doc/getting_started.dox
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     1 /**
     2 \page getting_started Getting Started
     3 
     4 At the beginning we strongly suggest that you open your favorite text
     5 editor and enter the code simultaneously as you read it. Compiling the
     6 demos is also a good exercise.
     7 
     8 As the first example we show you a lemon style "Hello World"
     9 program. Now we explain almost every line, but later we will skip the
    10 basics and focus on new things.
    11 
    12 \section hello_world Hello World in LEMON
    13 
    14 In this little program we give you a taste of the LEMON programming.
    15 
    16 Let's see the code fragment to fragment!
    17 
    18 \dontinclude hello_world.cc
    19 \skip include
    20 \until iostream
    21 
    22 We want to use a \c lemon::ListGraph so the include goes like this:
    23 \skip include
    24 \until list_graph
    25 
    26 The next few lines are not necessary but useful shortcuts, if you don't
    27 want to type \c lemon::ListGraph::Node every time.
    28 \skip using
    29 \until Edge
    30 
    31 For this demo we need to declare a ListGraph and a special NodeMap to
    32 store the characters associated to the graph's nodes.  
    33 \skip main
    34 \until char_map
    35 
    36 Adding nodes to the graph is very easy.
    37 \skip new_node
    38 \until addNode
    39 
    40 When a new node or edge is added to the graph the assigned maps are automatically resized.
    41 So graphs can be built dynamically. The usage of a map is very natural.
    42 \skip char_map
    43 \until char_map
    44 
    45 Notice that no reference or additional assignment is needed to work with nodes.
    46 They won't become illegal or won't lead to throwing any exceptions.
    47 You can declare and handle a node like every other basic type such as \c int.
    48 \skip Store
    49 \until char_map
    50 
    51 As one expects adding an Edge is similar. You need to define the \b source node
    52 and the \b destination node. The nodes must belong to the graph of course. The
    53 Edge has the direction from the source to the destination. In some cases you don't
    54 want the edges to be directed - then you use an undirected graph. For example
    55 lemon::ListUGraph.
    56 \skip addEdge
    57 \until addEdge
    58 
    59 In the next few lines we add some more nodes and edges and to the graph we need.
    60 Those lines are not very interesting so we skip them, but you find the whole
    61 working program in file hello_lemon.cc in the demo section.
    62 
    63 The next statement must be familiar. But what is that INVALID in the \c while
    64 test statement? In LEMON we usually use the INVALID to check if an object
    65 contains valid information.
    66 \skip current_node
    67 \until {
    68 
    69 We take the current node and write out the character assigned to it. Is's easy
    70 with the \c char_map.
    71 \skip std
    72 \until std
    73 
    74 And here comes the trick. OutEdgeIt iterates on outgoing edges of a given node.
    75 We pass the current node as argument to it, so the \c edge iterator will stand
    76 on the first outgoing edge of the current node, or will be INVALID if the node
    77 has no outgoing edges.
    78 \skip edge
    79 \until edge
    80 
    81 The graph we built before is linear, so we know that it ends, when no more outgoing
    82 edges found. Otherwise the current node must be the node the edge points to.
    83 Basic information about an edge can be requested from the graph.
    84 \skip if
    85 \until }
    86 
    87 Finish the code, just to be precise.
    88 \skip return
    89 \until }
    90 
    91 
    92 \section compile_hw Compiling Hello World
    93 To compile this program all you have to do is type in
    94 \code g++ -ohw hello_world.cc \endcode
    95 and press \c Enter! This is the case if you installed LEMON on your system.
    96 (For more information see the LEMON installation instructions.)
    97 
    98 This is because LEMON is template library and most of it's code has to be available
    99 as source code during compilation.
   100  
   101 Most programs using LEMON will compile as easy as this one unless you want to
   102 use some performance measuring tools LEMON can provide. Then you need to link
   103 an additional library against your program.
   104 */