On 4/30/06, Kevin Krammer <kevin.krammer@gmx.at> wrote:

On Sunday 30 April 2006 21:41, Allan Sadun wrote:
> Wow! I've never gotten a reply from a mailing list, let alone three, so to
> avoid getting replies to my replies, I'll continue by private email.

Actually I'd like to recommend staying on the list as long as you have still
open questions. Others might have answers for the new questions as well or
might still answer you first round questions if they believe you are still
waiting for some.

You can CC any reply to this mail to the mailinglist as well if you like.

> Languages I'm fluent in: HTML, JavaScript, English

Usually our web team needs help as well, for reorganising content, testing,
creating new content, etc

They have a mailinglist as well: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-www

Parts of the KDE4 platform anticipated for end of the year, early next year
release will be extendable in JavaScript and there is a stand-alone
JavaScript interpreter with KDE bindings available even for KDE3:
http://xmelegance.org/kjsembed/

> I don't think I should start coding right away; As said above, I know C++,
> kinda, sorta, not really, but I can understand most code, so if I start by
> documentation, it'll fit my abilities, and by examining code, I can learn,
> so I think it's a good place to start.

Yes, definitely a good way to get into all the KDE action :)

> So... I browse the SVN repository, download code and documentation, write
> new docs, create diffs, and post them on the list? If so:
> 1. How do I make diffs?

Once you change a file in your SVN checkout, the command "svn diff" outputs
the differences. You can, after examining it and maybe reworking your
changes, have the command write to a file instead:

$ svn diff > /tmp/patchfilename.diff

> 2. What format should docs be in? HTML, ASCII, other?

As far as I know most of our documentation is in DocBook, however the
documentation team has regularily stated that they are happy with plain text
(ASCII) contributions as well.

Their mailinglist is https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-doc-english

> 3. Frans, you mentioned my "svn checkout". I'm new to the idea of SVN; what
> is it?

There is a KDE SVN Howto in our Wiki:
http://wiki.kde.org/tiki-index.php?page=KDE+Subversion+HOWTO

Cheers,
Kevin

--
Kevin Krammer <kevin.krammer@gmx.at>
Qt/KDE Developer, Debian User
Moderator: www.mrunix.de (German), www.qtcentre.org