# Who should read this manual?

This book is about &GStreamer; from an application developer's point of view; it describes how to write a &GStreamer; application using the &GStreamer; libraries and tools. For an explanation about writing plugins, we suggest the Plugin Writers Guide.

Also check out the other documentation available on the &GStreamer; web site.

# Preliminary reading

In order to understand this manual, you need to have a basic understanding of the C language.

Since &GStreamer; adheres to the GObject programming model, this guide also assumes that you understand the basics of GObject and glib programming.

Especially,

- GObject instantiation

- GObject properties (set/get)

- GObject casting

- GObject referecing/dereferencing

- glib memory management

- glib signals and callbacks

- glib main loop

# Structure of this manual

To help you navigate through this guide, it is divided into several large parts. Each part addresses a particular broad topic concerning &GStreamer; appliction development. The parts of this guide are laid out in the following order:

gives you an overview of &GStreamer;, it's design principles and foundations.

covers the basics of &GStreamer; application programming. At the end of this part, you should be able to build your own audio player using &GStreamer;

In , we will move on to advanced subjects which make &GStreamer; stand out of its competitors. We will discuss application-pipeline interaction using dynamic parameters and interfaces, we will discuss threading and threaded pipelines, scheduling and clocks (and synchronization). Most of those topics are not just there to introduce you to their API, but primarily to give a deeper insight in solving application programming problems with &GStreamer; and understanding their concepts.

Next, in , we will go into higher-level programming APIs for &GStreamer;. You don't exactly need to know all the details from the previous parts to understand this, but you will need to understand basic &GStreamer; concepts nevertheless. We will, amongst others, discuss XML, playbin and autopluggers.

Finally in , you will find some random information on integrating with GNOME, KDE, OS X or Windows, some debugging help and general tips to improve and simplify &GStreamer; programming.