Important things to consider if you want to contribute to the project (or any project in general, programming language and programming style aside) On authors, maintainers, and contributing: - If you want to write in a nice new contribution/feature, that's awesome, and I fully encourage it. However, unless what you make is very easy to maintain, do not submit a feature or module for distribution with the main project if you don't plan on supporting it or maintaining it yourself. This is *especially* important if it's big. Smaller features and contributions that are simple to understand/maintain can get away with this, but generally, other people do not want to have to fix your code if something breaks. I completely understand that you may have a busy life outside of the project, but if what you submit can go wrong, it will go wrong. If you don't have time to fix major problems, then you probably shouldn't be contributing to the project (or any project) in the first place. - Be prepared to work with other contributors. If you are venturing in to someone else's code (to improve/expand upon it, or to change it for the better), be prepared to talk and work with that person, whomever it may be. Do *not* go rewriting someone elses code from scratch just because you feel you can do it better. Instead, examine what they did, talk with the person (constructively) and if possible work with them to try to improve their existing code. This may require you to have some level of people skills. That *doesn't* mean you should have to take someone else's bullshit if they're being an asshole or being completely unreasonable, but it does mean that you should be somewhat civil and try to work together. - Be prepared to work with testers/users, sometimes you *have* to talk to users and go over the problem and find the solution. Users don't always know what they're doing, but I've found that most are more than willing to be patient and follow your instructions to help you debug the problem for mutual benefit. They will sing praises of you for fixing their problems, and you will have one less problem to deal with. You'll find that the community is awesome and filled with some amazing people. Work with them, cherish them, because they are truly what make the wheels of your project spin. For that reason, do *not* treat users badly, ever. - The author(s)/maintainer(s) often get the last say on big/important decisions for the project as a whole. A good maintainer will always listen, and will often ask others on the project for their opinions. At the same time, don't always expect everything to be democratic. Each individual project has its own rules, but more often than not it's probably more like a benevolent dictatorship. If that is the case and you have an opinion about a particular upcoming change/decision, simply talk with the maintainers about your opinion, and unless it ventures too far outside of whatever 'project vision' they have, they usually are (and should be) more than willing to take your personal opinions in to account for the sake of the project as a whole. Just keep in mind that there are always many subjective topics, and that like anything that's subjective, there often will be differing opinions that may not always become resolved. - However, that being said, do try to avoid taking up too much of the maintainer's time on any given discussion. Try to be to be as concise as possible, as they're often pretty busy, especially if they are doing most of the work on the project (which is almost always the case). Styles, formatting, and guidelines for code - You may use C, C++. or Objective-C (for apple) to create your modules, though please try to use C unless an API you're using requires C++ or Objective-C (such as windows COM classes, or apple Objetive-C APIs). Some maintainers may be lax with this (such as myself), but unless you plan on always being there to maintain the code, it's generally best to use C so everybody has common ground to work with. Language is a very personal thing and not everyone will agree, but it's something that is ultimately the decision of the author(s)/maintainer(s). Arguing about language in this instance will only seek to annoy them. - Coding style is mostly KNF (linux-style). We're using KNF because it's an established, well known style with the purpose of reducing bugs and improving readability in a variety of circumstances. This means K&R, 80 columns max, preferable maximum function length of 42 lines, 8 character width tabs, lower_case_names, etc. I chose this for the sake of the project, don't argue about it, don't talk to me about it, just do it. If you can't deal with it, then you probably shouldn't be contributing to any projects period, because every good project has coding guidelines. See https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/CodingStyle for a general guideline (though not necessarily a rulebook, for example we allow the use of boolean return values instead of ints for failure). - C++ is an exception to the lower_case_only rule, CamelCase is encouraged (though not required) to distinguish it from C code. Just a personal and subjective stylistic thing on my part. - Do not use dependencies for the sake of convenience. Use them only if you actually have a real need to depend on them. Just because the user interface code depends on some toolkit doesn't mean it's okay for your module to use that toolkit just so you can use some class or template they have that you enjoy using. Use the standard language libraries and use what's available in the core. - Core is C only (unless there's an operating specific thing that requires another language). I will especially not accept any code in the core that does not abide by these rules. I will be particularly uptight about the core. About these guidelines - These guidelines, the coding style, the format are for the sake of the project and everyone who contributes and helps maintain the project. They are not done so much for the sake of myself as the maintainer, but for the sake of everyone. These guidelines helps ensure better code, better conitribution, better cooperation, and code that (hopefully) everyone can contribute to on some measure of even ground. Everyone has their own personal style but sometimes there just has to be common ground for the sake of the project as a whole.