ES-DE/CONTRIBUTING.md

# EmulationStation Desktop Edition (ES-DE) - Contributing

### Help needed

If you are experienced with developing cross-platform client applications in C++ then ES-DE could be an interesting project for you! Although the application does not have a huge codebase, it's fairly complex as it covers many different areas. To work on the project you need to be able to test your code on Linux, macOS and Windows.

Merge requests are only accepted from project members so if you would like to contribute to ES-DE then please get in touch and we can discuss what you would like to work on. But please only consider joining if you intend to be contributing long term as the project is quite large in scope and to train someone to be a team member is a substantial time investment.

Development is tracked using a Kanban board which is publicly visible at the project's GitLab site:

[https://gitlab.com/es-de/emulationstation-de/-/boards](https://gitlab.com/es-de/emulationstation-de/-/boards)

Development takes place in the `master` branch, and bug fixes/point releases are handled in the `stable` branches (only the latest stable version is maintained).

### Coding style

Code formatting is applied automatically using clang-format, so to understand the exact formatting rules, refer to the .clang-format file in the root of the ES-DE repository. You can read in [INSTALL.md](INSTALL.md#using-clang-format-for-automatic-code-formatting) how clang-format is installed and used.

But as clang-format won't change actual code content or fix all code style choices, here are some additional key points:

* Always write comments in C++ style, i.e. `//` instead of `/* */`
* Comments should be proper sentences, starting with a capital letter and ending with a dot
* Use C++ and not C, for example `static_cast<int>(someFloatVariable)` instead of `(int)someFloatVariable`
* Always declare one variable per line, never combine multiple declarations of the same type
* Name member variables starting with an `m` such as `mMyMemberVariable` and name static variables starting with an `s` such as `sMyStaticVariable`
* Use braced initializations when possible, e.g. `float myFloat {1.5f}` as this is the safest way to do it
* Short function definitions can be placed in either the .h or .cpp file depending on situation and context
* Try to be coherent with the existing codebase regarding names, structure etc., it should not be obvious that different persons wrote different sections of the code
* For the rest, check the code and have fun :)
Updated the documenation files headers. 2021-01-03 10:36:35 +00:00			`# EmulationStation Desktop Edition (ES-DE) - Contributing`
Documentation update, including addition of a CONTRIBUTING.md file. 2020-07-11 15:54:30 +00:00
Minor documentation update. 2020-12-30 22:23:30 +00:00			`### Help needed`
Documentation update, including addition of a CONTRIBUTING.md file. 2020-07-11 15:54:30 +00:00
Documentation update. 2023-02-27 17:17:01 +00:00			`If you are experienced with developing cross-platform client applications in C++ then ES-DE could be an interesting project for you! Although the application does not have a huge codebase, it's fairly complex as it covers many different areas. To work on the project you need to be able to test your code on Linux, macOS and Windows.`
Documentation update, including addition of a CONTRIBUTING.md file. 2020-07-11 15:54:30 +00:00
Documentation update. 2023-02-27 17:17:01 +00:00			`Merge requests are only accepted from project members so if you would like to contribute to ES-DE then please get in touch and we can discuss what you would like to work on. But please only consider joining if you intend to be contributing long term as the project is quite large in scope and to train someone to be a team member is a substantial time investment.`
Documentation update. 2022-04-10 18:36:07 +00:00
Documentation update. 2023-02-27 17:17:01 +00:00			`Development is tracked using a Kanban board which is publicly visible at the project's GitLab site:`
Added a link to the project Kanban board. 2021-01-05 10:35:47 +00:00
Updated all links to the new GitLab namespace. 2022-05-15 07:58:03 +00:00			`[https://gitlab.com/es-de/emulationstation-de/-/boards](https://gitlab.com/es-de/emulationstation-de/-/boards)`
Added a link to the project Kanban board. 2021-01-05 10:35:47 +00:00
Documentation update. 2023-02-27 17:17:01 +00:00			Development takes place in the `master` branch, and bug fixes/point releases are handled in the `stable` branches (only the latest stable version is maintained).
Documentation update, including addition of a CONTRIBUTING.md file. 2020-07-11 15:54:30 +00:00
Minor documentation update. 2020-12-30 22:23:30 +00:00			`### Coding style`
Documentation update, including addition of a CONTRIBUTING.md file. 2020-07-11 15:54:30 +00:00
Documentation update. 2023-02-27 17:17:01 +00:00			`Code formatting is applied automatically using clang-format, so to understand the exact formatting rules, refer to the .clang-format file in the root of the ES-DE repository. You can read in [INSTALL.md](INSTALL.md#using-clang-format-for-automatic-code-formatting) how clang-format is installed and used.`
Documentation update, including addition of a CONTRIBUTING.md file. 2020-07-11 15:54:30 +00:00
Documentation update. 2023-02-27 17:17:01 +00:00			`But as clang-format won't change actual code content or fix all code style choices, here are some additional key points:`
Updates to and additions of various information and license files. Located all license files in a separate directory, added a preliminary coding style guide, updated the README file and created a NEWS file to track the most important changes for each release. 2020-06-14 10:55:31 +00:00
Documentation update. 2021-07-04 19:01:14 +00:00			* Always write comments in C++ style, i.e. `//` instead of `/* */`
Updates to and additions of various information and license files. Located all license files in a separate directory, added a preliminary coding style guide, updated the README file and created a NEWS file to track the most important changes for each release. 2020-06-14 10:55:31 +00:00			`* Comments should be proper sentences, starting with a capital letter and ending with a dot`
Documentation update. 2023-02-27 17:17:01 +00:00			* Use C++ and not C, for example `static_cast<int>(someFloatVariable)` instead of `(int)someFloatVariable`
Added default theme 'rbsimple-DE' and updated some information files. 2020-06-15 15:45:53 +00:00			`* Always declare one variable per line, never combine multiple declarations of the same type`
Documentation update. 2021-07-04 19:01:14 +00:00			* Name member variables starting with an `m` such as `mMyMemberVariable` and name static variables starting with an `s` such as `sMyStaticVariable`
Documentation update. 2023-02-27 17:17:01 +00:00			* Use braced initializations when possible, e.g. `float myFloat {1.5f}` as this is the safest way to do it
			`* Short function definitions can be placed in either the .h or .cpp file depending on situation and context`
			`* Try to be coherent with the existing codebase regarding names, structure etc., it should not be obvious that different persons wrote different sections of the code`
Documentation update. 2021-07-07 19:02:11 +00:00			`* For the rest, check the code and have fun :)`