On 16/03/2011 7:02 PM, Daniele Tampieri wrote:
> Dear Sirs,
> I started to use Maxima inside Emacs a few time ago,
> and I would like to ask a few questions on how contribute
> to the project at best.
> 1)What are the basic steps a supporter/contributor should
> take (inscription to comunity/newsgroup and so on...)?
I suggest:
* subscribe to the mailing list
* build maxima from cvs source using at least two different lisps.
This is quite easy on many linux distributions. It is more
difficult on windows, but even I can do it now. ;-)
* roll up your sleeves and start somewhere
o look through the bug database or the mailing list archives,
find some bugs that look simple to fix or that you find
interesting, debug them and try and fix them. This is the
hard at first.
o post any bug fixes to the list for discussion. If they look
OK then a maintainer will commit them for you
o you could also try and understand how some part of maxima
works, then add some comments to the code describing the
algorithms used
o there are undocumented packages and functions. A beginner
can make a contribution here as little knowledge of the
internals is required. google
"site:www.math.utexas.edu/pipermail/maxima undocumented" for
a few examples.
o additions to the testsuite are welcome, but please discuss
before going to a significant effort
* build up some credibility with the maxima community, then if you
are still interested you can request to become a maintainer
yourself. The barriers are fairly low, but we want to know that
you won't do anything stupid.
> a)Do there exists a manual for the developer advicing
> on the best way to write code for the project?
No. I can only suggest you look at code, read the mailing list archive
and ask questions