1 Information for Newcomers

First of all, many thanks for your interest in collaborate in the development! Here you will find some useful information to get started.

Getting a copy of the sources

The first step to perform is to get a local copy of the development sources. Just install a GNU Bazaar client and issue the following commands.

To get the sources of the GNU PDF Library from the trunk:

          $ bzr branch http://bzr.savannah.gnu.org/r/pdf/libgnupdf/trunk

Getting familiar with GNU Bazaar

We are using the GNU Bazaar ¹ version control system. Before to be able to contribute code to this project you should get familiar to the usage of Bazaar.

The GNU Bazaar User Guide ² is very good. In the Bazaar site (http://www.bazaar-vcs.org) you will also find useful tips for people coming from other VCSs such as CVS or subversion.

Subscribing to the development mailing list

GNU PDF developers communicate using the pdf-devel@gnu.org mailing list. Most of the work in the development is discussed there, so you definitely want to subscribe to it if you are going to do development work.

Goto the pdf-devel mailman web interface in http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/pdf-devel and set up your subscription. Then, send a first email saying "Hello" :)

Getting familiar with Savannah

Savannah is the central point of development for GNU software. The GNU PDF project has a savannah project in http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/pdf

Getting familiar with the library

Take a look to the design of the library and the source code. If you have doubts about any aspect of the library or the implementation, just ask to pdf-devel.

Getting familiar with the GNU standards

The GNU PDF Library is a GNU package. That means we should follow the GNU Standards to ensure quality and compatibility with other parts of the GNU Operating System.

You should be familiar with the GNU Coding Standards before to write code for the GNU PDF library. You can read it online in http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards.

Getting familiar with our coding conventions

Read our Hackers Guide (this very document) for several conventions we use when writing source code.

Taking a task to work on

Please read the documentation on tasks management in Tasks management.

If you want to work in a NEXT task, please be sure to state your interest in the gnu-devel mailing list before. The developers in the pdf-devel mailing list can guide you towards the more convenient task for you to take and can give valuable advice about how to implement it.

Getting an account for the wiki

It is quite important to write down the design of the code you write for the project. So if you are going to write code please ask the maintainer ³ for an account in gnupdf.org.

Signing papers

The GNU PDF codebase is copyrighted by the Free Software Foundation. It is a way to strength the GPL. That means that we need you to sign papers before to be able to integrate your code in the distribution. There are several ways to get this done. Please ask the maintainer for the details.

Sending patches for inclusion

If you have written a patch you want to be included in GNU PDF, please send it to the pdf-devel mailing list. Your patch will be then discussed and maybe accepted.