DEVELOPINGTIPS.txt

Purpose: 
here are a few tips on the procedure to follow for adding new features using an example.

* preparation
One should first decide on how often the required feature is used and how computation intensive is it. For interactive features that are called occasionally through the GUI (example: turn on/off background correction), one can follow the following procedure
- Create an Action in View.Monitor.monitorMain:
    + Create button/keyboard-shortcut in setupToolbars() and setupMenubar()
    + Create the necessary actions and signals in setupActions() and setupSignals()
    + Create/initialize necessary program variables in the init() module: e.g. self.bgimage
    + Code the new method that performs the action and connect it to the proper signal in setupActions()
    + Use proper reference to the message log for providing indication of running procedures

For computation-intensive routines such as high-speed saving, tracking, or feedback, one should use a specialTaskWorker which runs at a high speed in a separate thread not to freeze the GUI.