Editing Developer FAQ

== How can I get involved in Octave development? ==

* <p>'''Be around.  Be social.'''</p><p>Participate in our [https://octave.discourse.group/ Discourse Forum].  Find things about Octave you don't like, and start thinking about how to fix them. '''Please do not just send a message listing your skills and offering to help.'''</p><p>Many people who now contribute to Octave first spent some time observing the community communication 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 Discourse not only helps Octave as a whole, but it also prepares you to become 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>See [[#How can I contribute code to Octave?]] below. 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>

== How can I contribute code to Octave? ==

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.

== How can I find which file implements a given command? ==

From within Octave, use <code>which</code>:
<syntaxhighlight lang="Octave">
>> which help
</syntaxhighlight>

  'help' is a function from the file /some/path/m/help/help.m

If the desired function is a m-file, one can simply edit it inside the GUI, just type:
<syntaxhighlight lang="Octave">
>> edit help
</syntaxhighlight>

Some functions are already compiled (a.k.a. ''built-in functions''), for example:

<syntaxhighlight lang="Octave">
>> which addpath
</syntaxhighlight>

  'addpath' is a built-in function from the file libinterp/corefcn/load-path.cc

This function is to be found in Octave's source code, in this case at [https://hg.savannah.gnu.org/hgweb/octave/file/b33d4fbce33e/libinterp/corefcn/load-path.cc#l2355].

If the source code is cloned to a local machine, you can edit the repective file and search for something like "<code> (addpath,</code>".

[[Category:Development]]
[[Category:FAQ]]