X-Git-Url: http://wien.tomnetworks.com/gitweb/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=web%2Fcontributing;h=ffadd989e986a6ff2cb01ffcd80b1e4072f7bb91;hb=ef931215dd74f69d01e1f0d452eb512d89a7ac3b;hp=c09f5a79e8cdc8561eaf2e716c5b3d8d5390538f;hpb=6fa717e133a00bfcb00784282bdf160763470ba2;p=mono.git

diff --git a/web/contributing b/web/contributing
index c09f5a79e8c..ffadd989e98 100644
--- a/web/contributing
+++ b/web/contributing
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
 		  href="tools.html">the tools</a>, the <a
 		  href="testing.html">testing framework</a>
 
-		* <b>Writers:</b> You can help us with writing <a
+		* <b>Writers:</b> You can help us bywriting <a
 		  href="documentation.html">documentation</a>.
 	</ul>
 
@@ -18,15 +18,67 @@
 	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>
+
 ** 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 Beta 2 SDK.  Please notice
+	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).  
+	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">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
@@ -36,23 +88,89 @@
 	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>
+
 ** Small tasks
 
 	A few smaller tasks are here, dropped in no particular order:
 	<ul>
-		* <b>MCS compilation process:</b> Currently MCS does
-		  not build with a single `make' command.  This should
-		  be fixed (this being part of the `Joel Test' that
-		  software has to pass).
-
 		* <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>
 
-* Books on C#
+* Emacs support
 
-	
-* Special note
+	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 may not be able to contribute