Welcome to the perl589delta project!
This project exists to distribute the work involved with writing
the perl589delta.pod file for the 5.8.9 release of Perl.
Getting involved is easy. You volunteer to handle a month's worth of
changelog (a chunk), and then write the relevant sections of the
perldelta for those changes, or as much as you can given the time you
have available.
If you're not a Perl-guts ninja, and aren't sure if you're able
to help, read the micro-helpers HOWTO at:
http://github.com/pfenwick/perl589delta/tree/master/Micro-helpers-HOWTO.txt
If you want to dive in, then read on!
This project uses git for change control. You don't have to use
git to be a contributor, but it's encouraged.
The procedure for volunteering to take a chunk of work is:
* To help co-ordinate efforts between volunteers, you are
encouraged to join the perl589delta mailing list at
http://groups.google.com/group/perl589delta
* If you want to work with the full git environment, register
for an account on http://github.com/ .
* Grab the latest copy of the repository. With git you can
use:
git clone git://github.com/pfenwick/perl589delta.git
If you've got your commit-bit already, you can use:
git clone git@github.com:pfenwick/perl589delta.git
If you're working without git, you can download the master
branch files at:
http://github.com/pfenwick/perl589delta/tarball/master
* Look at the Volunteers.txt file and select a free month.
Send a note to perl589delta@googlegroups.com saying which
month you're going to work on. You'll be given a commit bit,
but you can start work without it.
* Do all your work on the branch with your chunk number. You
can switch to your branch and make sure it's up-to-date with:
git checkout -b 1970-01 origin/1970-01
git merge master
git push origin 1970-01
Replace 1970-01 with your chunk ID. The 'git merge master'
will make sure you've got the latest perl589delta.pod
and tools. The push line will make sure your changes go
back to the main repo.
If you're not using git, or don't want to worry about the branches,
just make changes normally and send patches to
perl589delta@googlegroups.com, and they'll get applied to your branch.
It will help if you put [PATCH] in the subject line.
* The files in the split/ directory are the Changes file
already broken down by month. You'll probably find them
much more useful than trying to work through the Changes
file itself.
* Work on your branch, not on the master. The master branch
is ONLY for completed chunks, and for shared resources such
as the Volunteers file and helper programs.
* If anything is too hard, simply note them (including the
patch number) in the TODO file in your branch. It's okay
to skip changes; you're encouraged to do so if it keeps
you productive.
* Alternatively, if most of the changes are difficult to
comprehend, feel free to just document the changes that
do make sense. To track these, the recommended method
is to remove the completed changes from your split file
to prevent duplicate work later on.
* When your chunk is completed, or when you've done as much
as you'd like, e-mail perl589delta@googlegroups.com
to arrange for it to be merged into the master branch.
Please be sure to note if your work is completed, if there
are items in the TODO file, if you only got up to a certain
spot, or if you've been removing the completed items from
the split file.
* Feel warm and fuzzy about your contributions to Perl!
* If you have any questions, don't hesitate to e-mail
the group on perl589delta@googlegroups.com for assistance,
or ask on #p5p on irc.perl.org.
= TOOLS AND RESOURCES =
* http://public.activestate.com/cgi-bin/perlbrowse
The Perl Repository browser. If you need to look up what a particular
patch entails, you can do it here.
* http://github.com/feeds/pfenwick/commits/perl589delta/master
This is a feed for watching the progress on the main branch.
* #p5p on irc.perl.org
This is the IRC channel where many of the Perl 5 porters hang
out. They've agreed to make themselves available to volunteers of
the Perl 5.8.9 delta effort. If you need assistance, especially
about what a given patch does or needs, don't hesitate to ask on #p5p.
* bin/get-changes
Downloads the latest Changes file. You probably won't need this,
unless you're working on super recent chunks.
* bin/split-changes
Splits the changes file up by months and puts the results in the
splits/ directory. You probably won't need this either unless
you're working on super recent chunks.
