path: root/doc/faq/contrib.docbook

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<chapter id="contribute">
<title>Contributing</title>

<qandaset>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>How can I contribute to &tde;?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>&tde; is a free/libre software project that lives from voluntary
contributions. Everybody is encouraged to contribute to &tde;. Not
only programmers are welcome. There are many ways in which you can
help to improve &tde;:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>Test the software.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Send in bug reports. For more information,
refer to <link linkend="bug-report">How do I submit a bug
report?</link>.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Write or edit documentation and help files.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Translate programs, documentation, and help files.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Draw icons, wallpaper, or compose sound effects.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Write articles and books about &tde;. If you want to
help spread the word about &tde;, send an email to
<email>[email protected]</email>. This will get you in touch
with the &tde; developers and packagers.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Program new &tde; applications. Please refer to <xref
linkend="programming"/> for more information.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para> Of course, sponsors are also
welcome. :-)</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>There are several places to look for more information if you
want to get involved in the development. The first step is to
subscribe to some of the <ulink  url="http://www.trinitydesktop.org/mailinglist.php">mailing
lists</ulink>. You will soon see something
that can be improved or added.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question id="bug-report">
<para>How do I submit a bug report?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>There is a bug tracking system available at <ulink
url="http://bugs.pearsoncomputing.net/">http://bugs.pearsoncomputing.net/</ulink>
and thanks for helping! The system features several query types and a
list of all known bugs.</para>
<para>The easiest way to submit a bug is to select
<menuchoice><guimenu>Help</guimenu><guimenuitem>Report
Bug/Request Enhancement...</guimenuitem></menuchoice> from the menu bar of the application
with the bug. This will open a dialog box with a link
to the bug tracking system. Please follow the
instructions of the bug reporting wizard.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>May I join the development team?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>Please! Join our discussion list at
<ulink url="http://www.trinitydesktop.org/mailinglist.php">
http://www.trinitydesktop.org/mailinglist.php</ulink>. Join
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) sessions at chat.freenode.net, channel: #trinity-desktop</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question id="programming">
<para>I want to program for &tde;. What should I do first?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>Everybody is encouraged to develop software for &tde;. What you
should do first depends strongly on your experience, &eg; whether you have
already learned C++ or have experience with the &Qt; toolkit and so
on.</para>
<para>To get into &tde; programming, you will need some basic tools:
<application>automake</application>,
<application>autoconf</application>, and
<application>cmake</application>.</para>
<para>An excellent resource for learning &tde;
programming is the &Qt; tutorials. These are installed along with &Qt;. To view them,
open <filename>$<envar>QTDIR</envar>/doc/html/index.html</filename> in
&konqueror; and bookmark the locatio. The tutorials
can be found under "Using Qt". The source code for each lesson can be found in the <filename
class="directory">$<envar>QTDIR</envar>/tutorial</filename>
directory.</para>
<para>There is one thing everybody interested in
programming for &tde; should do: please <emphasis>subscribe to the developers
mailing list</emphasis>. To subscribe, you have to send an email to
<ulink
url="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</ulink>
with an empty email.
<important><para>Please read<ulink url="http://www.trinitydesktop.org/mailinglist.php">
http://www.trinitydesktop.org/mailinglist.php</ulink>. Everything
written there applies to the development list as well.</para></important></para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>How do I get access to &tde; <acronym>GIT</acronym>?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>The &tde; project uses <acronym>GIT</acronym> to develop the
core parts of the software. Usually, when you have changed one of the
parts (&eg; fixed a bug), and you want to commit this change, the best
way is to create a patch against a current snapshot and send this
patch to the developer/maintainer of the respective program.</para>
<para>If you are doing this more or less regularly, then contact the developers
to obtain write access to the <acronym>GIT</acronym> repository:
<ulink url="[email protected]">
[email protected]</ulink>.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>Can I have read-only access to the <acronym>GIT</acronym> repository?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>Yes. Instructions on how to get anonymous, read-only <acronym>GIT</acronym>
access are here: <ulink url="http://www.trinitydesktop.org/wiki/bin/view/Developers/GIT">
http://www.trinitydesktop.org/wiki/bin/view/Developers/GIT</ulink>
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>Are there any <acronym>GIT</acronym> mirror sites for &tde;?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>No, currently there are no anonymous <acronym>GIT</acronym> mirror sites for &tde;.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<!--<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>How do I go about translating &tde; programs into my native
language?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>Look at the <ulink url="http://i18n.kde.org">The &tde;
Translators' and Documenters' Web Site</ulink> to see whether your
program is already translated (most are). Otherwise you will find
information there on how to do it yourself.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>-->
</qandaset>
</chapter>