Get Involved/development: Difference between revisions

From KDE Community Wiki
No edit summary
(31 intermediate revisions by 17 users not shown)
Line 2: Line 2:
== Becoming a KDE Developer ==
== Becoming a KDE Developer ==


[[Image:development.png|Development|left]]By joining the ranks of KDE developers, you will get to implement new features and defeat daunting bugs, all while collaborating to make coherent and stable releases. Developers collaborate in teams based on what area they are working in, such as [http://edu.kde.org/ Education], [http://pim.kde.org/ Productivity], or [http://games.kde.org/ Games].
[[File:Konqui dev close cropped.png|right|x200px|]]
By joining the ranks of KDE developers, you will get to implement new features and defeat daunting bugs, all while collaborating to make coherent and stable releases. Developers collaborate in teams based on what area they are working in. These can be small teams working on a single application, up to large teams working on group of related pieces of software. Many developers are in more than one team.


Frank Osterfeld advises "start small and scratch your own itch, at least that's what kept me motivated in the beginning."


As a result of a [http://dot.kde.org/2012/02/05/kde-development-%E2%80%93-beginners-guide/ Sprint] held in October 2011 we now have a [http://flossmanuals.net/kde-guide/ Beginner's Guide to KDE Development] available to ease the new contributors way into KDE development.
KDE runs or participates in several mentoring programs to help new developers, including an informal list of people who are willing to help newcomers get started. See the [[Mentoring]] page for more details.
 
==Choosing what to do==
 
A good place to start is with a small bug or feature in an existing piece of software that affects you personally ("scratch your own itch"). Get in touch with the existing developers (see [[#Communicating with the team|Communicating with the team]], below) and they can help you out, by pointing you to the right place in the code and giving advice about how to tackle the problem.
 
Other starting points are:
 
* [https://bugs.kde.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=UNCONFIRMED&bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&keywords=junior-jobs&list_id=1340815 Junior Jobs] are small tasks that are suitable for beginners (both bugs and features)
* [http://www.englishbreakfastnetwork.org/ The English Breakfast Network] searches out simple, common issues in code that should be fixed, and going through the problems on there can provide a good overview of the code


== Communicating with the team ==
== Communicating with the team ==


There are many ways to get in touch with KDE developers, and developers for a specific project:<br /> Start at [irc://irc.kde.org/kde-devel <nowiki>#kde-devel</nowiki>] on irc.freenode.net, or [http://kde.org/support/#irc learn more about IRC].<br /> The central mailinglist for development is the [https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-devel kde-devel mailing list], [http://kde.org/support/#mailinglists learn about mailing lists]. However each team has its own messaging channels, both on IRC and on the mailinglists, you can find a list [http://www.kde.org/mailinglists/ here].
There are several ways to get in touch with KDE developers, and developers for a specific project. The two most important are:
 
* the IRC channel [irc://irc.kde.org/kde-devel <nowiki>#kde-devel</nowiki>] on [http://freenode.net/ the freenode network] ([http://kde.org/support/#irc learn more about IRC]) is the core channel for developers
* the primary development mailing list is the [https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-devel kde-devel list] ([http://kde.org/support/#mailinglists learn more about mailing lists])
 
 
Both of these are general KDE development communication channels, and you may get directed to a more appropriate place for the project you are interested in. There is a [http://www.kde.org/mailinglists/ list of mailing lists] if you want to find a mailing list for a specific team directly.
 
You can also try looking for the team's section on the [[Main Page]] of this wiki. Many teams have information there for new contributors.
 
==New to (C++/Qt) software development?==
 
Most KDE software is written in C++ using the [https://www.qt.io Qt framework]. There are many guides to C++ online, and which one works for you will depend on how you learn best and what previous programming experience you have.
 
For learning Qt, you can find [https://wiki.qt.io/Books a list of books for learning Qt] on the Qt wiki. Qt also provides [http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qtexamplesandtutorials.html lots of examples] you can look at.
 
Most KDE software is also built on other KDE software, particularly the KDE Frameworks. The [https://techbase.kde.org TechBase wiki] has documentation about using these libraries, and a [[Books | book]] is available.
 
==Getting the code==
 
Source code for KDE projects can be found in the KDE Git repositories. These are listed in our [https://commits.kde.org/ repository browser], and the URLs you need to clone can be found there as well. If you are not familiar with [https://git-scm.com/ Git], the [https://git-scm.com/book Git Book] is a good introduction, although all you really need right now is


== Getting and building the code ==
{{Input|1=git clone <nowiki>https://anongit.kde.org/<repository-name>.git</nowiki>}}


In most cases, you will want to download, compile and install KDE trunk (our development tree) to start developing. Read the [http://techbase.kde.org/Getting_Started/Build/Unstable_Version unstable building guide]. If you get stuck or get errors, that's OK. You might not need to compile the whole set of applications, but getting started is a good step.
For almost all KDE software projects, you will need to use [https://www.cmake.org CMake] to build them. On UNIX systems, the process is fairly straightforward:


== Platform and Documentation ==
{{Input|1=mkdir build
cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/where/you/want/to/install/it ..
make
make install}}


KDE is written in C++ and uses the Qt framework. If you've never used Qt before, that's not a problem. Before you get started, you'll want to brush up on C++/Qt and our coding guidelines:
The CMake step will complain if you don't have the project's dependencies installed (don't forget that on many Linux distributions, you need to install the development version of packages). Once you have installed the things it tells you, re-run CMake so it picks them up. If you want a way to get the latest versions of all the dependencies easily, you might want to consider looking at [http://neon.kde.org.uk/ KDE Neon].


* [http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq-lite/ C++ FAQ lite] - at some point, you'll have a question that is answered here.
Hopefully the project has unit tests, which can be run with
* [http://original.jamesthornton.com/eckel/TICPP-2nd-ed-Vol-one/Frames.html Thinking in C++ (volume 1)], [http://original.jamesthornton.com/eckel/TICPP-2nd-ed-Vol-two/Frames.html Thinking in C++ (volume 2)] - an online book that goes into some of the technical details of C++
* [http://www.beginning-kdevelop-programming.co.uk/ Beginning KDevelop Programming] - a great guide from start to finish
* [http://doc.trolltech.com/4.7/all-examples.html Qt Examples] - If you're doing any serious coding in KDE you will need to understand Qt. These examples explain what's up but it will take a couple hours. You can do that later.
* [http://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tutorials Basic KDE development tutorials]
* [http://techbase.kde.org/Development KDE coding HOWTO's] - good coding documentation for beginners
* [http://techbase.kde.org/Contribute/Send_Patches Patches HOWTO] - until you earn an account in SVN, your contributions will be made as patches
* [http://techbase.kde.org/Schedules The KDE Development Plans] - This is the bigger picture for the development efforts of the KDE project, everyone should understand these before going forward
* [http://en.flossmanuals.net/kde-guide/ The definite KDE dev book] - a comprehensive guide for KDE developers to be.


== Tasks ==
{{Input|1=make test}}


Now you have the code on your computer and maybe got some of it to compile. Here are some tasks for you to get started. You can get your first contribution committed into the project within 1 hour!
Now you can open your editor and get hacking!


* [http://techbase.kde.org/Contribute/Bugsquad/Howto The Bugs Howto] - explains how to use and triage bugs. Why's it useful? It makes bug hunting and fixing easier for developers, so more bugs get fixed. Why choose bug triage instead of ...? It doesn't take much time to look over a bug, so it comes in nice small chunks. What skills do I need to do it? Not much, just a bit of patience and sometimes some perseverance. (quote from [http://accentgrave.blogspot.com/2006/03/ive-got-little-bit-of-free-time-so.html Phil's Triage Guide])
=Submitting your first patch=
* [http://www.englishbreakfastnetwork.org/ English Breakfast Network] - provides a list of functions that need to be documented. Try one of these for practice with svn and doxygen.
* [http://wiki.koffice.org/index.php?title=Junior_Jobs KOffice Junior Jobs] - simple programming jobs for KOffice
* [https://bugs.kde.org/buglist.cgi?keywords=junior-jobs&bug_status=UNCONFIRMED&bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&cmdtype=doit Junior Jobs on bugzilla] - a place where people mark jobs that might be easy for beginners to fix
* [https://bugs.kde.org/ KDE Bugzilla] - keeps track of all the bugs in KDE, you will want to bash them all


== Mentor program ==
Once you have made a change, you need to send it to someone on the team to review it and (hopefully) apply it. You should find out from the team what their preferred method is, but for most teams it will be uploading the patch to [https://phabricator.kde.org Phabricator]. You will need a [https://identity.kde.org KDE Identity] account to log in.


Getting started in a big project can be hard. Here are some people that are willing to help you learn the ropes and get you on board:
; [https://phabricator.kde.org Phabricator]
: The preferred way to submit a patch is through the [https://secure.phabricator.com/book/phabricator/article/arcanist/ Arcanist] command line too. You can also use the Phabricator web interface (after logging in, go to [https://phabricator.kde.org/differential/ Differential] (on the left menu), choose [https://phabricator.kde.org/differential/diff/create/ Create Diff] (in the top right) and follow the instructions), but then be prepared to communicate your email address if the patch is accepted, so that it can have the proper credits. More detailed documentation about the KDE instance of Phabricator [https://community.kde.org/Infrastructure/Phabricator is available].


* Blake Mordegarius (<span class="mailme"> mordegarius at gmail dot com</span>)<br />
==Next steps==
* Trever Fischer (<span class="mailme"> tdfischer at fedoraproject dot org </span>)<br /> Developer on the Phonon project
* Eike Hein (<span class="mailme">hein at kde dot org</span>)<br /> application developer; Konversation maintainer
* Albert Astals Cid (<span class="mailme">aacid at kde dot org</span>)<br /> available to hand out junior tasks
* Peter Simonsson (<span class="mailme">peter dot simonsson at gmail dot com</span>)<br /> application developer; KOffice devel/Kivio maintainer
* Will Entriken (<span class="mailme">kde dot org at phor dot net</span>)<br /> Google Summer of Code KDE developer
* Anne-Marie Mahfouf (<span class="mailme">annemarie dot mahfouf at free dot fr</span>)<br /> KDE-Edu development, KDE4 development, and tutorial writing
* Jeremy Whiting (<span class="mailme">jpwhiting at kde dot org</span>)<br /> Developer
* Teo Mrnjavac (<span class="mailme">teo at kde dot org</span>)<br /> Developer, Amarok
* Your name here!<br /> Volunteer to be a mentor -&gt; <span class="mailme">kde dot org at phor dot net</span>
<!-- BUMP YOURSELF WHENEVER YOU WANT! -->


If you are a student you might be interested in the Google Summer of Code program. KDE has been a mentoring organization for many years, we have a separate wiki page  with information on participating in [[GSoC|Google Summer of Code with KDE]].
After you have had several patches accepted, a KDE developer is likely to suggest you get a [[Infrastructure/Get a Developer Account|Developer account]], which will allow you to commit directly to KDE projects. There will be very few limits on where you can commit, so you are expected to act responsibly. At this point, congratulations! You are officially a KDE developer!

Revision as of 22:12, 15 September 2017

Becoming a KDE Developer

By joining the ranks of KDE developers, you will get to implement new features and defeat daunting bugs, all while collaborating to make coherent and stable releases. Developers collaborate in teams based on what area they are working in. These can be small teams working on a single application, up to large teams working on group of related pieces of software. Many developers are in more than one team.


KDE runs or participates in several mentoring programs to help new developers, including an informal list of people who are willing to help newcomers get started. See the Mentoring page for more details.

Choosing what to do

A good place to start is with a small bug or feature in an existing piece of software that affects you personally ("scratch your own itch"). Get in touch with the existing developers (see Communicating with the team, below) and they can help you out, by pointing you to the right place in the code and giving advice about how to tackle the problem.

Other starting points are:

  • Junior Jobs are small tasks that are suitable for beginners (both bugs and features)
  • The English Breakfast Network searches out simple, common issues in code that should be fixed, and going through the problems on there can provide a good overview of the code

Communicating with the team

There are several ways to get in touch with KDE developers, and developers for a specific project. The two most important are:


Both of these are general KDE development communication channels, and you may get directed to a more appropriate place for the project you are interested in. There is a list of mailing lists if you want to find a mailing list for a specific team directly.

You can also try looking for the team's section on the Main Page of this wiki. Many teams have information there for new contributors.

New to (C++/Qt) software development?

Most KDE software is written in C++ using the Qt framework. There are many guides to C++ online, and which one works for you will depend on how you learn best and what previous programming experience you have.

For learning Qt, you can find a list of books for learning Qt on the Qt wiki. Qt also provides lots of examples you can look at.

Most KDE software is also built on other KDE software, particularly the KDE Frameworks. The TechBase wiki has documentation about using these libraries, and a book is available.

Getting the code

Source code for KDE projects can be found in the KDE Git repositories. These are listed in our repository browser, and the URLs you need to clone can be found there as well. If you are not familiar with Git, the Git Book is a good introduction, although all you really need right now is

git clone https://anongit.kde.org/<repository-name>.git

For almost all KDE software projects, you will need to use CMake to build them. On UNIX systems, the process is fairly straightforward:

mkdir build
cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/where/you/want/to/install/it ..
make
make install

The CMake step will complain if you don't have the project's dependencies installed (don't forget that on many Linux distributions, you need to install the development version of packages). Once you have installed the things it tells you, re-run CMake so it picks them up. If you want a way to get the latest versions of all the dependencies easily, you might want to consider looking at KDE Neon.

Hopefully the project has unit tests, which can be run with

make test

Now you can open your editor and get hacking!

Submitting your first patch

Once you have made a change, you need to send it to someone on the team to review it and (hopefully) apply it. You should find out from the team what their preferred method is, but for most teams it will be uploading the patch to Phabricator. You will need a KDE Identity account to log in.

Phabricator
The preferred way to submit a patch is through the Arcanist command line too. You can also use the Phabricator web interface (after logging in, go to Differential (on the left menu), choose Create Diff (in the top right) and follow the instructions), but then be prepared to communicate your email address if the patch is accepted, so that it can have the proper credits. More detailed documentation about the KDE instance of Phabricator is available.

Next steps

After you have had several patches accepted, a KDE developer is likely to suggest you get a Developer account, which will allow you to commit directly to KDE projects. There will be very few limits on where you can commit, so you are expected to act responsibly. At this point, congratulations! You are officially a KDE developer!