[Adium-devl] Suggestions to help people get comfortable with the Adium code

[Colin Barrett]

On Dec 7, 2006, at 9:38 PM, Chris Stewart wrote:

> As I've been struggling these past few weeks/months I've kept tabs  
> on a few items I think would be helpful for new developers of Adium.
>
> 1. A visual diagram of how Adium is structured.  I think it would be  
> helpful to visually see the different components that make up  
> Adium.  For each component, you could list where in the code the  
> developer can find the relevant source.
>
> 2. A visual representation of how Adium actually works.  I think any  
> sort of visual on how the notification piece to Adium works would be  
> helpful for people to understand how Adium actually works.
>
> 3. If it exists, a list of the people that maintain or are generally  
> involved with the different components of Adium.  So if someone  
> starts working on a specific section they'll know who to contact  
> about design and potential issues that may arise.

This is kind of related to the concept of ownership. I'm not a huge  
fan of direct code ownership (if you're not ready for other people to  
change code, keep it in a branch). However, a list of what sections of  
Adium people are familiar with and interested in would be useful. A  
wiki page sounds ideal for this :)

> 4. It would help to be able to easily find this information from the  
> Trac (http://trac.adiumx.com/) page on the bottom right side of the  
> page.  Or, possibly, to make that bottom right side of the page the  
> focus on the page itself instead of the search.
>
> During this time I've also found a bunch of things that have helped  
> me get aquainted to the project.
>
> 1. The development mailing list!  I couldn't get anything done  
> without access to this list.  I learn a ton from watching the  
> communication go back and forth.

We should do more to make sure that the people who are interested in  
being on this about this list know about it.

> 2. The IRC channel.  While I'm not a constant visitor, I have used  
> it for quick questions and it has proven very useful.

Would a development oriented IRC channel be helpful to you? The  
current one is a mix of both support and development talk mixed in.

> 3. The development team has been very helpful and interested in  
> getting me started to contribute.  That goes along ways. :)

Hey, well, I think we work really hard at trying to be helpful and  
accommodating to people who want to contribute. Surprisingly, not all  
projects are like this!

> Anyway, I hope some of these are seen as useful to others

If you have Wiki access already, could you put it up? If not, tell  
Chris your wiki name and he'll add you.

Additionally, what do you guys think about letting anyone with an  
account edit the Wiki?

-Colin