Guide to Programming GridLAB-D

Guide to Programming GridLAB-D - Developer's reference manual for programming in GridLAB-D

GridLAB-D is a multi-agent simulation and modeling environment for engineered systems, with particular emphasis on power and energy systems. Programming multi-agent software is a challenging undertaking and this document is intended to facilitate the programmer's task. It is not intended as a guide to multi-agent software development in general and therefore does not attempt to explain why GridLAB-D is designed the way it is. For such questions, the reader is referred to other more appropriate sources than this.

Introduction

This guide is structured in multiple sections covering various topics of relevance to developers. The following topics are covered:

• Guide to Programming GridLAB-D
  • Introduction
    • Developer prerequisites
    • Programming conventions
    • Build/release process
    • Documentation Guide
    • Theory of operation
  • Creating a module
    • Module globals
    • Module functions
    • Subsecond processing
    • Import/export
    • Check
    • KML output
    • Example 1
  • Creating a class
    • Class functions
    • Class globals
    • Publishing properties
    • Publishing methods
    • Notifications
    • Load methods  New in 3.2! 
    • Example 2
  • Special Topics
    • Data types
    • Multithreading
    • Application links
    • Realtime server
    • Graphical user interfaces
    • Troubleshooting messages
    • Example 3
  • Source documentation
    • C/C++ Module API documentation (trunk)
    • C/C++ Module API Guide
    • Example 4
  • Validation
    • Example 5
  • Debugging
    • Debug option
    • VS2005 (MS Windows)
      • use_msvc
    • gdb option (linux/mac)
      • gdb_window
    • Runtime Class Debugging
      • compile_once
  • Code templates

Getting help

Developers should use the Developer Forum to get assistance from other experienced developers. Generally, if you have a problem, you're probably not the first to experience it (unless it's a new feature that isn't working quite right yet).

Reporting problems

If a problem turns out to be a bug or issue with the code, the ticket reporting site is the preferred method of reporting it. You can try emailing the project team, but that is not as closely monitored (too much spam) as the ticket or forum sites.