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→‎How can I get involved in Octave development?: add a section telling to not just send email with a list of skills (adapted from the book Open Advice) Also remove advice about using debugger -- it is too advanced to recommend for starters
(→‎How can I get involved in Octave development?: add a section telling to not just send email with a list of skills (adapted from the book Open Advice) Also remove advice about using debugger -- it is too advanced to recommend for starters)
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==How can I get involved in Octave development?==
==How can I get involved in Octave development?==


Be around. Be social. Participate in the [https://mailman.cae.wisc.edu/listinfo/help-octave help] and [https://mailman.cae.wisc.edu/listinfo/octave-maintainers maintainers] mailing lists. Find things about Octave you don't like, and start thinking about how to fix them. 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.
Be around. Be social. Participate in the [https://mailman.cae.wisc.edu/listinfo/help-octave help]
and [https://mailman.cae.wisc.edu/listinfo/octave-maintainers maintainers]
mailing lists. Find things about Octave you don't like, and start thinking
about how to fix them. 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.


If you feel ready to dive right into the code, read [[Hacking | here]] and [http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/get-involved.html here] for guidance. One of the best ways for understanding how Octave works is to [[Debugging Octave|run it in a debugger]].
If you feel ready to dive right into the code, read [[Hacking | here]]
and [http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/get-involved.html here] for
guidance. But do not send an email to the mailing lists listing your
skills and offering to help.  We won't just suggest things for you to do.
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.


We also need help with this wiki and the [http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/doc/interpreter/ manual]. These are also important tasks. The documentation is easier to patch, so you can discuss improvements to it and submit patches. Or just edit this wiki!
We also need help with this wiki and the
[http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/doc/interpreter/ manual]. These are
also important tasks. The documentation is easy to patch, and the help text
for individual functions even more so. Editing this wiki is even easier.


Accurate bug reporting is also very useful. Find and report [http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/bugs.html 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 [https://savannah.gnu.org/mail/?group=octave the 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.
Accurate bug reporting is also very useful. Find and report
[http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/bugs.html 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
[https://savannah.gnu.org/mail/?group=octave the 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.


Look at our [[Projects]] and [[Summer of Code Project Ideas]] if you need specific inspiration for coding tasks that we would like to get done. See also the list of [[short projects]].
Look at our [[Projects]] and [[Summer of Code Project Ideas]] if you need
specific inspiration for coding tasks that we would like to get done. See
also the list of [[short projects]].


=Licensing issues=
=Licensing issues=

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