<!-- <?xml version="1.0" ?> <!DOCTYPE chapter PUBLIC "-//KDE//DTD DocBook XML V4.2-Based Variant V1.1//EN" "dtd/kdex.dtd"> --> <chapter id="contribute"> <title >Contributing</title> <qandaset> <qandaentry> <question> <para >How can I contribute to &kde;?</para> </question> <answer> <para >&kde; is a free software project that lives from voluntary contributions. Everybody is encouraged to contribute to &kde;. Not only programmers are welcome. There are many ways in which you can help to improve &kde;:</para> <itemizedlist> <listitem ><para >Test the software.</para ></listitem> <listitem ><para >Send in bug reports. For more information on this, see <link linkend="bug-report" >How do I submit a bug report?</link >.</para ></listitem> <listitem ><para >Write documentation or help files. You can get some information by visiting the <ulink url="http://i18n.kde.org/doc/" >&kde; Editorial Team Home Page</ulink >.</para ></listitem> <listitem ><para >Translate programs, documentation, and help files. For more information on this, you should visit <ulink url="http://i18n.kde.org" >The &kde; Translators' and Documenters' Web Site</ulink >.</para ></listitem> <listitem ><para >Draw nice icons or compose sound effects. You can visit the <ulink url="http://artist.kde.org/" >&kde; artists page</ulink > to find out more.</para ></listitem> <listitem ><para >Write articles and books about &kde;. If you want to help spread the word about &kde;, simply send an email to <email >kde-pr@kde.org</email >. This will get you in touch with the &kde; public relations volunteers.</para ></listitem> <listitem ><para >Program new &kde; applications. Please refer to <xref linkend="programming"/> for more information.</para ></listitem> <listitem ><para >Of course, sponsors are also welcome. :-)</para ></listitem> </itemizedlist> <para >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 <ulink url="http://www.kde.org/mailinglists/" >mailing lists</ulink >. You will soon see something that can be improved or added.</para> </answer> </qandaentry> <qandaentry> <question id="bug-report"> <para >How do I submit a bug report?</para> </question> <answer> <para >There is a bug tracking system available at <ulink url="http://bugs.kde.org" >http://bugs.kde.org</ulink >. The system features a wizard to submit new bug reports and a list of all known bugs.</para> <para >The easiest way to submit a bug is to select <menuchoice ><guimenu >Help</guimenu ><guimenuitem >Report Bug...</guimenuitem ></menuchoice > from the menu bar of the application with the bug. This will open a small dialogue box with a link to the bug tracking system. Please make sure to follow the instructions of the bug reporting wizard.</para> </answer> </qandaentry> <qandaentry> <question id="programming"> <para >I want to program for &kde;. What should I do first?</para> </question> <answer> <para >Everybody is encouraged to develop software for &kde;. What you should do first depends strongly on your experience, ⪚ whether you have already learned C++ or have experience with the &Qt; toolkit and so on.</para> <para >To get into &kde; programming, you will need some basic tools: <application >automake</application >, <application >autoconf</application >, and <application >egcs</application >. You should look to <ulink url="http://developer.kde.org/" >http://developer.kde.org/</ulink > for more tips.</para> <para >Another excellent resource for learning &kde; programming is the &Qt; online tutorials. These are installed along with &Qt;. To view them, open <filename >$<envar >QTDIR</envar >/doc/html/index.html</filename > in &konqueror; and bookmark it. The tutorials can be found under "Using Qt". The source code for each lesson can be found in the <filename class="directory" >$<envar >QTDIR</envar >/tutorial</filename > directory.</para> <para >There is, however, one thing that everybody interested in programming for &kde; should do: <emphasis >subscribe to the developers mailing list</emphasis >. To subscribe, you have to send an email to <ulink url="mailto:kde-devel-request@kde.org" >kde-devel-request@kde.org</ulink > with the subject <userinput >subscribe <replaceable >your_email_address</replaceable ></userinput >. <important ><para >Please read <link linkend="subscribe" >How to subscribe/unsubscribe to these lists</link > carefully. Everything said there applies to the development list as well.</para ></important ></para> </answer> </qandaentry> <qandaentry> <question> <para >How do I get access to the <acronym >CVS</acronym >?</para> </question> <answer> <para >The &kde; project uses <acronym >CVS</acronym > to develop the core parts of the software. Usually, when you have changed one of the parts (⪚ 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.</para> <para >If you are doing this more or less regularly, you can ask Stephan Kulow, <email >coolo@kde.org</email > for direct access to the <acronym >CVS</acronym > server. But be aware that more users will slow down <acronym >CVS</acronym > access for all developers, so we want to keep the number of people with direct <acronym >CVS</acronym > access reasonably small. But feel free to ask!</para> </answer> </qandaentry> <qandaentry> <question> <para >I am just curious. Can I have read-only access to the <acronym >CVS</acronym >?</para> </question> <answer> <para >Yes. It is possible to get read-only access to the <acronym >CVS</acronym > repository with <application >cvsup</application > or <application >cvs</application > utility. You can find more information about how to set up <application >cvsup</application > for the &kde; repository from <ulink url="http://developer.kde.org/source/cvsup.html" >How to use <application >cvsup</application > to get &kde;</ulink >.</para> <para >In addition, anonymous <acronym >CVS</acronym > service is also available. To find out more about how to set up and use anonymous <acronym >CVS</acronym >, please see <ulink url="http://developer.kde.org/source/anoncvs.html" >here</ulink >.</para> </answer> </qandaentry> <qandaentry> <question> <para >Are there any <application >cvs</application > mirror sites for &kde;?</para> </question> <answer> <para >Yes. The main &kde; server is normally very busy. Please take a look at <ulink url="http://developer.kde.org/source/cvsupmirrors.html" >http://developer.kde.org/source/cvsupmirrors.html</ulink > and <ulink url="http://developer.kde.org/source/anoncvs.html" >http://developer.kde.org/source/anoncvs.html</ulink > for the list of available mirrors.</para > <para >Once you have selected a new <application >cvsup</application > server, simply replace <screen > *default host=cvs.kde.org </screen > with <screen > *default host=cvsup.your.new.host </screen > in your <application >cvsup</application > script.</para> <para >The instructions to change the anoncvs server can be found on <ulink url="http://developer.kde.org/source/anoncvs.html" >http://developer.kde.org/source/anoncvs.html</ulink >, too. </para> </answer> </qandaentry> <qandaentry> <question> <para >How do I go about translating &kde; programs into my native language?</para> </question> <answer> <para >Look at the <ulink url="http://i18n.kde.org" >The &kde; Translators' and Documenters' Web Site</ulink > to see whether your program is already translated (most are). Otherwise you will find information there on how to do it yourself.</para> </answer> </qandaentry> </qandaset> </chapter>