View source for Hacker Guide

== Introduction  ==

{{VLC}} is a large and complex piece of software. It also uses a large number of [[Contrib Status|dependencies]]. 

Being open source allows VLC development to benefit from a large community of developers worldwide. <br>However, entering a project such as {{VLC}} can be long and complex for new developers. 

This '''guide''' seeks to help understanding the VLC code base and VLC internals to quickly get up to speed.<br> 

''NB: this guide is '''not''' about compiling VLC.'' 

== The layers of VLC and libVLC  ==

=== VLC's Core / libVLCcore  ===

The most important (and probably most complex) part of VLC is the core, located in src/ in the repository. 

*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Core|Introduction to the core]] This is a '''MUST-READ''' for developers. 
*[[Documentation:VLC Modules Loading|VLC modules loading]] 
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Input|Input]] (slightly outdated) 
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Object Management|VLC Object Management]] 
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Variables|VLC variables]]
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/VLM Internals|VLM Internals]]

=== Plugins / Modules  ===

[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Module Writers Guide|Writing a VLC module]] 

'''Input''' 

*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Access|Access]] 
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Demux|Demuxer]] 
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Access Demux|Access-Demuxer]] 
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Decoder|Decoder]]

'''Audio''' 

*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Audio Filters|Audio Filters]] 
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Audio Mixers|Audio Mixers]] 
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Audio Output|Audio Output]]

'''Video''' 

*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Video Filters|Video Filters]] 
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Video Output|Video Output]]

*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Interfaces|Interfaces]]

<br> Modules types not documented (yet) 

*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Stream Filters|Stream Filters]] 
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Visualization|Visualization]] 
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Encoder|Encoder]] 
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Mux|Mux]] 
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Packetizers|Packetizers]] 
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Stream Output|Stream Output]] 
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Access Output|Access Output]]

=== libVLC and bindings  ===

*Using [[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/libvlc|libvlc]] 
*bindings

== VLC source code overview  ==

*[[VLC source tree]] 
*[[Modules source tree]] 
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Preferences|VLC Preferences]] 
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Playlist|VLC Playlist and Media Library]]

== Coding for VLC  ==

*[[Patches|Patching]] 
*[[Sending Patches]] 
*[[Code Conventions]] 
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Module Writers Guide|Adding a module]] 
*[[Documentation:Unicode]] 
*[http://www.videolan.org/developers/vlc/doc/doxygen/html/ Doxygen Documentation] 
*[[C Types]] 
*[[Strings]]

=== Authors  ===

*Derk-Jan Hartman 
*Christophe Massiot 
*Samuel Hocevar 
*Geoffroy Couprie 
*Jean-Baptiste Kempf

== Testing  ==

*[[Test Suite]]

{{Documentation}}