Contributing

Contact

If you would like to contribute, it would be great to hear from you. The best place to get in touch would be via the xAce Development Google Group

You may also find the Commit History Feed useful, particularly if you are not using Git or GitHub to manage your source.

What we Need

Currently the project is in need of:

• Programmers
• Testers
• A web designer to improve the project page

What to do now

You can either fork the xAce repository on GitHub, or download the latest master branch source code, whichever you find more comfortable. I would however, encourage anyone interested, to take the time to give Git and GitHub a go as it makes life so much easier.

Patches/Submissions

Git

Please see the Pro Git book for more details on how to use git. The ‘Commit Guidelines’ and ‘Public Small Project’ sections of the Contributing to a Project page are particularly relevant.

The most important points are:

• Keep each commit associated with one logical idea or change.
• Try to remember to use: git diff --check to prevent the introduction of whitespace errors into your commits.
• The first line of a commit message should be no more than 50 characters and be in the imperative present tense, e.g. instead of “I fixed problem with…”, or “Fixing problem with…”, it should be “Fix problem with…”. This is so that the messages are easily read and so that git shortlog displays properly.
• If further explanation of the commit is needed, then follow the first line of the commit message with a blank line and then a further explanation of the change and the motivation for it.
• When working on a patch/topic that you want merged into the master branch, create a branch on your fork describing what you are doing using the form: yourGitHubUserName/yourPatchOrTopic. Then post a link to it in the mailing list, describing what you have done. This is so that it can easily be assessed before merging.

Mailing List

If you are not comfortable with Git, then you can submit patches via the mailing list.