jack_mixer/docs/CONTRIBUTING.md

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Contributing

Contributions are welcome, and they are greatly appreciated! Every little bit helps, and credit will always be given.

Types of Contributions

You can contribute in many ways:

Report Bugs

Report bugs at https://github.com/jack-mixer/jack_mixer/issues.

If you are reporting a bug, please include:

  • Your operating system name and version.
  • The jack_mixer version (see the "About" dialog).
  • The Python version (python --version).
  • A description of what went wrong ("X doesn't work" is not enough!).
  • Detailed steps to reproduce the bug.
  • Any details about your local setup that might be helpful in troubleshooting.

Fix Bugs or Implement Features and Enhancements

Look through the GitHub issues for for anything tagged with "bug", "feature request" or "enhancement" and if you think you can help out, leave a comment on the issue saying what you intend to work on and in which timeframe.

Write Documentation

jack_mixer could definitely use more documentation, whether it is more detailed man pages or a real user guide, better docstrings or comments in the code, or even third-party tutorials, video or quick tips on social media.

If you want to help out with the documentation, please get in touch with the jack_mixer maintainers via the Github issue tracker, email or on IRC (see README for contact information)

Add or Update Translations

We would like to translate the user interface of jack_mixer in as many languages as possible and keep existing translations as up-to-date and error-free as possible.

See the Translations section below.

Submit Feedback

The best way to send feedback is to also file an issue at https://github.com/jack-mixer/jack_mixer/issues.

If you are proposing a feature:

  • Give a short and poignant title to your feature request issue.
  • Explain in detail how it would work.
  • Keep the scope as narrow as possible, to make it easier to implement.
  • Remember that this is a volunteer-driven project, and that contributions are welcome :)

Development

Development Environment Setup and Workflow

Ready to work on jack_mixer? First you should set up your local development environment:

  1. Fork the jack-mixer/jack_mixer repo on GitHub.

  2. Clone your fork locally:

     $ git clone git@github.com:your_name_here/jack_mixer.git
    
  3. Install all build and run-time requirements listed in the INSTALL file and make sure you can configure and build the application with meson as described in the same document.

  4. Install flake8, isort and black either via your distribution's package management or with pip install.

  5. Create a branch for local development of your new feature or bugfix:

     $ git checkout -b bugfix/what-does-this-fix
    

    or:

     $ git checkout -b feature/what-does-this-do
    

    Now you're ready to make your changes, make sure you follow the Coding Guidelines outlined below.

  6. Commit your changes and push your branch to GitHub:

     $ git add .
     $ git commit -m "Detailed description of your changes."
     $ git push -u origin name-of-your-bugfix-or-feature
    
  7. Submit a pull request through the GitHub website.

Create a new branch for every new PR, starting from the main branch.

Coding Guidelines

Python Code

  • Check all Python code with flake8 and fix all warnings and errors or explicitly silence them (and be ready to explain why you did this when your changes are reviewed).
  • Format all Python code with isort and black.
  • Line-endings should should be Unix style (\n), not Windows style (\r\n).
  • Cython files should follow the same formatting rules as Python source code, where possible.
  • The Python code must work for all supported Python 3 versions (see pyproject.toml).

C Code

  • Opening brackets go on their own line:
    if (condition)
    {
        stuff;
    }
  • There should be a space between keywords and parenthesis for: if, else, while, switch, catch, function.
  • Function calls have no space before the parentheses.
  • No spaces are left inside the parentheses.
  • A space after each comma, but without space before.
  • All binary operators must have one space before and one after.
  • There should be no empty comments.

These conventions may change in the future and we may introduce auto-formatting of C code with clang-format at some point.

Translations

Adding a New Translation

  1. Copy data/local/jack_mixer.pot to data/locale/jack_mixer-<lang>.po, where <lang> is the two- or three-letter code for the language of the new translation.
  2. Edit data/local/meson.build and add a string element with the language code for the new translation to the languages array (keep it sorted alphabetically).
  3. Edit jack-mixer-<lang>.po and translate all messages (you only need to translate the messages for argparse, which are used in the command line help text).
  4. Run ./tools/compile-messages.py to compile all *.po files to *.mo files.
  5. Build the application with meson and then run it from the root of the source directory using the ./tools/jack_mixer.sh script and check your translations. Also use the -h command line option to check the translation of the usage help message.
  6. Add a Comment tag in the new language to the data/jack_mixer.desktop file.
  7. Commit the jack-mixer-<lang>.po file and your changes to the .desktop and data/locale/meson.build files to a new branch and make a Pull Request.

Updating a Translation

When the timestamp listed in data/local/jack_mixer.pot is newer than a translation .po file, it may contain updated or new messages, which need to be translated.

Run the ./tools/merge-messages.py script to update all *.po files and then edit the .po for the language translation you want to update. Use git diff jack-mixer-<lang>.po to check for new or updated messages.

When you have made your edits, check the new translations as described above and make a new Pull Request (only include the .po files, which you edited).