listed. In our example this should read <quote>*** 11 matches found
***</quote>.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>&kdevelop; will remember these search results throughout the currently
running session. If you initiate another global search, its results will display
in another tabbed window in the <guilabel>Find in Files</guilabel> tool view
window.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect3>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="gettingstarted-edit-arrange">
<title>Arranging Editor Windows</title>
<para>When your work with large complex projects you will often end up with
quite a lot of tabbed editor windows residing on the tab bar. This makes
specific facilities to clean up, order, and group all those editor tabs
necessary. &kdevelop; provides several means for this. We will have a short look
at some of them.</para>
<simplelist>
<member><link linkend="gettingstarted-edit-arrange-clean">How to remove unneeded
tabs.</link></member>
<member><link linkend="gettingstarted-edit-arrange-tabs">How to rearrange the
tabs.</link></member>
<member><link linkend="gettingstarted-edit-arrange-split">How to view several
files simultaneously in the workspace area.</link></member>
<member><link
linkend="gettingstarted-edit-arrange-sourceheader">How to edit
C++ source and header files simultaneously</link></member>
<member><link linkend="gettingstarted-edit-arrange-group">How to group source
files into development sessions.</link></member>
</simplelist>
<sect3 id="gettingstarted-edit-arrange-clean">
<title>Cleaning up the Tabs Row</title>
<para>If the vast amount of editor window tabs becomes badly arranged at all,
you usually may want to close all those tabs you really do not need any more.
&kdevelop; provides several facilities to do so, the usual way of bulk closing
open editor windows and a more specific approach where you can expressly command
which ones to close and which to keep open.</para>
<formalpara>
<title>Closing Several Tabs At Once</title>
<para>This is kind of a bulk approach to close unnecessarily open tabs which you
may find in other &kde; applications as well. You can use the
<guimenu>Window</guimenu> menu or right click on a tab to either</para>
</formalpara>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>close the currently selected editor window,</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>close all other open editor windows, or</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>close all editor windows at once (available from the
<guimenu>Window</guimenu> menu only).</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<formalpara>
<title>Closing Selected Sets of Tabs</title>
<para>The step-by-step approach of closing individual editor window tabs can
become awkward if there are a great number of tabs from which you want to still
keep several open. Instead of searching and closing one editor window tab after
another &kdevelop; provides a means to select the candidates from a list and
close those, and only those, with one single mouse click.</para>
</formalpara>
<para>Let us illustrate this on a simple example.
In our Hello example project let us assume there were several files open for
edit: <filename>hello.cpp</filename>, <filename>hello.h</filename>,
<filename>helloui.rc</filename>, <filename>hello.desktop</filename>, and
<filename>main.cpp</filename>. Now you want to close all of them except
<filename>hello.cpp</filename> and <filename>hello.h</filename>. The easiest way
to do so is with the <guilabel>File List</guilabel> tool view. Because this list
of open files is alphabetically ordered you can more easily find the ones you
want to be closed. Proceed as follows:</para>
<procedure>
<step>
<para>Open <guilabel>File List</guilabel> and, with the <keycap>Ctrl</keycap>
key held down, click the files you want to be closed in the list.</para>
</step>
<step>
<para>Then, keeping the mouse pointer on a file name in the list, click the
right mouse button.</para>
</step>
<step>
<para>From the <guimenu>File List</guimenu> popup menu select <guimenuitem>Close
Selected</guimenuitem>.</para>
</step>
</procedure>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="file-list-close-selected.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<caption><para>How to close selected editor windows in one
step.</para></caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>That was all.
&kdevelop; will have closed all editor windows at your wish, and you are ready
to proceed with a clean tab bar again.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="gettingstarted-edit-arrange-tabs">
<title>How to Rearrange Edit Window Tabs</title>
<para>Even if you have only the really necessary editor windows open you may
still want to have their tabs arranged in some logical way. &kdevelop; provides
some common means to do so, in short:</para>
<formalpara>
<title>Basic Setup &mdash; Where to Position New Tabs</title>
<para>By default, when you open a new editor window, its tab will be inserted to
the right of the editor window tab currently in use. This can be changed so that
the new tab will open to the far right on the tab bar.</para>
</formalpara>
<para>You must change a basic user interface setting in &kdevelop; to enable
this behavior.</para>
<procedure>
<step>
<para>Select <menuchoice><guimenu>Settings</guimenu> <guimenuitem>Configure
KDevelop...</guimenuitem></menuchoice></para>
</step>
<step>
<para>In the left hand icon bar on the dialog popup click the <guilabel>User
Interface</guilabel> icon. The <guilabel>User Interface</guilabel> dialog page
will be now shown.</para>
</step>
<step>
<para>In the left bottom corner there find the section labeled <guilabel>Tabbed
Browsing</guilabel>. Remove the check mark on the <guilabel>Open new tab after
current tab</guilabel> line.</para>
</step>
<step>
<para>Close &kdevelop; and restart it again. Now the new editor window tabs will
open at the far right end of the current tabs row.</para>
</step>
</procedure>
<para>Unfortunately, this setting cannot be changed on the fly during a
development session. You must make up your mind which behavior you prefer in the
long run and then stick to it, at least until the next start of
&kdevelop;.</para>
<formalpara>
<title>How to Rearrange the Tabs</title>
<para>As development tasks do vary over time, the need to rearrange the tabbed
editor windows will more or less often arise. This is easily accomplished in
&kdevelop;.</para>
</formalpara>
<para>
Just click the tab you want to move with the middle mouse button and move the
mouse a short distance. The cursor will change to a crossed-arrow pattern. You
can now drag this tab, holding the middle mouse button down, until it did skip
into the place where you want it to be.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="gettingstarted-edit-arrange-split">
<title>Viewing Several Files Simultaneously</title>
<para>At first sight there is always at most one single editor window open to
work on a source file. Although you may fast switch the tabbed windows, there
are times where you want have several files open at once, &eg; for reference
purposes or to keep complex tasks under better control. To accomplish this,
&kdevelop; provides a way to split the workspace area into different,
simultaneously visible sections which each can hold their own series of tabbed
windows.</para>
<para>There are two split commands which you can reach either through the
<guimenu>Window</guimenu> menu or by right clicking either into a tabbed window
or on the window tab itself. We will illustrate this splitting behavior again
with our Hello example project.</para>
<para>Assume there are two source files open on the tab bar,
<filename>hello.cpp</filename> and <filename>hello.h</filename>. Now, while
working on the <filename>hello.cpp</filename> source, you often need to refer to
the declarations in the <filename>hello.h</filename> headers file, so you want
to keep both files open simultaneously.</para>
<para>To get this done, right click on the tab of, say,
<filename>hello.h</filename>. The following menu will then pop up.</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="split-workspace.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<caption><para>How to split the current workspace area into two
parts.</para></caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>Select the <guimenuitem>Split Horizontal</guimenuitem> entry. This will
split the current workspace area in the middle and move the tabbed editor window
holding the <filename>hello.h</filename> file into the lower part.</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="split-windows.png"/>
</imageobject>
<caption><para>The workspace has been split horizontally.</para></caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>Note the dotted separator line between both windows. You can grab it with
the mouse and adjust the heights of the editor windows according to your
needs.</para>
<para>There are a few points to note.</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>The split workspace areas are fully functional at their own. This means,
new tabbed windows will open in the workspace which contains the currently
active editor window. And you can split any sub-area again to your wish, thus
keeping as much windows open simultaneously as you need.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Any split will move the currently active editor window into the new
workspace sub-area, either downward or to the right. The other tabbed windows
all remain where they were. You cannot directly move tabbed windows between
split areas, instead you need to explicitly close the window in one workspace
area and reopen it in another to regroup.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Also, there is no direct way to close a split area again.
It closes automatically, once the last tabbed window in it was closed.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="gettingstarted-edit-arrange-sourceheader">
<title>Edit C++ Source and Header Files Simultaneously</title>
<para>There is a neat application of the above mentioned workspace split
feature built into &kdevelop;. It allows to automatically keep a
<filename>.cpp</filename> source and its accompanying
<filename>.h</filename> header file side by side open in the workspace area.
And, optionally, it allows to work on both files synchronously, such that if
you select a declaration in the header file &kdevelop; will navigate to the
respective definition in the source file and vice versa.</para>
<para>This feature is however deactivated by default. If you want to use it in
your project you need to activate it.</para>
<para>Select <menuchoice><guibutton>Project</guibutton>
<guimenuitem>Project Options</guimenuitem></menuchoice>. The
<guilabel>Project Options</guilabel> dialog will pop up. In the left hand icon
bar there select <guiicon>C++ Support</guiicon> and subsequently the
<guilabel>Navigation</guilabel> tab on the dialog page which will display on
the right side.</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="split-source-header.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<caption><para>Have C++ source and header files be displayed side by
side.</para></caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>Now check the <guilabel>Enable split of Header/Source files</guilabel>
box. This will enable <guilabel>Automatic Synchronize</guilabel>
and <guilabel>Vertical</guilabel> by default. Keep these settings for now and
press <guibutton>OK</guibutton>.</para>
<para>To illustrate this feature, now close in our example Hello project
both the <filename>hello.cpp</filename> and <filename>hello.h</filename> editor
windows, if necessary. Then select <filename>hello.cpp</filename> again from the
<filename class="directory">src</filename> subdirectory of the project. The
editor window will open as usual. But if you now open the
<filename>hello.h</filename> belonging to it, &kdevelop; will automatically
split the workspace and open this header file editor window just beneath the
<filename>hello.cpp</filename> window.</para>
<para>There is even more, as we mentioned already. In the
<filename>hello.cpp</filename> editor find &eg; this constructor definition
line:</para>
<programlisting>
Hello::Hello()
</programlisting>
<para>and put the cursor there. Then look at the <filename>hello.h</filename>
window below and note how &kdevelop; did navigate to the corresponding default
constructor declaration line.</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="split-source-header-navigate.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<caption><para>&kdevelop; automatically navigated to the constructor
declaration.</para></caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>This works vice versa as well. Whenever you put the cursor somewhere into
a construct in one editor window, &kdevelop; will navigate to the corresponding
construct in the other.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="gettingstarted-edit-arrange-group">
<title>Grouping Source Files Into Development Sessions</title>
<para>When your project grows larger, and the development tasks become more and
more complex and force you to often switch between different, even distinct sets
of files, it is about time to organize your development work into distinct
sessions. The <guilabel>File List</guilabel> tool view of &kdevelop; allows you
do to just this.</para>
<para>On top of the <guilabel>File List</guilabel> tool view window there is a
tool bar where you can create, save, select, and remove such sessions. Or
alternatively use the <menuchoice><guimenu>View</guimenu> <guimenuitem>View
Sessions</guimenuitem></menuchoice> sub-menu.</para>
<para>We will illustrate this facility again with our Hello example project.
Assume you want to always open the <filename>hello.cpp</filename>,
<filename>hello.h</filename>, and <filename>main.cpp</filename> files all in one
step, no matter what development task you just did perform in the project. To
accomplish this, you first need to create a new development session named, say,
<quote>sources</quote>.</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="file-list-session-create.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<caption><para>Use development sessions to remember groups of
files.</para></caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>This is a multiple step approach as follows.</para>
<procedure>
<step>
<para>Create a new session</para>
<substeps>
<step>
<para>Click the <guiicon>New Session</guiicon> icon top left in the
<guilabel>File List</guilabel> tool view window.</para>
</step>
<step>
<para>A dialog will pop up. In the <guilabel>Enter the name of the
session</guilabel> input field give your new session a name, &eg;
<quote>sources</quote>.</para>
</step>
<step>
<para>Close the dialog with <guibutton>OK</guibutton>. The new session will now
be listed in the drop down box on the toolbar.</para>
</step>
</substeps>
</step>
<step>
<para>This new session will initially be empty. You must populate it with the
files you want to be kept there.</para>
<substeps>
<step>
<para>Open all files you want to be grouped in this development session. In our
example we decided to keep <filename>hello.cpp</filename>,
<filename>hello.h</filename>, and <filename>main.cpp</filename> there as
planned.</para>
</step>
<step>
<para>Once your file list is complete, click the <guiicon>Save Session</guiicon>
icon in the toolbar. Do not skip this step, &kdevelop; will forget the file list
otherwise.</para>
</step>
</substeps>
</step>
</procedure>
<para>That was it. Whenever you select the <guilabel>sources</guilabel> session
from the <guilabel>Open Session</guilabel> drop down box, &kdevelop; will close
all currently open editor windows and open the remembered ones
(<filename>hello.cpp</filename>, <filename>hello.h</filename>, and
<filename>main.cpp</filename> in our example) instead.</para>
<para>You can define as many sessions as you wish in the context of your
project. If you want to change the session&apos;s contents, just update the
remembered file list with a <guiicon>Save Session</guiicon> click. And if you
want get rid of a session, select it in the drop down box, then click the
<guiicon>Delete Session</guiicon> icon in the toolbar right.</para>
<para>There is even more. You can force &kdevelop; to open a given session by
default when it loads the project. Just select the session in the drop down box
on the <menuchoice><guimenu>Projects</guimenu> <guimenuitem>Project
Options</guimenuitem> <guimenuitem>File List</guimenuitem></menuchoice> project
options configuration page.</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="file-list-session-default.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<caption><para>Let &kdevelop; open a specific session when the project is
loaded.</para></caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
</sect3>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="gettingstarted-edit-problems">
<title>Keeping an Eye on Common Problems</title>
<para>When you open an editor window containing a source file, &kdevelop; will
parse its contents. This allows the built in <emphasis>problem
reporter</emphasis> to scan the source text for some common errors it knows of.
And it can alert the user of different places which have been marked for special
treatment.</para>
<para>Let us illustrate this facility with our Hello example project.</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Open an editor window with the <filename>main.cpp</filename> source
file.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Make sure it still contains the following line somewhere towards the
end:</para>
<programlisting>
/// @todo do something with the command line args here
</programlisting>
<para>This was inserted by the &appwizard; when you created the Hello project in
the <link linkend="gettingstarted-new">Starting a New Project</link> chapter
above.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Now open the <guilabel>Problems</guilabel> tool view in the bottom tabs
row. If all went right, it will currently report this todo:</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="problem-report-todo.png"/>
</imageobject>
<caption><para>&kdevelop; is alerting a source code line containing a todo
mark.</para></caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>The format of the <computeroutput>/// @todo</computeroutput> command is
for special treatment by the <application>Doxygen</application> code documenter,
which we will look at briefly in the <link
linkend="gettingstarted-doc">Documentation</link> section below. It is not
mandatory that you use this format, the more common
<computeroutput>TODO</computeroutput> and <computeroutput>FIXME</computeroutput>
comment marks will be recognized as well.</para>
<para>If you &eg; insert the following <computeroutput>TODO</computeroutput> and
<computeroutput>FIXME</computeroutput> comment lines in our
<filename>hello.cpp</filename> example file</para>
<programlisting>
Hello::Hello()
: KMainWindow( 0, "Hello" )
{
// set the shell's ui resource file
// TODO check the user interface
setXMLFile("helloui.rc");
// FIXME change to a better suited greeting
new QLabel( "Hello World", this, "hello label" );
}
</programlisting>
<para>you will find them listed in the <guilabel>Problems</guilabel> tool view
as well:</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="problem-report-marks.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<caption><para>The problem reporter listing lines which require attention in the
currently edited file.</para></caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>Note the other tabs in the <guilabel>Problem</guilabel> reporter tool view
window, especially <guilabel>Fixme</guilabel>, and <guilabel>Todo</guilabel>. If
you open them, you will find all <computeroutput>FIXME</computeroutput> and
<computeroutput>TODO</computeroutput> marked lines, &kdevelop; has found so far
in this session. For example the <computeroutput>TODO</computeroutput> alerts
will currently look thus:</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="problem-report-all-todos.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<caption><para>The problem reporter has collected the
<computeroutput>TODO</computeroutput> alerts.</para></caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>The <guilabel>Errors</guilabel> tab will however not list every coding
error you make. This is the job of other tools in &eg; the build process. But
you will find here alerts of some common programming mistakes which would likely
go unnoticed otherwise and probably be catched with difficulties during complex
debugging session.</para>
<para>You will find the &kdevelop; problem reporter facility a very valuable
tool, so check the <guilabel>Problems</guilabel> tool view regularly in the
development process.</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="gettingstarted-compile">
<title>How to Compile a Project</title>
<para>Compiling a project in &kdevelop; requires several setup steps and then
building the application. All these are available through the
<guimenu>Build</guimenu> menu.</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="build-menu.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<caption><para>Building a project requires several steps.</para></caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>We are interested for now in the upper section only of this menu. The
entries there are sorted in order of their importance. Thus the most often
needed command is on top, the <guimenuitem>Build Project</guimenuitem> entry,
which will cause all of the project be initialized, compiled and linked as
needed. Other entries are there to compile selected project portions or a single
file only, to perform several initialization sequences, or to install the
completed application binaries.</para>
<para>For now we will concentrate on several facilities which &kdevelop;
provides for project setup, initializing, building, and running an application.
In general, this includes:</para>
<simplelist>
<member><link linkend="gettingstarted-compile-basic">Looking briefly at the
basic build cycle.</link></member>
<member><link linkend="gettingstarted-compile-setup">Looking at some basic
means to configure a project.</link></member>
</simplelist>
<sect2 id="gettingstarted-compile-basic">
<title>The Basic Build Cycle</title>
<para>Once you created a new project you usually want to check if everything
went right so far. This implies a first build and test run of the application,
which we will do now. In order to initially compile a project there are several
steps to perform, which we will briefly look at.</para>
<simplelist>
<member><link linkend="gettingstarted-compile-basic-init">How to initialize the
project for a first build.</link></member>
<member><link linkend="gettingstarted-compile-basic-config">How to do the
initial configuration.</link></member>
<member><link linkend="gettingstarted-compile-basic-build">How to build the
project.</link></member>
<member><link linkend="gettingstarted-compile-basic-run">How to run the
application from within &kdevelop;.</link></member>
</simplelist>
<note>
<para>This discussion implies that your project is based on the &GNU; autotools,
which enabled the &automanag; tool in &kdevelop; as our example Hello project
does. If you created another type project, &eg; for the &Qt; based
<application>QMake</application> project manager, there will be other facilities
available in the menus or perhaps even none of them. You will have to consult
the respective vendor documentation on project management and application
building in these cases.</para>
</note>
<sect3 id="gettingstarted-compile-basic-init">
<title>Initialize the Project for the Build</title>
<para>When the &appwizard; created our Hello example project, it left it in a
sort of raw, <quote>virgin</quote> state. The &GNU; autotools chain dictates
several initialization steps to be performed before the application could be
actually compiled and linked. If you try to build a project in such a raw state,
&eg; by selecting the <menuchoice><guimenu>Build</guimenu> <guimenuitem>Build
Project</guimenuitem></menuchoice> menu or pressing the <keycap>F8</keycap>
function key, you will get the following warning.</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="raw-project-warning.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<caption><para>Trying to build a raw automake based project.</para></caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>You may press the <guibutton>Run Them</guibutton> button in which case
&kdevelop; will try to automatically run all required setup steps prior to
compiling and linking the application. But we will look at those initial steps
in sequence, so cancel the dialog by pressing <guibutton>Do Not run</guibutton>.
</para>
<para>As mentioned already, compiling and linking the application is done
through the <guimenu>Build</guimenu> menu. Call it up and select
<guimenuitem>Run automake and friends</guimenuitem>.</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="build-menu-automake.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<caption><para>Initiating a basic initialization run.</para></caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>
&kdevelop; will now open the <guilabel>Messages</guilabel> tool view window at
the bottom and list a series of messages produced by several make tools. If
everything went right, the final line will read
<quote><computeroutput>*** Success ***</computeroutput></quote>.</para>
<para>If you scroll back to the top, you will find the command line, &kdevelop;
issued to call up the tools beneath the surface:</para>
<programlisting>
cd '/home/devel/projects/hello' &amp;&amp; \
WANT_AUTOCONF_2_5="1" WANT_AUTOMAKE_1_6="1" gmake -f Makefile.cvs
</programlisting>
<para>This basically tells that &kdevelop; first switched to the root directory
of our example project. Then it set up a dedicated environment, advising the
make system of the <application>autoconf</application> and
<application>automake</application> tool revisions used for this initialization.
And finally it instructed the make tool (&GNU; <application>gmake</application>
in this case) to process the <filename>Makefile.cvs</filename> make file.</para>
<para>This make file was automatically set up when you created the Hello
project. It contains all the commands necessary to properly initialize the
project so the resulting application will run under &kde;. Especially this will
create the <filename>configure</filename> skript file necessary to perform the
next setup step.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="gettingstarted-compile-basic-config">
<title>Initial Hello Configuration</title>
<para>Configuring means to tailor the build process to the hardware and software
peculiarities of your system. This is a basic requirement in build processes
based on the &GNU; autotools scheme as you probably will know.</para>
<para>You can command a configure sequence once the basic automake
initialization has been successfully finished because only after this
initial run the necessary <filename>configure</filename> files will be
available. This done, select the <menuchoice><guimenu>Build</guimenu>
<guimenuitem>Run Configure</guimenuitem></menuchoice> menu entry to initiate a
configuration sequence.</para>
<para>&kdevelop; opened the <guilabel>Messages</guilabel> tool view
window again if necessary and listed the messages of the configure run therein.
If all went right, the final messages will be <quote><computeroutput>Good - your
configure finished. Start make now</computeroutput></quote> (which was issued by
configure) followed by the &kdevelop; <quote><computeroutput>*** Success
***</computeroutput></quote> message.</para>
<para id="gettingstarted-compile-basic-config-cmd">On top of the
<guilabel>Messages</guilabel> window you will again find
the command line, &kdevelop; used to initiate this configuration run:</para>
<programlisting>
mkdir '/home/devel/projects/hello/debug' &amp;&amp; \
cd '/home/devel/projects/hello/debug' &amp;&amp; \
CXXFLAGS="-O0 -g3" "/home/devel/projects/hello/configure" --enable-debug=full
</programlisting>
<para>You can tell several interesting details from these commands.</para>
<informaltable frame="none">
<tgroup cols="2"><tbody><row>
<entry>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="tutorial-debug-tree.png"/>
</imageobject>
</mediaobject>
</entry>
<entry>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>First, &kdevelop; uses a dedicated subdirectory in the project directory
tree for the build process. This <filename class="directory">debug</filename>
build directory (shown to the left) mirrors the basic project structure and
contains some set of build related files, such as several
<filename>configure</filename> based files and additionally a
<filename>Makefile</filename> in each subdirectory.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>In the <link linkend="gettingstarted-compile-setup">Configuring the
Project</link>
section shortly below we will have a brief look at the motivations why
&kdevelop; uses separate build directories in cases like this one. For the
moment it is enough to know that &kdevelop; created this <filename
class="directory">debug</filename> directory &mdash; if necessary &mdash; prior
to the configure call and that the <filename>configure</filename> script did
build the sub structure and all the <filename>Makefiles</filename> in
there.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Next, from within the <filename class="directory">debug</filename> build
directory, &kdevelop; called the <filename>configure</filename> script in the
root directory of our project using a dedicated environment, where the
<computeroutput>CXXFLAGS="-O0 -g3"</computeroutput> flags will later signal the
&gcc; compiler that it should not optimize the resulting binaries and include
full debugging information with them.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Finally the <filename>configure</filename> script was called with the
<computeroutput>--enable-debug=full</computeroutput> option which instructs it
to create each <filename>Makefile</filename> so that later compilation and
linking will have all necessary debugging information be built in and
usable.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</entry>
</row></tbody></tgroup>
</informaltable>
<para>All these settings are configurable on a per project basis. You will learn
more about this in the <link linkend="project-management">Project
Management</link> chapter.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="gettingstarted-compile-basic-build">
<title>Build the Project</title>
<para>Once you got this far you will be ready to actually build, &ie;
compile and link the application. Looking at the <guimenu>Build</guimenu> menu,
there are three such compile options from which to select.</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="build-commands.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<caption><para>&kdevelop; commands to build binaries.</para></caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>Going from bottom to top, there are:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><guimenuitem>Compile File</guimenuitem> &mdash; This will compile the
source file in the currently open editor window. Mostly used for quick error
checks.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><guimenuitem>Build Active Target</guimenuitem> &mdash; This is mainly used
in conjunction with the <link linkend="gettingstarted-extend-automake">Automake
Manager</link> which we will briefly look at below.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><guimenuitem>Build Project</guimenuitem> &mdash; Now this is what we
currently are interested in. It will iterate over the whole project, compiling
and linking all files as necessary.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>It might be interesting to watch what happens to the
<filename class="directory">Debug</filename> directory created in the former
<filename>configure</filename> run. So best keep it open with all
subdirectories unfolded just as shown above. Then select
<menuchoice><guimenu>Build</guimenu> <guimenuitem>Build
Project</guimenuitem></menuchoice> (or press the <keycap>F8</keycap> key) to
initiate the build sequence. As before, the <guilabel>Messages</guilabel> tool
view window will open at the bottom and list the outcome of this build run. And
additionally some files will appear on the <filename
class="directory">Debug</filename> subtree.</para>
<para id="gettingstarted-compile-basic-build-cmd">There are not many source
files in our Hello example project, so the <guilabel>Messages</guilabel> window
will contain only a few lines. On top of them again find the command line
&kdevelop; issued to the underlying shell.</para>
<programlisting>
cd '/home/devel/projects/hello/debug' &amp;&amp; \
WANT_AUTOCONF_2_5="1" WANT_AUTOMAKE_1_6="1" gmake -k
</programlisting>
<para>Not very surprisingly, &kdevelop; switched to the <filename
class="directory">Debug</filename> subtree root in order to run the
<filename>Makefile</filename> located there. A dedicated sub-environment was
set up again as before in the <link
linkend="gettingstarted-compile-basic-init">Initialization step</link> in which
then the <application>gmake</application> tool was called.</para>
<para>Note the <computeroutput>-k</computeroutput> option in the
<application>gmake</application> call. It forces the build process to continue
up to its very end, even if errors will occur. This makes sense as &kdevelop;
will list all error messages in the <guilabel>Messages</guilabel> window. If
there are any, use the virtues of an &IDE;: Just click on the error message in
the <guilabel>Messages</guilabel> window and &kdevelop; will take you to
exactly the position where the error occurred in the source file.</para>
<para>And what did happen inside the <filename
class="directory">Debug</filename> subtree? Not very much. A few files showed up
on the <filename class="directory">doc/en</filename> and <filename
class="directory">src</filename> branches, most notably the
<filename>hello</filename> file in <filename
class="directory">/home/devel/projects/hello/debug/src/</filename>. This,
finally, is the application binary we were looking for. All what is left
to do in our initial project check is to run this
<filename>hello</filename>.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="gettingstarted-compile-basic-run">
<title>Run the Application</title>
<para>There are no extra steps involved to run this new Hello
application. Either select <menuchoice><guimenu>Build</guimenu>
<guimenuitem>Execute Program</guimenuitem></menuchoice> or press
<keycombo><keycap>Shift</keycap> <keycap>F9</keycap></keycombo> or use the
<guibutton>Execute program</guibutton> button on the <guilabel>Build
Toolbar</guilabel> shown below.</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="run-button.png"/>
</imageobject>
<caption><para>Running an application form the <guilabel>Build
Toolbar</guilabel>.</para>
</caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>That was all. &kdevelop; will now start the new application in
the dedicated console window which opens as <guilabel>Application</guilabel>
tool view on the bottom. There the command &kdevelop; issued to execute the
program will be shown in the top line:</para>
<programlisting>
./hello
</programlisting>
<para>showing that the &IDE; has a notion about where the executable it
shall run resides. This notion can be widely configured. See more about
this in the <link linkend="project-management">Project
Management</link> chapter.</para>
<para>The <computeroutput>./hello</computeroutput> line will most likely
be followed by a warning message. Ignore this for now. It does not keep
our <application>Hello</application> form running.</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="hello-world-app.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<caption>
<para>Our initial <application>Hello</application> application.</para>
</caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>Close the <application>Hello</application> application window as
usual. If no errors occurred, &kdevelop; will report this as
<quote><computeroutput>*** Exited normally ***</computeroutput></quote>
in the <guilabel>Application</guilabel> tool view window.</para>
</sect3>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="gettingstarted-compile-setup">
<title>Configuring the Project</title>
<para>In &kdevelop; there are numerous ways how you can manage your project.
This behavior is configurable on a per-project basis and mostly of interest to
the advanced developer. Yet there are a few project specific settings you
should know of right from the beginning.
</para>
<simplelist>
<member><link linkend="gettingstarted-compile-setup-build">Of what use are build
configurations?</link></member>
<member><link linkend="gettingstarted-compile-setup-config">Where to the define
the behavior of the <filename>configure</filename> script.</link></member>
<member><link linkend="gettingstarted-compile-setup-make">Some considerations
how <application>make</application> should run.</link></member>
<member><link linkend="gettingstarted-compile-setup-run">Where should the
executable be and how should it be called?</link></member>
</simplelist>
<sect3 id="gettingstarted-compile-setup-build">
<title>Build Configurations</title>
<para>When we did a first run of the <filename>configure</filename> script in
the <link linkend="gettingstarted-compile-basic-config">Initial Hello
Configuration</link> section above, we noted that &kdevelop; had set up a
dedicated <filename class="directory">debug</filename> subdirectory for this
purpose. In this section we will briefly consider some consequences of
this feature.</para>
<para>First of all, &kdevelop; does not necessarily use dedicated build
directories apart from the source. The preparations to automatically use
dedicated build configurations is done through templates the &appwizard; uses
when creating a new project.</para>
<para>To find out which build configurations currently are available, have a
look at the <menuchoice><guimenu>Project</guimenu> <guisubmenu>Build
Configuration</guisubmenu></menuchoice> menu.</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="build-configurations.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<caption><para>There are various build configurations available
for this project.</para></caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>In this case, like our Hello example project, there are three different
build configurations available. In other cases, there may &mdash; initially
&mdash; be only one such build configuration, namely
<guimenuitem>default</guimenuitem>.</para>
<para>The currently used build configuration has a check mark left to it. In
order to switch to another build configuration simply select its menu
entry.</para>
<para>Now let us have a brief look at what these build configurations
provide.</para>
<variablelist id="gettingstarted-compile-setup-build-configs">
<varlistentry>
<term><guimenuitem>debug</guimenuitem></term>
<listitem>
<para>You should use this as the standard build configuration during the
development process. The build occurs separately from the source directories in
the dedicated <filename class="directory">debug</filename> subdirectory, &ie;
all object, auxiliary, and executable files will be put in the subdirectories
there instead of their counterparts in the project root. The
<filename>configure</filename> script will be given the
<computeroutput>--enable-debug=full</computeroutput> option and the
<computeroutput>CXXFLAGS="-O0 -g3"</computeroutput> will signal the &gcc;
compiler to not optimize the code and to insert extensive debug information
into the resulting binaries.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guimenuitem>optimized</guimenuitem></term>
<listitem>
<para>This is used to build a final C++ application. The build occurs
separately from the source directories in the dedicated <filename
class="directory">optimized</filename> subdirectory. No specific arguments to
the <filename>configure</filename> script will be preset, yet the
<computeroutput>CXXFLAGS="-O2 -g0"</computeroutput> will signal the &gcc;
compiler to optimize the code and to not insert debug information into the
resulting binaries.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guimenuitem>default</guimenuitem></term>
<listitem>
<para>The term <quote>default</quote> denotes the standard setup when you build
an application from the console using &eg; the &GNU;
<application>configure</application> and
<application>make</application>/<application>gmake</application> command line
oriented build tools. Other than <guimenuitem>debug</guimenuitem> or
<guimenuitem>optimize</guimenuitem> no dedicated build directory will be used.
The application will by default be built in the sources directories instead.
There are no special configuration switches predefined. Building and running the
application will use the default settings of the underlying tools (e.g. &gcc;,
etc.).</para>
<warning>
<para>Think twice before you decide to use the
<guimenuitem>default</guimenuitem> build environment!</para>
<para>It cannot be used in parallel to the dedicated
<guimenuitem>debug</guimenuitem> or <guimenuitem>optimized</guimenuitem> ones.
<emphasis>Any build operation using <guimenuitem>default</guimenuitem> will
render both of the other build environments unusable.</emphasis> This is caused
by some peculiarities of the <filename>Makefile</filename> construction process
using the
<application>automake</application>/<application>autoconf</application>
machinery, which cannot be easily overcome.</para>
</warning>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<para>Now, why does one one want to use different build configurations at all,
when they even appear to be not compatible to each other? The answer is &mdash;
it simplifies edit-compile-debug cycles. The extra debug instructions
inserted into the binaries as well as all those subtle structure changes to
the program code made during optimizations will effect the run time behavior of
the resulting application. So in many cases, when the logical structure of some
routine appears to be correct, you may want to test whether it still behaves
correctly under more practical conditions.</para>
<para>This is where the build configurations of &kdevelop; step in. Because
the built object and executable files in each dedicated build directory and the
build commands are kept separately from each other only source changes need
to be handled when you switch between these build configurations.</para>
<para>Thus instead of cleaning up and recompile everything from scratch with
alternate options, you need only switch from the
<guimenuitem>debug</guimenuitem> to the <guimenuitem>optimize</guimenuitem>
build configuration, have the source changes compiled in and then retest the
application under these circumstances. If anything inappropriate shows up,
simply switch back to <guimenuitem>debug</guimenuitem> and immediately continue
your work there.</para>
<para>A final note &mdash; many build configuration settings are configurable.
You can even define your own build configurations if your development process
requires some. We will briefly look at these possibilities in the next
section.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="gettingstarted-compile-setup-config">
<title>Project Configure Options</title>
<para>Configuring the application properly is vital in the &GNU;
autotools building chain. This is usually guided by option definitions to the
<filename>configure</filename> script and/or specific flags settings in the
environment prior to running <filename>configure</filename> as &eg; the
<computeroutput>CXXFLAGS</computeroutput> in our previous discussions.</para>
<para>You may set most of the configuring options for a given project from
within &kdevelop; &GUI;. Select
<menuchoice><guimenu>Project</guimenu>
<guimenuitem>Project Options</guimenuitem></menuchoice> and then from the
icon bar on the left of the dialog the <guiicon>Configure Options</guiicon>
icon. The <guilabel>Configure Options</guilabel> dialog featuring several tabbed
windows will display on the right handed side.</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="configure-project-configure.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<caption><para>Most configure options can be defined here.</para></caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>As you see, there are quite a lot of options you can set up in this
dialog. For now we will briefly look at only a few of them with regard to our
Hello example project. For detailed instructions see the <link
linkend="projects-configure">Configuring Projects</link> chapter. If you
want to know more about the meaning of the various flags which can be
set, look up <command>info make</command> from the console (or
<command>info:make</command> from within &konqueror;) and there the
<menuchoice><guimenu>Implicit Rules</guimenu>
<guimenuitem>Implicit Variables</guimenuitem></menuchoice> section.</para>
<para>There are several tabbed dialog setup windows from which the first
one, <guilabel>General</guilabel>, refers to commonly used settings,
while the others are rather compiler specific. In all cases, however, will the
actual contents of those dialogs be governed by the given build
configuration.</para>
<para>You select the build configuration whose configuration settings
have to be defined from the <guilabel>Configuration</guilabel> combo box
on top of the <guilabel>Configure Options</guilabel> dialog.</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="configure-project-buildconfig.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<caption><para>Select the build configuration whose settings to
define.</para></caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>Now select another build configuration from this combo box and note how
the contents of &eg; the <guilabel>Configure arguments</guilabel> and
<guilabel>Build directory</guilabel> text boxes change according to the
settings we mentioned in the <link
linkend="gettingstarted-compile-setup-build-configs"> build
configurations list</link> above.</para>
<sect4 id="gettingstarted-compile-setup-config-general">
<title>General Configuration Settings</title>
<para>On the <guilabel>General</guilabel> dialog page, these
configuration options can be defined:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>Configure arguments</title>
<para>These are the options &kdevelop; assigns to the
<filename>configure</filename> script call in the build process. See the
<link linkend="gettingstarted-compile-basic-config-cmd">example</link> in
the <quote>Initial Hello Configuration</quote> section above.</para>
</formalpara>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>Build directory</title>
<para>This is the subdirectory in the current project root, where &kdevelop;
will put all files created in the build process. Ideally, this should
correspond to the name of the build configuration in use, but you are
free to use any name you like, provided it is different from any other
build configuration directory.</para>
</formalpara>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>Top source directory</title>
<para>You won&apos;t need this one often. It defaults to the project root
directory and needs only be redefined if your project sources are located
in another place.</para>
</formalpara>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>C/C++ preprocessor flags (CPPFLAGS)</title>
<para>Put specific instructions for the preprocessor here. &kdevelop; will
use this to set up a temporary environment before it calls the actual
build tool. Again, see the <link
linkend="gettingstarted-compile-basic-config-cmd">example</link> in
the <quote>Initial Hello Configuration</quote> section above how this is
done.</para>
</formalpara>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>Linker flags (LDFLAGS)</title>
<para>This is extra information for the <application>ld</application> linker
tool where it should look for additional libraries. It is used to build the
temporary build environment as well.</para>
</formalpara>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>Environment Variables</title>
<para>Here you may define additional variables to be set up in the
temporal build environment, &kdevelop; will set up before calling the
respective build tool. Again, you must define these environment variables for
every build configuration where they are to be used.</para>
</formalpara>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect4>
<sect4 id="gettingstarted-compile-setup-config-spec">
<title>Compiler Specific Settings</title>
<para>The other tabs on the <guilabel>Configure Options</guilabel> dialog
page are for compiler specific settings. They are similarly structured,
so it suffices to have a brief look at the <guilabel>C++</guilabel> page.</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="configure-project-cpp.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<caption><para>Select the compiler and its working environment &kdevelop; shall
use here.</para></caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>This is what you can set up from here:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>C++ compiler</title>
<para>Select the C++ compiler &kdevelop; should regularly use from this
combo box. It however lists only those compilers &kdevelop; really knows
of.</para>
</formalpara>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>Compiler command (CXX)</title>
<para>Only for experts. This is only needed if the C++ compiler is not standard.
Put the name by which it is called here.</para>
</formalpara>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>Compiler flags (CXXFLAGS)</title>
<para>Here you can enter any extra option &kdevelop; shall pass (via the
<filename>Makefile</filename>) to the compiler. Some option values will be
preset according to the build configuration selected in the
<guilabel>Configuration</guilabel> combo box.</para>
</formalpara>
<para>Note, that many common compiler options can be selected from a
dialog which will pop up when you press the <guibutton>...</guibutton> button to
the right of the text box.</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="configure-project-cppoptions.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<caption><para>Use this dialog to define the &GNU; C++ compiler
behavior.</para></caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>We deliberately selected the <guilabel>Optimization</guilabel> tab
here. Note how the <guilabel>No Optimization</guilabel> option has been
preselected (according to the <computeroutput>-O0</computeroutput>
option preset in the <computeroutput>debug</computeroutput> build
configuration).</para>
<para>Unfortunately you cannot currently select all options from this
dialog. The <computeroutput>-g3</computeroutput> option &eg; used by the
<computeroutput>debug</computeroutput> build
configuration would have to be altered manually if ever needed.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect4>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="gettingstarted-compile-setup-make">
<title>How Make Should Build the Program</title>
<para>You can as well configure the way &kdevelop; will call the
<application>make</application> tool in the project build. Select
<menuchoice><guimenu>Project</guimenu>
<guimenuitem>Project Options</guimenuitem></menuchoice> and then the
<guiicon>Make Options</guiicon> icon from the left dialog window side. The
<guilabel>Make Options</guilabel> dialog page will then be displayed to
the right.</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="configure-project-make.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<caption><para>Define how &kdevelop; will call the
<application>make</application> tool.</para></caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>There is not much to do here for now. The only setting of interest in
most cases will be the <guilabel>Abort on first error</guilabel> switch.
You will find it deactivated in most projects. This corresponds to the
<computeroutput>-k</computeroutput> option in the
<application>gmake</application> call we found in the <link
linkend="gettingstarted-compile-basic-build-cmd">initial build</link> of
our example Hello project.</para>
<para>This makes sense in an &IDE; like &kdevelop; which will protocol any
error message during the build. After the build process you may easily
navigate to any error message in the <guilabel>Messages</guilabel> tool
window. Use <menuchoice><guimenu>View</guimenu>
<guimenuitem>Next Error</guimenuitem></menuchoice> and
<menuchoice><guimenu>View</guimenu> <guimenuitem>Previous
Error</guimenuitem></menuchoice> or respectively the <keycap>F4</keycap> and
<keycombo><keycap>Shift</keycap> <keycap>F4</keycap></keycombo> keys for this.
&kdevelop; will automatically activate the editor window of the source file in
question and put the cursor on the error line.</para>
<para>If on the other hand you rather want the build be stopped on whenever an
error occurs, check the <guilabel>Abort on first error</guilabel> option
in this dialog. &kdevelop; will then call <application>gmake</application>
without the <computeroutput>-k</computeroutput> option.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="gettingstarted-compile-setup-run">
<title>How to Run the Executable</title>
<para>Once the build is complete, you can easily run the application from within
&kdevelop;. Use either <menuchoice><guimenu>Build</guimenu>
<guimenuitem>Execute Program</guimenuitem></menuchoice>, the
<keycombo><keycap>Shift</keycap> <keycap>F9</keycap></keycombo> keys, or the
<guibutton>Execute program</guibutton> button in the <guilabel>Build
Toolbar</guilabel> of &kdevelop;.</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="run-button.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<caption><para>Run the program from here.</para></caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>But where is the executable located which should be run? How does
one have &kdevelop; append options to the call? Or, how can I have the
application executed in a terminal by its own to test its console interactive
behavior?</para>
<para>All this can be solved by configuring some project oriented run options in
&kdevelop;. Select <menuchoice><guimenu>Project</guimenu>
<guimenuitem>Project Options</guimenuitem></menuchoice> and then the
<guiicon>Run Options</guiicon> icon from the icon bar on the left dialog window
side. The <guilabel>Run Options</guilabel> dialog page will display to the
right.</para>
<screenshot>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="configure-project-run.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<caption><para>Define where and how your program shall be run.</para></caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>Now, there is quite a lot which can be set up from this dialog.
Basically there are four groups of configuration items.</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>Directory</title>
<para>This tells &kdevelop; where it basically shall assume the
executable to be called. There are three possibilities you can select
from.</para>
</formalpara>
<para>Note however that only root directories are defined here.
&kdevelop; usually looks for the executable in some subdirectory
given in the next configuration group.</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Run from the directory, where the executable was build the last
time. This is the default. You can keep this for now.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Run from the build directory according to the currently selected
<link linkend="gettingstarted-compile-setup-build">build configuration</link>.
The name of this directory was set up on the <link
linkend="gettingstarted-compile-setup-config-general">General
Configuration</link> dialog page.</para>
<para>This is the root where &kdevelop; will find the executable. It
changes automatically with the selection you made in
<menuchoice><guimenu>Project</guimenu>
<guisubmenu>Build Configurations</guisubmenu></menuchoice> menu. Try it.</para>
<para>Other than always running the most recently built executable according to
the setting above, this allows you to switch the program to be executed by
simply selecting another build configuration from the <guimenu>Project</guimenu>
menu.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Run the executable found in a fixed custom directory. Again
this is the root only from where the actual executable is to be
found.</para>
<para>Use this if you &eg; want to run the actually installed program instead of
the version located in the project directories.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>Program</title>
<para>This tells &kdevelop; the relative position and name of the
program it shall actually call. This is relative to the root directory
defined in the configuration group above. Furthermore you can define any
argument &kdevelop; will pass to the program when it is actually called.</para>
</formalpara>
<note>
<para>If leave the <guilabel>Main program</guilabel> text box empty, the
<emphasis>active target</emphasis> settings of the &automanag; will be used.
Although this is an expert setting, inadvertently leaving this input
field blank is a common cause of problems. Check this setting if &kdevelop;
appears not to call the executable you wanted.</para>
</note>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>Environment Variables</title>
<para>&kdevelop; will set up a dedicated shell environment to run the
program in. Define any extra environment variable in this configuration
group.</para>
</formalpara>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<formalpara>
<title>Miscellaneous</title>
<para>Two more check boxes are located at the bottom of this dialog page.</para>
</formalpara>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><guilabel>Automatically compile before execution</guilabel> comes
in handy most of time. &kdevelop; will check the project for changes and
perform necessary configure and build steps for you any time you command
it to run the program.</para>
<para>Uncheck this in case you want to run the program version prior to the
last change.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><guilabel>Start in external terminal</guilabel> is interesting if
you want to test the input/output behavior of non-&GUI; programs in a console
terminal. This is unchecked by default, so &kdevelop; does start the program in
a window of its own without console terminal I/O capabilities.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect3>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="gettingstarted-extend">
<title>How to Extend a Project &mdash; the &automanag;</title>
<para>(- to be written -)</para>
<sect2 id="gettingstarted-extend-automake">
<title>A Short Look at the Automake Machinery</title>
<para>(- to be written -)</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="gettingstarted-extend-pics">
<title>How to Place Icons in a Separate Directory</title>
<para>(- to be written -)</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="gettingstarted-extend-class">
<title>How to Add New Classes</title>
<para>(- to be written -)</para>
<caution><para>
Be careful when you select your class file names. It is extremely difficult to
change them later.</para></caution>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="gettingstarted-extend-subproject">
<title>What is in a Subproject?</title>
<para>(- to be written -)</para>
<sect3 id="gettingstarted-extend-subproject-active">
<title>Concentrate on Your Work &mdash; the Active Target</title>
<para>(- to be written -)</para>
</sect3>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="gettingstarted-extend-restructure">
<title>Some Steps to Restructure a Project</title>
<para>(- to be written -)</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="gettingstarted-debug">
<title>How to Debug</title>
<para>(- to be written -)</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="gettingstarted-doc">
<title>A Note on Your Project Documentation</title>
<para>The &kde; project uses <ulink
url="http://www.docbook.org/tdg5/en/html/docbook.html">docbook</ulink> for
generating your project handbook (&ie; the user manual). The user manual is
available through your application menubar by choosing
<menuchoice><guimenu>Help</guimenu>
<guimenuitem><replaceable>YourApplication</replaceable>
Handbook</guimenuitem></menuchoice > when your &kde; GUI application is running.
After building your project, the user manual is displayed in &kde;
&khelpcenter;. It should explain to the user how your application works, what
are the main features and how to configure it. It should also explain the
advanced features if any.
</para>
<para>All &kde; based templates in &kdevelop; have a doc subdir which contains
a <filename>index.docbook</filename> template in the en folder to get you
started in writing the user manual. You should edit this
<filename>index.docbook</filename> in &kdevelop; and start changing personal
details such as name, email, &etc;. Look at the comments in this file and try
following these indications to start your application documentation. Rebuild
your project to see the changes in &khelpcenter;.</para>
<note><para>You need to install your project using
<menuchoice><guimenu>Build</guimenu>
<guimenuitem>Install</guimenuitem></menuchoice > or <guimenuitem>Install (as
root user)</guimenuitem> in &kdevelop; to see the user manual in
&khelpcenter;.</para></note>
<para>You can find more about the docbook syntax on <ulink
url="http://l10n.kde.org/docs/markup/index.html">the &kde; documentation
website</ulink>.</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="gettingstarted-keys">
<title>Last But Not Least, Keyboard Shortcuts</title>
<para>(- to be written -)</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="gettingstarted-whereto">
<title>Where to go from here</title>
<para>(- to be written -)</para>
<sect2 id="gettingstarted-whereto-faq">
<title>Frequently Encountered Problems</title>
<simplelist>
<member>The nutshell chapter</member>
<member>FAQ pages</member>
<member>Forum</member>
<member>Mailing lists</member>
</simplelist>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="gettingstarted-whereto-projects">
<title>Working With Projects</title>
<para>(- to be written -)</para>
<sect3 id="gettingstarted-whereto-projects-open">
<title>Using Existing &kdevelop; Projects</title>
<para>(- to be written -)</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="gettingstarted-whereto-projects-import">
<title>Importing External Projects</title>
<para>(- to be written -)</para>
</sect3>
</sect2>
</sect1>
</chapter>