Developer Guide

This guide provides information on how to adjust or extend the SKIRT code and/or the Python Toolkit for SKIRT (PTS).

The SKIRT project will never be finished. Fundamental changes and additions will likely be developed in cooperation with the SKIRT Core Team. However, you may want to adjust the code in simple ways to fit the needs of your particular radiative transfer problem. Many features can be added without the need for an expert software development background. We explicitly invite your open contributions to the project. A contribution can take many forms, from asking a question to implementing a set of new classes. Information on how to contribute can be found in the Contributing section of this web site.

Before venturing into the development realm, it is obviously important to gain experience as a SKIRT user in your own application domain. As a start, perform the tutorials and review the relevant topics provided in the User Guide. If you plan to do substantial development, also consider the suggestions listed in Develop SKIRT using Qt Creator (all platforms) and The GitHub workflow for the SKIRT project.

The developer guide includes the following topics:

SKIRT

• Overall structure of the SKIRT code
• The ins and outs of simulation items
• Adding a new geometry class [TUTORIAL]
• Design principles and coding style

• Hybrid parallelization using threads and processes
• Polarization by spherical grains
• Lyman-alpha resonant line transfer
• Thermal motion and line profiles
• The perspective instrument
• The SMILE metadata subproject

• The CFITSIO third-party library
• The Voro++ third-party library

PTS

• Overall structure of the PTS code
• PTS coding style
• Adding a PTS command script

Common

• The GitHub workflow for the SKIRT project
• Generating the SKIRT project documentation