/*! \mainpage MAVA Logger X Developers' Documentation
 *
 * \section intro Introduction
 *
 * This (partially generated) documentation describes the MAVA Logger
 * X from a developer's perspective. Its purpose is to give enough
 * information, so that a developer could understand how the software
 * works in general, and easily understand the code to be able to make
 * modifications to it.
 *
 * Note, that to be able to understand the code most effectively, it
 * is important to either use the application actively, or to read its
 * user documentation carefully. 
 *
 * \section overview Overview
 *
 * The application was written in 
 * <a href="http://python.org">Python 2</a>. The Python wrapper
 * <a href="http://gtk.org">Gtk+</a> toolkit was used for the graphical
 * user interface. The program is designed to run on both Windows and
 * Linux, though as of this writing only the Windows version can be
 * used practically. However, Linux distributions move towards Gtk+ 3
 * as the primary toolkit, while it has no reliable port for Windows
 * yet. Therefore it was decided to support both Gtk+ 2 and 3
 * depending on the platform. For Gtk+ 2 the 
 * <a href="http://pygtk.org">PyGTK</a> wrapper is used, while for Gtk+
 * 3 the <a href="https://live.gnome.org/PyGObject">PyGObject</a>
 * bindings. See the mlx.gui.common module for information on how the
 * differences between these toolkits are handled.
 *
 * At present only Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 and X (also,
 * perhaps, Prepar3D) are supported, and are accessed via the
 * <a href="http://www.schiratti.com/dowson.html">FSUIPC</a>
 * interface. The author has created a Python mapping for it, which
 * has been submitted for inclusion into the SDK, so it will hopefully  
 * appear in its next version. It is planned to support X-Plane in the
 * near future (hopefully by the end of 2012) on both Linux and
 * Windows.
 *
 * \subsection overview_devenv Development environment
 *
 * The software is primarily being developed on Linux, but is possible
 * to perform development on Windows as well. You need to have Python
 * 2.7.x installed as well as one of the above mentioned wrappers for
 * Gtk+ and Gtk+ itself. Since Python is an interpreted language,
 * there is no need for any special build system.
 * 
 * Python and Gtk+ are readily available on most Linux distributions,
 * but some links are probably useful for Windows users:
 * \li Python has its own Windows installers: http://www.python.org/download/releases
 * \li PyGTK provides convenient all-in-one installers including Gtk+
 *     itself: http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/binaries/win32/pygtk/2.24
 * \li The Windows version uses some Python extensions: http://sourceforge.net/projects/pywin32/files
 * \li To create install packages, you also need py2exe: <a href="http://www.py2exe.org/">http://www.py2exe.org</a>,
 * \li as well as the Nullsoft Install System: http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page
 * 
 * The install package can be created by running the \c makeinst.bat
 * file. It contains some absolute paths, so check those befure
 * running the batch file. Windows is needed currently to create an
 * install package.
 *
 * On Linux you can use the \c makesdist.sh script to create the
 * archive that you can extract on Windows. This archive goes in to
 * the \c dist subdirectory, and contains everything needed (from the
 * logger) to create the package.
 *
 * \section arch Architecture
 *
 * The two major parts of the application are the GUI and the rest of
 * it (let's call it the "business logic").
 * The main interface for the GUI is the mlx.gui.gui.GUI class, which
 * is referenced from the business logic only from the
 * mlx.flight.Flight class. The rest of the business logic uses the
 * actual instance of this class to access values entered into the
 * GUI by the user.
 *
 * The program uses a few threads. The main thread is reserved for the
 * GUI, which has two implications:
 *
 * -# No GUI operations should be executed directly from another
 *    thread. Instead, use \c gobject.idle_add to "inject" the
 *    operation into the main thread.
 * -# To ensure the responsiveness of the GUI, only operations 
 *    that take a short time should be executed in the GUI thread.
 *
 * \subsection arch_buslog Business Logic
 *
 * The business logic part deals with the connection towards the
 * simulator. The mlx.fsuipc module implements this connection using
 * the FSUIPC interface. Its \ref mlx.fsuipc.Simulator "Simulator"
 * class creates a \ref mlx.fsuipc.Handler "Handler" object, which
 * starts its own thread, in which the FSUIPC requests are called. In
 * case of reading data from FSUIPC, the data is passed to a callback
 * function, which is called in this thread. This should be considered
 * when the retrieved data is processed on the GUI in same way
 * (e.g. displayed). The main interface towards the simulator is the
 * \ref mlx.fsuipc.Simulator "Simulator" class, so if another
 * simulator is to be supported, a class with the same (or at least
 * sufficiently similar) public interface should be implemented.
 *              
 * The most important function of the program is the
 * continuous monitoring of the aircraft's parameters and some other
 * data. The monitoring is started using the \ref
 * mlx.fsuipc.Simulator.startMonitoring "startMonitoring" function of
 * the simulator object. If started, it calls the \ref 
 * mlx.acft.Aircraft.handleState "handleState" function of the
 * mlx.acft.Aircraft instance used. The mlx.acft module contains one
 * child class of \ref mlx.acft.Aircraft "Aircraft" for each aircraft
 * type in the MAVA fleet. These subclasses contain the type-specific
 * behaviour, but the main handling logic is in the \ref
 * mlx.acft.Aircraft "Aircraft" class.
 *
 * Upon calling its \c handleState function, it calculates the
 * smoothed values of IAS and VS, and then calls each "checker". A
 * checker is an instance of a subclass of mlx.checks.StateChecker,
 * which checks a one or a few parameters that are important from some 
 * aspect of the correct execution of a flight. For example, a checker
 * may check if the \ref mlx.checks.StrobeLightsChecker 
 * "strobe lights" are switched on and off at the right stages of the
 * flight. But some checkers simply log some \ref
 * mlx.checks.AltimeterLogger "value" whenever it changes
 * in an "interesting" way, or \ref mlx.checks.ACARSSender "send the
 * ACARS" periodically. 
 *
 * There is also a \ref mlx.checks.StageCheker "checker" which
 * detects the changes in the stage of the flight, and calls the
 * \ref mlx.acft.Aircraft.setStage "setStage" function of the
 * aircraft, if there is a change. It first calls the  
 * \ref mlx.flight.Flight "flight"'s \ref mlx.flight.Flight.setStage
 * "setStage" function, which notifies the GUI and the \ref
 * mlx.logger.Logger "logger" of this change, and records the block
 * and flight times. Then the aircraft's \c setStage function logs
 * some values in case of certain stages, such as the takeoff weights
 * and speeds when the takeoff stage is entered. After calling the
 * checkers, the \c handleState function of the aircraft calls the
 * \ref mlx.flight.Flight.handleState "function" with the same name of
 * the flight. It again records some statistical data, such as the
 * flown distance and the amount of fuel used, and calls the \ref
 * mlx.soundsched.SoundScheduler "sound scheduler" to check if some
 * backround sound should be played. If the check list hotkey is
 * pressed, the \ref mlx.soundsched.ChecklistScheduler 
 * "checklist scheduler" is notified too.
 *
 * As mentioned, there is a \ref mlx.logger.Logger "logger" in the
 * application, which contains the textual log lines as well as the
 * faults and their scores. 
 *
 * The business logic part contains many other components, but they
 * are quite simple and are built around the principles mentioned
 * above. Consult the documentation and the code of the relevant
 * modules for more information.
 *
 * \subsection arch_gui GUI     
 *
 * As mentioned, the GUI is implemented using Gtk+. This toolkit
 * provides the Glade graphical user interface designer, but due to
 * the requirement of supporting both Gtk+ 2 and 3, and due to a so-so
 * experience with Glade in an earlier project, it was decided to not
 * use it. Instead, the GUI elements are created and handled by
 * hand-written code. 
 *
 * The central class of the graphical user interface is
 * mlx.gui.gui.GUI. Upon creation, it creates the rest of the GUI,
 * sets up the menus and shortcuts, etc. It also maintains the
 * connection to the simulator and creates the \ref mlx.flight.Flight
 * "flight" and \ref mlx.flight.Aircraft "aircraft" objects as
 * needed. 
 *
 * To understand the operation of the GUI, one should be familiar with
 * Gtk+, but otherwise it is pretty straighforward. See the
 * documentation of the relevant modules for more information. 
 */