Development

Source code

 * See: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc

Development Tools

 * Doxygen - Source code documentation generator tool.

Other tools and resources
Though any other tools or resources are not required they can possibly help in development.
 * Eclipse CDT Setup For XBMC Development
 * Doxygen - Source code documentation generator tool.
 * Valgrind (for Linux) - a free Linux programming tool for memory debugging, memory leak detection, and profiling.
 * Sysprof (for Linux) - a free System-wide Linux Profiler for tracking CPU usage. Sysprof is a sampling CPU profiler for Linux that uses a kernel module to profile the entire system, not just a single application. Sysprof handles shared libraries, and applications do not need to be recompiled. In fact they don't even have to be restarted. Just insert the kernel module and start sysprof.

General guidelines

 * Code documentation (DocBook, rst, or doxygen for the code documentation steps, preferably the latter, doxygen)
 * Self-containment - XBMC should be as little dependent as possible on operating-system and third-party services/deamons/libraries
 * XBMC should for example contain all file-system and network-client (like samba) support built-into the XBMC package
 * Modular design - independent modules made up by localized/isolated code libraries without dependencies
 * XBMC should still compile and run if a non-essential module/library is disabled or removed
 * Aim for the GUI/interface to run smoothly on a low spec computer (single core with less than 1Ghz)
 * 3D graphic controller (GPU) will always be required hardware for XBMC so try to utilize the GPU as much as possible
 * Avoid hard-disk trashing (excess read/write/erase cycles), so no hard-drive paging, (utilize RAM memory instead).
 * End-users will be running XBMC and the operating-system on solid-State memory as a Live CD (LiveDistro) of a USB-key
 * Fast load and boot times for end-user perception (other things can still run/start in the background without the user knowledge)
 * 15-seconds or less from when the end user press the power-button on the computer till he/she can browse the GUI

Code guidelines and formatting conventions
Official: Code guidelines and formatting conventions

Contact methods

 * IRC: #xbmc-dev on freenode official IRC network channel focused on XBMC development
 * XBMC Development Community Forum
 * HOW-TO submit a patch (where and how to submit source code)