Programming Guide: Development Overview

# Programming Guide

# Development Overview

Creating OpenDoc software is not difficult, but it represents a shift in approach from conventional application development. OpenDoc part editors differ from conventional applications in that:

- They are generally smaller than conventional applications.
- They do not have direct access to some operating-system services such as event dispatching.
- They do not own their own documents.
- They must work in close cooperation with other part editors.

The cross-platform design of OpenDoc means that some aspects of part development may seem foreign to developers, but it also means that writing part editors for multiple platforms is far easier than doing so for conventional applications.

OpenDoc is an object-oriented system, but a part editor can be written in procedural code and still fit into the OpenDoc class structure. Existing applications, object-oriented or not, can be retrofitted easily to work in the OpenDoc environment. OpenDoc is extensible, and many of its components are replaceable, allowing for innovation by developers at both the system and application levels.

This chapter introduces the OpenDoc class library, and presents a high-level summary of several approaches to developing an OpenDoc part editor. For additional discussions of general development-related issues, see also "OpenDoc Run-Time Features".

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