Introduction to the Manual
 
This document is designed to help you understand how the reference manual is organized, how it can be used efficiently, and how to find the information you need.
 
 
Target Audience
 
This Toolkit reference manual is targeted at application developers who would like to add SILC support into their application, and to create new SILC based applications. It is especially aimed at C and C++ programmers, who would like to create SILC client applications, either based on command line interface (CLI) or on graphical user interface (GUI).
 
 
Overview
 
The SILC Toolkit Reference Manual has collected the essential information needed by application developers. The following guide and reference information is included in this manual:
 

Describing the documentation conventions

Describing the Toolkit design

Describing the SILC Protocol

Describing the programming conventions and idioms

Documenting the set of public APIs available for programmers

Describing the usage of various libraries
 
You can download the latest SILC Toolkit from the SILC Project Website, which includes the latest version of the reference manual. The Toolkit package includes the full sources of the Toolkit, and includes several example applications and piece of example codes.
 
 
Using the Reference Manual
 
The API references are ogranized by libraries. Each library will include list of interfaces it provides. Each of the interface in the library provides list of public API items. Each of the item in the list is a hyper link that opens the detailed page describing the API item. All API references are automatically generated from the sources and they have a clear structural layout. The references can provide cross links to other references inside the specific interface or the specific library.
 
The list of the library interface items can also include links to guides that describe the use of a specific library or interface. These are intended as HOWTOs for programmers describing all aspects of the library or interface. They make the application development easier by also providing small examples.
 
All interfaces provided by the reference manual are public, and it does not describe any internal or undocumented interfaces. Since the reference manual is automatically generated, it is constantly evolving. It also may omit some of the interfaces or libraries, that have not yet been documented in the sources.
 
 
Document Layout
 
The document layout provides quick links to libraries, interfaces and specific API items by including list of links in the left and/or right side of the page in the web browser. These links can be used to directly access the specific library, interface or API item. The link lists may include other links to guides, and reference links to outside the reference manual as well.
 
 
Reference Conventions
 
The structural layout of a API item describes the following information about the item:
 

Type. Types that can appear are Variable, Structure, Function. A name that appears without type is constant, usually #define, enum or typedef. Usually the source code of the constants are appended to the reference.
 

Name. Describes the name of the item. All functions start with silc_ prefix, macros start with SILC_ prefix, and type names and structures start with Silc prefix.
 

Synopsis. Functions also describe the synopsis of the function.
 

Description. Each of the item is described in detail of what the item does and how it can be used.
 

Notes. Optionally the item may describe additional notes to the detailed description. These usually describe various exeptions or other important notes that the programmer should be aware of.
 

Example. Optionally the item may include a piece of source code that give short example of how the item may be used.
 

See Also. Optionally the item may include list of links to other items, or some other references that relate to the described item.
 

Source. Optionally the item may include the actual source code from the header file where the documentation was automatically generated.
 
Note that some of these informations are optional and not all API items include all of these informations.
 
 
Reference Example
 
Please refer to this link for short example of the API item reference layout: SILC Example API.