Getting started with contributing

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A lot of new contributors that want to dive in to helping fix bugs and develop new awesome things often ask "Well, where do I start?". Below are some links to comprehensive resources so that newcomers can get up to speed and get dive right in to fixing bugs.

Getting started with git and GitHub

All of Diaspora's code is hosted on GitHub, a social coding platform that leverages Git for many different Free and Open Source projects. You can use any operating system to contribute with GitHub, all you need is an account and to follow GitHub's easy and helpful guide for setting up your account from the command line and learning to use the commands. Git is supported on all major platforms.

Once you're all set up, check out the issue tracker and watch for entries tagged with "newcomer" or "quickfix". Most often those are the things which you don't need a deep understanding of the complete codebase for to work on them, and the tasks should be easy enough for novice programmers to tackle.

All about bugs

There are some different things about bugs that you ought to know, specifically, how to report a bug, and how to claim and fix a bug. Both incorporate well into our GitHub-based workflow, and is designed to make the process of fixing bugs easier for everybody.

How to contribute the right way

Diaspora's development tries its very best to stick to a set of guidelines when it comes to contributing code. When you're writing a bugfix or custom code from scratch, it's good practice to ask yourself:

Does my code have tests?
Am I sticking to the Git Workflow the best I can?
Do I follow the styleguide?

Also, please familiarize yourself with some good tips on how to become a member in an open source community.

Other helpful resources

Below are some helpful relevant links to other parts of the wiki. We're currently restructuring everything, so the below links may be subject to change.