# Explanations

Explanations contain background information on important topics. They are not needed to
get started, but very helpful for advanced users and developers of estimagic.

```{raw} html
<div class="container" id="index-container">
    <div class="row">
        <div class="col-lg-6 col-md-6 col-sm-6 col-xs-12 d-flex">
            <a href="optimization/index.html" id="index-link">
                <div class="card text-center intro-card shadow">
                    <img src="../_static/images/optimization.svg" class="card-img-top"
                         alt="optimization icon" height="100"
                    >
                    <div class="card-body flex-fill">
                        <h5 class="card-title">Optimization</h5>
                        <p class="card-text">
                            Learn how to use constraints, parallelize function evaluations and configure every aspect of your optimization
                        </p>
                    </div>
                </div>
            </a>
        </div>
        <div class="col-lg-6 col-md-6 col-sm-6 col-xs-12 d-flex">
            <a href="differentiation/index.html" id="index-link">
                <div class="card text-center intro-card shadow">
                    <img src="../_static/images/differentiation.svg" class="card-img-top"
                         alt="differentiation icon" height="100"
                    >
                    <div class="card-body flex-fill">
                        <h5 class="card-title">Differentiation</h5>
                        <p class="card-text">
                            Learn how to influence step sizes, parallelize function evaluations and use advanced options for numerical differentiation
                        </p>
                    </div>
                </div>
            </a>
        </div>
        <div class="col-lg-6 col-md-6 col-sm-6 col-xs-12 d-flex">
            <a href="inference/index.html" id="index-link">
                <div class="card text-center intro-card shadow">
                    <img src="../_static/images/bullseye.svg" class="card-img-top"
                         alt="reference guides icon" height="100"
                    >
                    <div class="card-body flex-fill">
                        <h5 class="card-title">Estimation</h5>
                        <p class="card-text">
                            Learn how to calculate different types of standard errors an do sensitivity analysis
                        </p>
                    </div>
                </div>
             </a>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>
```

```{toctree}
:hidden: true
:maxdepth: 1

optimization/index
differentiation/index
inference/index
```