Developer FAQ: Difference between revisions

* <p>'''Be around.  Be social.'''</p><p>Participate in our mailing lists [https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-octave help@octave.org] and [https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/octave-maintainers maintainers@octave.org].  Find things about Octave you don't like, and start thinking about how to fix them. '''But do not send an email to the mailing lists listing your skills and offering to help.'''</p><p>Many people who now contribute to Octave first spent several years helping in the mailing list before they started to delve into the code.  A good way to learn Octave is to understand the problems other people are having with it, so being helpful in the mailing lists not only helps Octave as a whole, but it also prepares you to be a better Octave contributor.</p>

* <p>'''Kill the bugs.'''</p><p>Accurate bug reporting is also very useful.  Find and report [http://bugs.octave.org/ bugs], making an attempt to diagnose them.  Eventually, you will also know how to fix them.  If you want to help with bug reports or patches, subscribe to the [https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/octave-bug-tracker bug tracker mailing list].  You'll get updates on all bug activity, and you can jump in when you see something you can help with.</p>

* <p>'''Getting hands dirty.'''</p><p>If you feel ready to dive right into the code to make some changes, the [[Building]], [[Mercurial]], and [[Contribution guidelines]] wiki pages are a very useful start.</p><p>We lack volunteers and '''we do need your help''', but because of that, we also lack the time to provide good guidance and mentoring.  If there is a specific short-term project you would like to work on, say so, and '''just do it'''.  Then ask for help or advice when you're doing it.  It is a lot more important that you do something that you're actually interested on than something we suggested because it only matches your skills.</p>

* <p>'''Octave needs more documentation.'''</p><p>If you like documenting software or have great ideas for Octave, please get in contact with us.  Additionally, see [[Project - Documentation]] for details.</p>

* <p>'''Need inspiration?'''</p><p>Look at our [[projects]], [[short projects]], and [[Summer of Code - Getting Started]] if you need specific inspiration for coding tasks that we would like to get done.</p>