Contributing to the code

[elcnesh]

Hi all,

I've been thinking about creating a rules-enforced Magic program for quite a while, and now I found this! It looks totally awesome, and I'd like to contribute I'm a long-time programmer with quite a bit of Java experience, although currently I use (for my job) python and C++.
I've already set up a working development environment (on Mac), but before starting to commit, I have some questions:

• Are there any conventions, rules, etc. that I should be aware of? Is this documented somewhere?
• What are the current/latest developments, and what stage is the program in? Is it feature devoloping, stabilising the code, etc..?
• The Wiki for setting up a development environment isn't comprehensive, at least for Mac. Can I go ahead and update it? (Also it's a bit hard to find, but that I can't easily fix )

Thanks already for this amazing project, I'm really amazed by the system you guys built

[Chris H.]

A lot of work has been submitted by Max that has divided our project into several modules. At some point this should allow the addition of internet play.

Most of the development discussion is taking place on the Developer's Corner Forum.

The wiki could use a few improvements, feel free to take a stab at it.

People tend to work in areas of the project that interest them the most as this tends to create incentive to do so.

Feel free to ask questions and to tell us where you would like to start.

[elcnesh]

Over the last days I've been developing some stuff, but I don't have commit rights yet... I've applied for the usergroup, could someone add me? Thanks

BTW, any specific guidelines for the commit messages?

[friarsol]

Over the last days I've been developing some stuff, but I don't have commit rights yet... I've applied for the usergroup, could someone add me? Thanks

BTW, any specific guidelines for the commit messages?

In general we require new users who want to have commit to post messages explaining what they want to do, and patches to determine if they should have commit privileges (since we have an SVN repo, not a GIT push/pull repo). Feel free to start a thread with what you had planned, what your progress is, and start a little discussion. In general, it's not all that difficult to get added onto the dev list, we just want to make sure your not gonna jump in and hack away at the architecture.

Mostly, we ask new people do this since we've had a whole bunch come in say they want to do something huge, we tell them it's too big for a new person learning a huge codebase, and then they burn out within a week or two.

[elcnesh]

Okay sure, makes sense.

I already found out the code is pretty complex, but I've made a few patches that do what they're supposed to and shouldn't affect other parts of the code. I'll open some threads then!

[Chris H.]

Hello elcnesh.

We have several people that can give you your commit privs.

The commit log messages should be brief and descriptive.

As sol has suggested, we like to encourage some discussions take place before we give the commit privs.