This is an attempt to document the Core codebase of RimWorld. It's insanity, I know. Just roll with me here.
The intent of this project is to provide a full set of documentation for the RimWorld vanilla code base. Currently, there isn't one. For good reason - this task is daunting. There is no easy way to do this, it is simply tedious and repetitive work. As one man, I could never finish this to a satisfactory level - there is around... 8000 files? Ballpark.
That was the reason it hadn't been done so far. But what about why I want to do it now? Simple - to enable new modders (like myself) to ease into C# modding without the daunting task of digging through the source code looking for each function and attribute and trying to figure out what they do and where to find the declaration of each. I jumped in head first with my first attempt at modding, and it was a bit difficult to say the least. I had no references that were up-to-date (v1.0) and so I was very lost and definitely at the mercy of the modding Discord community. If not for Mehni and the rest of the community, I wouldn't have even stepped in the door, and would have turned away from this side of the game permanently. I want to open the doors to all those gamers out there that haven't taken up the mantle of "Modder" because they see C# as daunting - I've seen it time and time again already, and it's time to change that.
The current folder structure is simple. One folder, /Codebase. It holds the decompiled source code of the Assembly-CSharp.dll. In these files I have the XML documentation comments. In the future I look to move on to having an /XML folder to house the constructed XML files. There will also be a /HTML folder in the future when it's completed.
The code in Thing.cs probably looks different than you're used to. My Visual Studios settings are such that all extraneous newlines and spaces are removed. Newlines after namespace, class, function, method, object, etc. are set to be removed. I'd like to keep it this way, if possible, simply because it shortens file lengths by hundreds of lines. Thing.cs was reduced by 30% by this alone.
I need help. This is a massive undertaking for the community, and I cannot go it alone. I need all the help I can get. My idea is that people would take a single file and comment it and do a pull request when completed. We need need need to be uniform in this endeavor. We have to or it will die before it's born. Send me a message on the RimWorld Discord if you want to help - my handle is @abaddon16#7120
As this is simply an attempt to do the documentation for the codebase, there will be no actual coding going on. However, you will need to be able to suss out what the code means so you can properly document the files. Knowing what each function/method/parameter does vice how to use it is the key difference.
Look at Thing.cs and follow that. It's what I built myself, follow the format therein. It's a huge file, it has plenty of examples. If you run into something you're not sure how to handle, ask. If I'm not around to answer, take the spirit and obvious intent of the other files I've validated and apply that for the time being. Reengage with me once I'm back.
The intent of these comments is two-fold.
- Customers can download the repo and use it as an on-computer solution w/ Intellisense hover text for all the functions, properties, method, fields, values, parameters, returns, etc.
- I can run DOxygen on the folders and create a beautiful webpage manifestation of the documentation we write similar to this site: http://eigen.tuxfamily.org/dox/group__TutorialSparse.html
So, while it is ambitious, we have a good goal ahead of us. Join me in making the C# side of RimWorld modding just that much easier. - Abaddon16