Open Source Development Policies and Procedures for MLT
by Dan Dennedy

Policies
--------

Any contribution to the "core" module must assign copyright to Ushodaya
Enterprises Limited because they need license control over that module.

The framework and valerie client libraries are covered under LGPL. Miracle,
inigo, albino, and humperdink applications are covered under GPL. Modules
should strive to be LGPL to make them available through the framework as LGPL.

Comments in the framework and valerie header files must be C-style, not C++.

Coding Style:
There are not a lot of rules, but we prefer brackets on their own line,
indents using tabs, liberal usage of spaces in statements and expressions, and
no hard line length. The code in src/framework serves as a good example.

Commit messages must be prefaced with the name of the changed files. This makes
the Subversion log more useful as a ChangeLog. For example,
    docs/policies.txt: added policy about commit message

Increment the version number in ./configure on the first commit after a release
as well as just prior to a new release. This way we can track if someone is
using an unreleased version from the source code repository.

Procedures
----------

Update services.txt when you add or update a service.

Setting Copyright on Appropriated Code:
You do not want to be accused of copying someone's code and changing copyright
or license without permission. The license is straightforward: you must retain
the original author's license unless you receive explicit permission. There are
a few ways to approach the copyright declaration depending upon the
intermingling and changes. If you heavily comingle original and new code or
lightly modifiy the original code, you can retain the original's copyright
including the years, and then add your copyright for the current year. If you
can separate the MLT integration from the core subroutines, then you can put
the core subroutines into a separate file with the original copyright and just
copyright the MLT integration code as your own. However, if you have heavily
modified the original code beyond nearly all recognition, you can copyright it
as your own and attribute the original author as inspiration.

Bug Reporting:
First preference is to use the SourceForge tracker:
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=96039&atid=613414
Second preference is in the mailing list:
mlt-devel@lists.sourceforge.net