How to contribute [was: Give somebody something good, and they demand more.]

[Peter TB Brett]

On 22/03/2016 14:44, Richard Gaskin wrote:
> Peter TB Brett wrote:
>  > On 21/03/2016 21:12, RM wrote:
>  >> Well, as the Livecode 8 revTools stack can be set to be thin, normal
>  >> or fat [and that is really nice],
>  >> I suppose it shouldn't be that difficult for the Livecode folk to
>  >> allow us to choose the order we want the sections to be displayed in.
>  >>
>  >> http://forums.livecode.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=26785&p=139953#p139953
>  >
>  > I think the new tools palette is 100% implemented using script-only
>  > stacks so it should be easy to implement it yourself and submit a
>  > pull request!
>
> But will a pull request be accepted?
>
> Some guidance may be useful on pull requests so community members can
> anticipate when it will be in their interests to perform the work.

I agree!  Here's a list of steps you can take to make it more likely 
that your changes will be accepted.

0. Be willing to go away and learn things by yourself.  The core 
development team is very small and very busy and we won't necessarily 
have time to closely guide you through using normal development tools in 
the normal way.

1. Discuss your plans with someone on the core dev team before you start 
work.  You will eventually need to get someone who's on the dev team to 
merge your changes -- so it is _important_ to get one of us involved 
(and interested) as early as you possibly can!

2. Follow the coding style.  Make your code as clear and easy to read 
and understand as possible.  Name things carefully.

3. Make each change as small as possible.  It's far, far easier to get 
100 changes with 10 lines of code merged than it is to get a single 
1000-line change merged.

4. Spend time on writing your git log messages and your GitHub pull 
requests so that they really clearly describe the changes you've made 
and why you've made them.  This is a good guide: 
http://chris.beams.io/posts/git-commit/

5. Be prepared to revise your changes.  We want to help you get your 
changes committed, but they will need to fit in properly with the things 
that we're trying to achieve.

I hope that helps.  As usual, if anyone has any questions at all about 
contributing to LiveCode open source I'm happy to answer questions, or 
organise a Skype call.

                                          Peter

-- 
Dr Peter Brett <peter.brett at livecode.com>
LiveCode Open Source Team

LiveCode 2016 Conference: https://livecode.com/edinburgh-2016/