CONTRIBUTING.md

Contributing to Ibnmalik library

Hi there! Thanks for your interest in contributing to Ibnmalik. In this document we'll try to summarize everything that you need to know to do a good job.

Git and our Branching model

Git

We use Git as our version control system, so the best way to contribute is to learn how to use it and put your changes on a Git repository. There's a plenty of documentation about Git -- you can start with the Pro Git book.

Forks + GitHub Pull requests

We use the famous gitflow to manage our branches.

Summary of our git branching model:

• Fork the desired repository on GitHub to your account;
• Clone your forked repository locally (git clone git@github.com:your-username:ibnmalik.git);
• Create a new branch off of develop with a descriptive name (for example: feature/stemming, hotfix/bug-on-ibnmalik). You can do it switching to develop branch (git checkout develop) and then creating a new branch (git checkout -b name-of-the-new-branch);
• Do many small commits on that branch locally (git add files-changed, git commit -m "Add some change");
• Add your name to the AUTHORS.md file as a contributor;
• Push to your fork on GitHub (with the name as your local branch: git push origin branch-name);
• Create a pull request using the GitHub Web interface (asking us to pull the changes from your new branch and add to our develop branch);
• Wait for comments.

Tips

• Write helpful commit messages.
• Anything in the develop branch should be deployable (no failing tests).
• Never use git add .: it can add unwanted files;
• Avoid using git commit -a unless you know what you're doing;
• Check every change with git diff before adding them to the index (stage area) and with git diff --cached before commiting;
• Make sure you add your name to our list of contributors;
• If you have push access to the main repository, please do not commit directly to develop: your access should be used only to accept pull requests; if you want to make a new feature, you should use the same process as other developers so you code will be reviewed.

Code Guidelines

• follow PEP 8 -- Style Guide for Python Code;
• Write tests for your new features (please see "Tests" topic below);
• Always remember that commented code is dead code;
• All #TODO comments should be turned into issues (use our GitHub issue system);
• Run all tests before pushing, So you will know if your changes broke something;

Tests

• You should write tests for every feature you add or bug you solve in the code.
• For a better design of your code, we recommend using a technique called test-driven development, where you write your tests before writing the actual code that implements the desired feature.

Discussion

Our Channel

Please feel free to contact us through the Ibnmalik maintainer mail list if you have any questions or suggestions. Every contribution is very welcome!

Happy hacking! (;