Chapter 19. Contributing

19.1. How can I contribute to TDE?
19.2. How do I submit a bug report?
19.3. May I join the development team?
19.4. I want to program for TDE. What should I do first?
19.5. How do I get access to TDE GIT?
19.6. Can I have read-only access to the GIT repository?
19.7. Are there any GIT mirror sites for TDE?
19.1.

How can I contribute to TDE?

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:

  • Test the software.

  • Send in bug reports. For more information, refer to How do I submit a bug report?.

  • Write or edit documentation and help files.

  • Translate programs, documentation, and help files.

  • Draw icons, wallpaper, or compose sound effects.

  • Write articles and books about TDE. If you want to help spread the word about TDE, send an email to . This will get you in touch with the TDE developers and packagers.

  • Program new TDE applications. Please refer to Q:19.4 for more information.

  • Of course, sponsors are also welcome. :-)

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 mailing lists. You will soon see something that can be improved or added.

19.2.

How do I submit a bug report?

There is a bug tracking system available at http://bugs.pearsoncomputing.net/ and thanks for helping! The system features several query types and a list of all known bugs.

The easiest way to submit a bug is to select Help->Report Bug/Request Enhancement... 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.

19.3.

May I join the development team?

Please! Join our discussion list at http://www.trinitydesktop.org/mailinglist.php. Join Internet Relay Chat (IRC) sessions at chat.freenode.net, channel: #trinity-desktop

19.4.

I want to program for TDE. What should I do first?

Everybody is encouraged to develop software for TDE. What you should do first depends strongly on your experience, e.g. whether you have already learned C++ or have experience with the Qt toolkit and so on.

To get into TDE programming, you will need some basic tools: automake, autoconf, and cmake.

An excellent resource for learning TDE programming is the Qt tutorials. These are installed along with Qt. To view them, open $QTDIR/doc/html/index.php 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 $QTDIR/tutorial directory.

There is one thing everybody interested in programming for TDE should do: please subscribe to the developers mailing list. To subscribe, you have to send an email to trinity-devel-subscribe@lists.pearsoncomputing.net with an empty email.

Important

Please read http://www.trinitydesktop.org/mailinglist.php. Everything written there applies to the development list as well.

19.5.

How do I get access to TDE GIT?

The TDE project uses GIT to develop the core parts of the software. Usually, when you have changed one of the parts (e.g. 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.

If you are doing this more or less regularly, then contact the developers to obtain write access to the GIT repository: trinity-devel@lists.pearsoncomputing.net.

19.6.

Can I have read-only access to the GIT repository?

Yes. Instructions on how to get anonymous, read-only GIT access are here: https://wiki.trinitydesktop.org/Project_GIT_Information

19.7.

Are there any GIT mirror sites for TDE?

Yes, an anonymous GIT mirror with CGIT interface is available at http://mirror.git.trinitydesktop.org/cgit.