* Contributing to the Mono project
- Links to Documentation.
- Links to Class Library.
- Links to ...
+ Mono has not been completed yet. It is a project under
+ active development and with a vibrant community. If you are
+ looking at ways of helping the project, you have come to the
+ right web page.
-* Special note
+ There are three different philosophical approaches to helping
+ the Mono project, the selfish way, the altruistic or the
+ educational way.
+
+ The <b>selfish</b> way is packed with adventure. You start by
+ building your own software, and start using the compiler and
+ tools that come with Mono. Eventually you will run into
+ missing features, or a bug in the software. Since we ship all
+ the source code for Mono, you can start tracking down the
+ problem. Depending on how much time you have to devote to the
+ problem you could: <a href="http://bugzilla.ximian.com">File a
+ bug report</a> (read <a href="#goodbugreport">this</a>); track
+ down the problem and provide a better
+ <a href="http://bugzilla.ximian.com">bug report</a>; fix the
+ bug and provide a patch (you can <a
+ href="mailto:mono-list@ximian.com">post it</a> to the <a
+ href="http://lists.ximian.com/mailman/listinfo/mono-list">mono
+ mailing list</a>; or discuss the solution on the mailing
+ list. Ideally you will also write a <a
+ href="testing.html">regression test</a> so the bug does not
+ get re-introduced in the future.
+
+ The <b>altruistic</b> is probably the easiest because you get
+ to pick a piece of Mono that you might want to work on. You
+ can pick an unfinished <a href="class-library.html">class</a> (from our <a
+ href="class-status.html">class status page</a>); help with the
+ <a href="documentation.html">documentation effort</a> (<a
+ href="http://lists.ximian.com/mailman/listinfo/mono-docs-list">mailing
+ list for the documentation effort</a>); fix existing <a
+ href=http://bugzilla.ximian.com/buglist.cgi?product=Mono%2FClass+Libraries&product=Mono%2FRuntime&component=CORLIB&component=misc&component=System&component=System.Web&component=System.XML&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&newqueryname=&order=Reuse+same+sort+as+last+time&form_name=query">runtime
+ bugs</a>; <a
+ href="http://bugzilla.ximian.com/buglist.cgi?product=Mono%2FMCS&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&newqueryname=&order=Reuse+same+sort+as+last+time&form_name=query">compiler
+ bugs</a>; help with the <a href="tools.html">tools</a> or
+ writing <a href="testing.html">tests</a> that help make Mono
+ more robust or help with the <a
+ href="http://www.go-mono.com/winforms.html">Winforms
+ effort</a>.
+
+ The <b>educational</b> way is an interesting one, because you
+ pick a technology you are interested in, and work on that
+ technology to learn the technology.
+
+ Those are just broad things that need to be worked on, but
+ something that would help tremendously would be to help with
+ small duties in the project that need to be addressed.
+
+ You can see what needs to be done in the class libraries <a href="class-status.html">here</a>
+
+* IRC Channel
+
+ Many developers get together on the <b>#mono</b> irc channel
+ on the <b>irc.gnome.org</b> server.
+
+** To start contributing
+
+ As a programmer, you can contribute in three different scenarios to Mono:
+
+ <ul>
+ * If you only have Linux/Unix.
+ * If you only have Windows.
+
+ * If you have both Linux and Windows.
+ </ul>
+
+ You might also want to check our <a href="#setup">common
+ setups</a> section that describes some common setups that people
+ use while working on Mono.
+
+*** Contributing to the class library, regression tests or the compiler
+
+ This only requires Windows currently.
+
+ To start developing classes or to contribute to the compiler,
+ you only need Windows and the .NET Framework 1.0 SDK. Please notice
+ that you do not need Visual Studio (although you can use it if
+ you want). The .NET Framework SDK requires some version of
+ Windows XP or Windows NT. If you are running Windows 98, 95
+ or Me, you could use instead the <a
+ 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
+ lacks the documentation browser and the ildasm program (C#, VB, JScript and IL
+ assembler are included).
+
+ 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>
+
+ If you are new to .NET, writing regression tests is a good way
+ of starting to contribute: it will help you get used to C# as
+ well as getting comfortable with the .NET APIs.
+
+ This helps because at this point you might be the best
+ qualified person to fix a problem found by the regression
+ test, or you might have a new class to implement in the .NET
+ world that only has a test suite.
+
+ To get started writing tests see the <a href="testing.html">Test Suite</a>
+ section. <a href="mono-contribution-howto.html">Here</a> there is a good All-In-One introduction to the art of writing tests.
+
+
+*** Contributing to the runtime engine
+
+ This only requires Linux, currently some tasks are easier if you
+ have access to Windows as well.
+
+ Here are a few things you can do:
+ <ul>
+ * Port the runtime to other architectures.
+ * Port the runtime to other operating systems.
+ * Finish the IL code verifier in the runtime.
+ * Hack the JIT, improve the code generator, add new
+ pattern rules, improve the register allocator.
+ * Implement the debugging interfaaces
+ </ul>
+
+** Bug reporting
+
+ If you find bugs in Mono, please make sure you enter a bug
+ report so we can keep track of problems in Mono.
+
+ To enter bug reports go to <a href="http://bugzilla.ximian.com">
+ http://bugzilla.ximian.com</a> and enter bug reports against
+ your favorite component (Mono, Runtime, C# compiler).
+
+ 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>
+
+ Check our <a href="bugs.html">Bugs</a> that contains links to
+ easily add a bug report, or to query the existing bugs.
+
+<a name="goodbugreport"/>
+** How to make good bug reports
+
+ A mail from Paolo to mono-devel-list contained this check list:
+ <ol>
+ * Submit a test case, the smaller it is, the better
+
+ * Use <a href="http://bugzilla.ximian.com">
+ http://bugzilla.ximian.com</a> to report the bug.
+
+ <p>In <b>addition</b> to bugzilla, posting to the list is
+ fine if the bug merits larger exposure or design
+ discussions to solve; posting to the list twice or more
+ is just a way to annoy people and make them waste time,
+ specially when you start a new thread about it.
+
+ * If the test involves libraries or assemblies that are
+ not part of mono, add info about where to download all
+ the dependencies, and how to compile/install them.
+
+ * If compiling the test case requires more than:
+ <pre> mcs test.cs </pre>
+ provide the <b>full command line</b> you used to compile
+ the test.
+
+ * If running the test requires more than:
+ <pre> mono test.exe </pre>
+ provide the <b>full command line</b> needed to replicate
+ the bug.
+
+ * Provide info about the version of the software you're
+ using (both mono and the operating system or relevant
+ libraries).
+
+ * Provide the output you expect the test case to produce.
+
+ * Provide the actual output <b>you</b> get from the test case.
+ </ol>
+
+ A good bug report complies with at least 6 items from the list.
+ If your bug report complies with 3 or less items, it is very
+ poor and it means it will take much more time to fix (when it's
+ not ignored).
+
+** Small tasks
+
+ A few smaller tasks are here, dropped in no particular order:
+ <ul>
+ * <b>Mono/doc and web site:</b> They need to be
+ packaged up in the official `distribution'
+
+ * Adding serialization support to all the classes.
+
+ We have many classes, but we have not implemented in
+ many cases the serialization and re-incarnation support in
+ them (this is pretty straight forward code, and simple,
+ but there is a lot to be done here).
+ </ul>
+
+* Emacs support
+
+ Brad Merryl's C# mode for Emacs is available: <a
+ href="http://www.cybercom.net/~zbrad/DotNet/Emacs/">http://www.cybercom.net/~zbrad/DotNet/Emacs/</a>
+
+* Books on C# and DotNet.
+
+ <ul>
+ * Dotnet Books (<a href="http://www.dotnetbooks.com">http://www.dotnetbooks.com</a>)
+
+ * Dotnet Resources (<a href="http://www.dotnetexperts.com/resources/">
+ http://www.dotnetexperts.com/resources</a>)
+
+ * O'Reilly C# Essentials (<a href="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/csharpess/">
+ http://www.oreally.com/catalog/csharpess</a>)
+
+ * O'Really .NET Essentials (<a href="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/dotnetfrmess/">
+ http://www.oreally.com/catalog/dotnetfrmess</a>)
+ </ul>
+
+<a name="setup">
+* Common Setups
+
+ People running both Linux and Windows while contributing to
+ Mono use a number of tricks to increase their productivity.
+
+ Scenarios:
+
+ <ul>
+ * <b>Linux host and Windows host</b>
+
+ The Windows file system is shared (right click on
+ your hard drive icon, and select sharing, allow this
+ to be shared).
+
+ The Windows machine has the required build tools
+ (cygwin, and the .NET framework). On the Windows
+ machine, you want to setup the ssh server (run the
+ ssh-host-config program to configure your ssh) and
+ run it (from a cygwin terminal, type: /usr/sbin/sshd).
+
+ From the Linux side, you want to mount the Windows
+ file system, using something like this:
+
+<tt><pre>
+ mount -t smbfs -o uid=miguel,username="Miguel de Icaza" "//quack/c$" /mnt
+</pre></tt>
+
+ In the above example, my Linux user name is
+ `miguel', and this will allow this user to have
+ read/write access to the share.
+
+ The host name is `quack', and the name of the share
+ is `c$' (that is the C: partition).
+
+ The file system is accessible on /mnt.
+
+ You can perform your cvs update and cvs commits from
+ the /mnt directory, and run Emacs or your favorite
+ Linux text editor on the Unix side in this way.
+
+ Then from another terminal, you can ssh into your
+ Windows box using ssh, like this: ssh "Miguel de Icaza@quack"
+ </ul>
+
+* Special Note
If you have looked at Microsoft's implementation of .NET or
- their shared source code, you will not be able to contribute
- to Mono.
+ their shared source code, you may not be able to contribute
+ to Mono. Details will follow when we know more about this.
+
+ In general be careful when you are implementing free software
+ and you have access to proprietary code. We need to make sure
+ that we are not using someone else's copyrighted code
+ accidentally.
+
+ Please do not use the <b>ildasm</b> program to disassemble
+ proprietary code when you are planning to reimplement a class
+ for Mono. If you have done this, we might not be able to use
+ your code.
- Please, follow care when reading code
+ Please stick to published documentation for implementing any
+ classes.
projects / mono.git / blobdiff