1 * Contributing to the Mono project
3 There are many ways in which you can help in the Mono project:
6 * <b>Programmers:</b> You can work on a free
7 implementation of the <a
8 href="class-library.html">class libraries</a>, the
9 <a href="runtime.html">runtime engine</a>, <a
10 href="tools.html">the tools</a>, the <a
11 href="testing.html">testing framework</a>
13 * <b>Writers:</b> You can help us bywriting <a
14 href="documentation.html">documentation</a>.
17 Those are just broad things that need to be worked on, but
18 something that would help tremendously would be to help with
19 small duties in the project that need to be addressed.
21 You can see what needs to be done in the class libraries <a href="class-status.html">here</a>
23 ** To start contributing
25 To start developing classes or to contribute to the compiler,
26 you only need Windows and the .NET Framework 1.0 SDK. Please notice
27 that you do not need Visual Studio (although you can use it if
28 you want). The .NET Framework SDK requires some version of
29 Windows XP or Windows NT. If you are running Windows 98, 95
30 or Me, you could use instead the <a
31 href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads/default.asp?url=/downloads/sample.asp?url=/msdn-files/027/001/829/msdncompositedoc.xml">.NET Redist package</a>, but it
32 lacks the documentation browser and the ildasm program (C#, VB, JScript and IL
33 assembler are included).
35 You can get it <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads/default.asp?url=/downloads/sample.asp?url=/msdn-files/027/000/976/msdncompositedoc.xml&frame=true">here</a>
37 If you are new to .NET, writing regression tests is a good way
38 of starting to contribute: it will help you get used to C# as
39 well as getting comfortable with the .NET APIs.
41 This helps because at this point you might be the best
42 qualified person to fix a problem found by the regression
43 test, or you might have a new class to implement in the .NET
44 world that only has a test suite.
46 To get started writing tests see the <a href="testing.html">Test Suite</a>
51 If you find bugs in Mono, please make sure you enter a bug
52 report so we can keep track of problems in Mono.
54 To enter bug reports go to <a href="http://bugzilla.ximian.com">
55 http://bugzilla.ximian.com</a> and enter bug reports against
56 your favorite component (Mono, Runtime, C# compiler).
58 You can review the list of current bugs by going <a href="http://bugzilla.ximian.com/buglist.cgi?product=Mono%2FClass+Libraries&product=Mono%2FMCS&product=Mono%2FRuntime&bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&email1=&emailtype1=substring&emailassigned_to1=1&email2=&emailtype2=substring&emailreporter2=1&changedin=&chfieldfrom=&chfieldto=Now&chfieldvalue=&short_desc=&short_desc_type=substring&long_desc=&long_desc_type=substring&bug_file_loc=&bug_file_loc_type=substring&keywords=&keywords_type=anywords&op_sys_details=&op_sys_details_type=substring&version_details=&version_details_type=substring&cmdtype=doit&order=%27Importance%27&form_name=query">here</a>
62 A few smaller tasks are here, dropped in no particular order:
64 * <b>Mono/doc and web site:</b> They need to be
65 packaged up in the official `distribution'
67 * Adding serialization support to all the classes.
69 We have many classes, but we have not implemented in
70 many cases the serialization and re-incarnation support in
71 them (this is pretty straight forward code, and simple,
72 but there is a lot to be done here).
77 Brad Merryl's C# mode for Emacs is available: <a
78 href="http://www.cybercom.net/~zbrad/DotNet/Emacs/">http://www.cybercom.net/~zbrad/DotNet/Emacs/</a>
80 * Books on C# and DotNet.
83 * Dotnet Books (<a href="http://www.dotnetbooks.com">http://www.dotnetbooks.com</a>)
85 * Dotnet Resources (<a href="http://www.dotnetexperts.com/resources/">
86 http://www.dotnetexperts.com/resources</a>)
88 * O'Reilly C# Essentials (<a href="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/csharpess/">
89 http://www.oreally.com/catalog/csharpess</a>)
91 * O'Really .NET Essentials (<a href="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/dotnetfrmess/">
92 http://www.oreally.com/catalog/dotnetfrmess</a>)
97 If you have looked at Microsoft's implementation of .NET or
98 their shared source code, you may not be able to contribute
99 to Mono. Details will follow when we know more about this.
101 In general be careful when you are implementing free software
102 and you have access to proprietary code. We need to make sure
103 that we are not using someone else's copyrighted code
106 Please do not use the <b>ildasm</b> program to disassemble
107 proprietary code when you are planning to reimplement a class
108 for Mono. If you have done this, we might not be able to use
111 Please stick to published documentation for implementing any