How to contribute to the project - emulator, ROMs, other software

[Schol-R-LEA 7]

I was wondering if the developers of the emulator and the ROMs accept any sort of contributions to the code base. If so, is there are particular process to doing so, beyond simply issuing a pull request?

I have forked the project in order to make a minor modification (nothing significant, just adding a shell option to show release information), and was wondering if the developers would have any interest in it (or more likely, a more polished implementation of the same basic idea). I don't know if I would make any further contributions, but this one should be ready for their review now. However, as an outsider, I don't want to blindly issue a pull request and possibly step on someone else's prerogatives.

[StephenHorn 204]

@Michael Steil tends to take pull requests in batches as time allows. I don't have a lot of insight into the kinds of things he's actively looking for help with, asides from unit tests, but there is an "issues" section on the github page: https://github.com/commanderx16/x16-emulator/issues

I do know that Michael's not particularly interested in further work on optimizing the emulator, unless the gains are somewhere north of a 10% improvement (i.e. he's not interested in small-potatoes optimizations, but will still consider larger wins).

[Jestin 27]

I've a had couple PRs accepted for fixing up the docs in https://github.com/commanderx16/x16-docs, but as @StephenHorn points out, they are accepted in batches.  Maybe I've been stepping on toes and not knowing it, but I typically assume that open source projects are open to pull requests, so long as they conform to any document they have out there outlining contributions.  That said, I believe only the x16-demo project has any process of contributing outlined:  https://github.com/commanderx16/x16-demo/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md

Perhaps adding a similar doc to to the other repositories would be helpful as the X16 project grows in awareness and popularity.  I'd put out a PR to add them, myself, except I don't think I'm really the right person to define how contributions should work.

 

[Schol-R-LEA 7]

OK, well, thank you. I went ahead and issued a pull request, and hopefully no one will be too offended by my doing so. 

[Michael Steil 63]

I'm very very happy about pull requests. If you look at the release notes of the emulator and the ROM, you can see that many different people are contributing these days. Most emulator changes are done by people outside the core team.

All reviewing and merging gets done by me, currently. I work on all parts of the ROM: KERNAL, BASIC, FPLIB, DOS, GEOS, MONITOR, CHARSET – and that's where most of the remaining work for the final ROM has to be done, while the emulator is in quite a good shape. That's why I only task switch to the emulator about once a week or so, looking at all pull requests that have piled up.

But to say that again: I an very very happy about pull requests.  And I'm also very happy about people pitching in and commenting on existing pull requests, e.g. saying that the code looks good to them, or what they would change, so I can spend less time reviewing the code.

[SerErris 69]

HI Michael, do you know who is maintaining the demo repository? I am working on updateing the Basic examples (first) to get them to compatability with R37 (now R38) release. But pull requests for demos just sitting there. I would even volunteer to maintain the demo section. Please let me know what you think

[Michael Steil 63]

4 hours ago, SerErris said:

HI Michael, do you know who is maintaining the demo repository? I am working on updateing the Basic examples (first) to get them to compatability with R37 (now R38) release. But pull requests for demos just sitting there. I would even volunteer to maintain the demo section. Please let me know what you think

I'm maintaining it. Well, until just now. Now you are.

I maintain all four repos: x16-emulator, x16-rom, x16-docs and x16-demos. I tend to not multi-task too much, and I had been busy with other projects for months recently, which is why I haven't maintained x16-demos for a while.

I am happy about any help with any of these repos. Of course I'm interested in code contributions, but also code reviews and general cleanup patches. And in the case of x16-demos: Someone/people who help in keeping the repo in order; mark demos as working/non-working with the current emulator, accept new additions and maybe remove obsolete demos.

My plan for x16-demos has always been to compile it into demo sd card image once day that comes with the emulator.

[SerErris 69]

Great, happy to help. This projects gives me so much ... I am happy to give back to the project where I can.

[SerErris 69]

1 hour ago, Michael Steil said:

I'm maintaining it. Well, until just now. Now you are.

Have you added me to the official maintainers already, or is something missing? Do not see any pull request rights to merge into master. ... 

[Michael Steil 63]

3 minutes ago, SerErris said:

Have you added me to the official maintainers already, or is something missing? Do not see any pull request rights to merge into master. ... 

I don't have the permission to give you this permission myself at the moment, but I'm happy to merge all your pull requests in the meantime.

[SlithyMatt 343]

14 minutes ago, SerErris said:

Have you added me to the official maintainers already, or is something missing? Do not see any pull request rights to merge into master. ... 

You can always fork the repo and issue PRs from there. Same with any public repo on GitHub.

[SerErris 69]

1 minute ago, SlithyMatt said:

You can always fork the repo and issue PRs from there. Same with any public repo on GitHub.

Yes understood and did so - however the demos are not merged at the moment. 

@Michael SteilNo reason to hurry .. let me do the work ... I just wanted to understand if something is missing. But that explains why I am not able to do it. Good enough for now.

[Michael Steil 63]

@SerErris: I just merged all open x16-demos pull requests that had no conflicts.

[SerErris 69]

[Jestin 27]

Thanks @Michael Steil and @SerErris!