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List:       koffice
Subject:    Re: newbie developer
From:       Werner Trobin <trobin () kde ! org>
Date:       2000-09-12 12:01:25
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John Califf wrote:
> 
> Hello!
> 
> Yesterday I joined the kde-devel and koffice mailing lists and also sent
> a mail to two of the current KOffice developers about my interest in
> working on Kword and other KOffice components.  Perhaps I should have
> sent the mail here instead.
> 
> For several months now I have been building the cvs snapshots (currently
> using 9 Sept. snapshot) periodcally. It compiles fine and most of Kde
> works beautifully. However, for me Kword is almost unusable - therefore
> I have been motivated to help out.

Great! ;)

> To submit patches I will need to pull
> from cvs instead of using snapshots, etc., but I really don't understand
> the etiquette.  Are bugs assigned to individual developers or do we just
> pick them up and submit patches?

As there are only some active KOffice developers around this is just a
matter of picking up a bug report, fixing it and sending a patch.

>  Who reviews patches that we might send
> in?

As we are frozen right now it's probably the best to send patches
to the list and wait for approval. If noone objects and you don't
get any approval for, say, two days just commit. In your case (i.e.
you don't have CVS access) you'll have to send the patch to the
list anyway. Then someone will pick it up and commit for you. If
you send patches regularly the CVS gods might create an account ;)

>  I assume it would be a good idea to post here announcing any
> proposed changes to get feedbad, etc.  If someone could please explain
> to me the unwritten rules of the game I might be able to play the game.

As soon as you plan bigger changes to the code it's surely a
good idea to discuss the possible solutions first - for small
bugfixes (i.e. mouse handling, fixing a SIGSEGV,...) I don't
think that a discussion is needed.

> I understand that Kde is currently in bugfix mode but I think I
> understand how to fix bugs wthout breaking compatibility.

This binary/source compatibility issue only applies for the kdelibs
package, fortunately we don't have to care about that in KOffice.

>  Anyway, it
> will take me some time to get the cvs version set up on my box and to
> familiarize myself with KOffice code so you won't be getting patches
> from me right away.
> 
> I would prefer to work with current KOffice developer(s) who may be
> overwhelmed with things to do.  Does anyone need help with anything in
> particular? Do you want help?  I do not like to just butt in to a
> project or duplicate the work someone else may be doing.
> 
> My goal right now is just to get Kword usable.  There are a number of
> bugs related to saving and loading of files when new frames have been
> added, terrible navigation, crashes related to mouse clicks on the
> document, etc.  Later, I would like to work on some speed and memory use
> optimizations, usability enhancements and design improvements, but the
> immediate need seems to be bugfixes. KWord does work, sort of, for
> simple documents.  But it could do a lot more and this is a really
> important part of Kde which is in need of much work, in my opinion.
> 
> This is rather embarrassing,  but I don't exactly understand how to use
> this mailing list. (I am one of those "older programmers" who is new to
> free software development practices using the internet) . So, I will
> post this mail hoping that someone responds. I assume that to respond to
> someone else's post in the same thread I should select "Reply" from the
> Netscape Messenger menu and this will format the mail as a new message
> to the correct topic in the list with the > bracketing and indenting,
> etc.  Is this correct?

Yes.

>  If someone will respond I can test. (I will also
> check the list archive to make sure this mail gets posted and check the
> thread, etc.).

-- 
Werner Trobin - trobin@kde.org

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