Contribution Guide - missing flow / policies of contribution

[kgajowy]

It would be nice to add some policy on how one can contribute to the following cases:

• Existing issue. Should I post a comment under issue and wait for some approval? How one can ensure that when wants to work on some issue, someone isn't already on it?
• Is this allowed to do some minor changes in batch?
• To what degree should the contribution be agreed on (before implementation) in case of
  • breaking changes
  • scout-boy rules
• Missing PR Template would help a lot!

Thanks in advance for answering those questions, it would greatly increase understanding how to correctly contribute ⚡

[czerwinskilukasz1]

My proposals of the answers:

Existing issue. Should I post a comment under issue and wait for some approval? How one can ensure that when wants to work on some issue, someone isn't already on it?

Case 1. The issue is already assigned.
Basically, the assigned person is responsible for fixing the issue. If you would like to contribute to the same issue, communicate with the Assignee.

If the assigned person doesn't seem to be active anymore (e.g. they suddenly stopped writing new comments in the issue after a period of increased activity and they don't answer on questions when they are tagged within a week), tag one of the Core Developers and they will make a decision whether to remove the Assignee from the issue or not.

Case 2. The issue is unassigned.
If the issue feels small and nobody is assigned, feel free to signal you are working on it by tagging one of the Core Developers and just fix the issue and submit a PR :)

If the issue feels big, write a comment with your suggested approach to solving the issue, possibly tag a more experienced contributor or a Core Developer and wait for some time. It would be good to get an informal nod, because even the best-looking solution might turn out suboptimal when a broader view is considered and probably more experienced contributors would have good remarks.

For issues of medium size, use your best judgement :)

[czerwinskilukasz1]

Is this allowed to do some minor changes in batch?

Please take a look at the previous commits and PRs and use your best judgement :)

[czerwinskilukasz1]

To what degree should the contribution be agreed on (before implementation) in case of

• breaking changes

The worst case which could happen if you work on a breaking change is your PR gets rejected or heavily criticized for obvious flaws or for not being aligned with the current direction.
Probably the biggest the change is, the more useful it is to consult it with other. We hope to be a community of developers supporting the common goal, so let's use this power and ask, no pun intended :)

• scout-boy rules
  The Boy Scout Rule can be summarized as:
  Leave your code better than you found it.

Could you elaborate more on this case?

Missing PR Template would help a lot!
I am creating an issue for it. And it is unassigned for now :)

[czerwinskilukasz1]

@mhagmajer , anything you would like to phrase differently?

[mhagmajer]

@Tuhaj initially added this file

[kgajowy]

Could you elaborate more on this case?

@czerwinskilukasz1 making some non-agreed changes in good faith may lead to different conflicts or end up in a polite question to revert those. Hopefully, this won't happen ;)

All my questions were clarified, PR template has a standalone issue so I am fine to close this issue.
Feel free to reopen if you wish to enhance the Contribution Guide.

Thanks a lot! 💖

[czerwinskilukasz1]

Great, thank you too!