Special:Badtitle/NS100:DeveloperOrientation

Slicer Developer Orientation

Welcome Slicer Developers. You are creating Slicer's future. After all, Slicer is an open source package suited for easy modular expansion by developers with ideas for Slicer designs and applications. This page acts as a portal to acquaint you with the basics of Slicer development and route you through the table below to an interactive Wiki exclusive to Slicer development that represents a vast community of individuals. The following table contains links to useful resources within the Slicer Wiki:

	Slicer 2.6 (Release)	Slicer 3 (Beta)
Slicer Developer Documentation	Slicer 2 Getting Started	Module Documentation and Slicer 3 Documentation in Development
Build Instructions	Slicer 2.6 Build Instructions and Transitioning Slicer 2 to Slicer 3	Slicer 3 Build Instructions
Coding Considerations		Slicer 3 Coding Style and Slicer 3 Interface Design
VC for Browsing Repository	View VC
Slicer svn Repository and SVN Instructions		svn Repository and Instructions for svn
Dashboard and Visual Blog		Slicer 3 Dashboard and Visual Blog
Status Report		Status Reports
Bug Tracker		Slicer 3 Bug Tracker
Developer Discussion		Slicer 3 Developer's Mailing List
Module Execution Documentation	Execution Model	Execution Model

Slicer Development Basics

Slicer is based on Vtk, a graphical library that provides a high-level interface to OpenGL and a pipeline mechanism to connect graphical filters. The library is implemented in C++ but provides a Tcl wrapper to instantiate and execute its methods. Tcl/Tk comprises the rest of 3D Slicer user interface and event handling.

Slicer software supports automatic testing and employs an extreme programming approach with nightly builds natively on multiple platforms. Recent accomplishments include added capability for plugging in external modules using XML-based command line interface.

Example of fiber tracking. See Kubicki et al J Psychiatr Res 2007 for more info.

Before getting started, recognize that developing code for Slicer involves understanding and abiding by slicer license and acknowledgment considerations, including that all software and any associated materials should include an acknowledgement of the NIH Roadmap. See a list of grants and their numbers to make other acknowledgments that helped to fund your work.

Slicer 3 is the latest version of Slicer that has integrated within it features to make adding to Slicer easier than before. If you are new to Slicer, viewing slides on its architecture will familiarize you with its framework.