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% The CGAL Developers' Manual
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% authors: Susan Hert <hert@mpi-sb.mpg.de> & 
%          Stefan Schirra <stschirr@mpi-sb.mpg.de>
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\chapter{Introduction}
\label{chap:intro}
\ccChapterRelease{Chapter Version: 1.0} \\
\ccChapterAuthor{Susan Hert ({\tt hert@mpi-sb.mpg.de}) 
\& Stefan Schirra ({\tt stschirr@mpi-sb.mpg.de})
}

Welcome to the wonderful world of programming computational geometry in 
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\centerline{{\sc Computational Geometry Algorithms Library}}


\begin{quote}
{\em The goal of \cgal\ is to make available to users in industry and academia
the most important efficient solutions to basic geometric problems
developed in the area of computational geometry in a \CC\ software library.}
\end{quote}

Work on \cgal\ is supported by {\sc esprit iv} projects 21957 (CGAL) and
28155 (GALIA).

\section{Manual organization}
\label{sec:manual_org}

This manual is meant to be a resource for developers who wish to contribute
to the \cgal\ library either by designing new packages or maintaining
or enhancing existing ones. The manual is organized roughly in the order in
which a developer will need the information in order to produce a package
for the library. We begin in this chapter with a description 
of the design goals of \cgal\ and the overall design, which should be kept 
in mind during all stages of development.  The remaining chapters describe 
in more concrete terms the requirements and recommendations for documentation, 
code writing, and testing that are derived from these goals.  We also describe 
a number of tools that have been developed to help in the development process 
and give pointers to other sources of information.

In Chapter~\ref{chap:specification}, a description of how the specification for 
a package should be documented is provided along with information about
the tools available to help produce the documentation.
Chapter~\ref{chap:directory_structure} describes the directory structure required
for a package and Chapter~\ref{chap:tools} describes a set of tools that
may be used to create or modify various files required within this directory
structure. Chapters~\ref{chap:code_format} through~\ref{chap:robustness}
discuss issues related to the writing of code that is in keeping with
the goals of \cgal.  Chapter~\ref{chap:portability} describes issues
related to the configuration of \cgal and 
discusses portability issues for various platforms. Chapter~\ref{chap:testing} 
describes the requirements for the test suite for a package and 
Chapter~\ref{chap:debugging} consists of various hints for debugging.
The \cgal\
Java demo server is described in Chapter~\ref{chap:java_demos}. Information 
about how to submit a package's specification to the editorial board 
for approval and the implementation (and documentation) for inclusion in 
internal releases is presented in  Chapter~\ref{chap:submission}.
Chapter~\ref{chap:cvs} discusses the CVS server where developers should 
place packages that are to remain a part of the library but currently have 
no maintainers.  Chapters~\ref{chap:addresses} and Chapter~\ref{chap:info} 
provide information about mailing lists and other information 
resources developers might find useful.

\input{philosophy}

\input{overall_design}



