Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => FS2 Open Coding - The Source Code Project (SCP) => Topic started by: Nami on November 18, 2010, 10:19:11 am

Title: Joining/contributing to the SCP
Post by: Nami on November 18, 2010, 10:19:11 am
Hi.  I am interested in contributing to the SCP, specifically, getting wxFRED working with full functionality on Linux systems.  I am a mid-range C/C++ programmer, but quite honestly, I have never used wxWidgets and I'm unfamiliar with how to do commits with svn.  I am also not too familiar with the FRED code at this time, but I am confident in my abilities to familiarize myself and make changes. 

What is involved in joining the project?  If I don't deliver right away, am I booted?  I really don't have all the time now to fully immerse myself, but I love the game and would like to see the vision realized of being able to use all the tools on Linux.  Is it possible to contribute code without being an "official member" of the project?  Thanks!
Title: Re: Joining/contributing to the SCP
Post by: General Battuta on November 18, 2010, 10:20:56 am
If I don't deliver right away, am I booted?

haha no

The team is, so far as I know, pretty chill.
Title: Re: Joining/contributing to the SCP
Post by: Iss Mneur on November 18, 2010, 10:52:50 am
Hi.  I am interested in contributing to the SCP, specifically, getting wxFRED working with full functionality on Linux systems.  I am a mid-range C/C++ programmer, but quite honestly, I have never used wxWidgets and I'm unfamiliar with how to do commits with svn.
Thats fine, the FSO code base it self is a bit different from anything else any of the coders have ever encountered (thats C/C++ for you :D).  wxWidgets has nice manuals on their website (http://www.wxwidgets.org/docs/), SVN has this handbook (http://svnbook.red-bean.com/) (which also explains what the point of version control is if you don't already know).

I am also not too familiar with the FRED code at this time, but I am confident in my abilities to familiarize myself and make changes.  
FRED itself is fairly straight forward to work with, if a bit obtuse because it is a event based GUI.  If you have the ability to compile FRED it is actually quite easy to at least understand the premise.  As always, the hard part is in the details, especially code.lib (which is the core of the engine that is shared between FRED and FSO).

What is involved in joining the project?
Basically, submitting a patch and then following (or refuting) any suggestions that the coders come up with.

If I don't deliver right away, am I booted?
No, essentaily the only reason that you would be booted is either you were being a prima don(na) or causing damage to the code base, our reputation, or these forums themselves.

I really don't have all the time now to fully immerse myself, but I love the game and would like to see the vision realized of being able to use all the tools on Linux.  Is it possible to contribute code without being an "official member" of the project?
You can certainly submit patches on the forums or in mantis, that we will review (and likely critique) and then one of us with commit access (probably one that can also verify that what you submitted works correctly) will then commit it to SVN.

I would suggest starting small.

Thanks!
No problem, if you have questions, you can ask here in SCP forum or find talk to us live on IRC, channel #scp, server: irc.esper.net (if you don't know what that means, click here to use mibbit (http://widget.mibbit.com/?settings=b73fe961ed217d9a3cbd9637dc7ba9bf&server=irc.esper.net&channel=%23scp&noServerTab=false)).
Title: Re: Joining/contributing to the SCP
Post by: Nami on November 18, 2010, 11:10:15 am
Thanks for the quick responses!  It may take me a while to get anywhere, but once I get familiarized and (hopefully) get something working (after seeing what I can/can't do), I will submit a patch.  It could be a while though.  Thanks again. 
Title: Re: Joining/contributing to the SCP
Post by: Rodo on November 18, 2010, 11:19:53 am
what? so wxFRED is fred for Linux systems?

mmm, then I should probably modify a particular mantis entry.

EDIT:

****, I cannot modify the original report, can someone else do that?

The report is ID nÂș: 0002268, it should be loaded as scp fred error and it's saved as wxfred.

Sorry...
Title: Re: Joining/contributing to the SCP
Post by: General Battuta on November 18, 2010, 11:22:49 am
what? so wxFRED is fred for Linux systems?

mmm, then I should probably modify a particular mantis entry.

No. wxFRED is a cross-platform FRED that works on Windows, Linux or OS X. It will also be better than regular FRED.
Title: Re: Joining/contributing to the SCP
Post by: Rodo on November 18, 2010, 11:29:39 am
No. wxFRED is a cross-platform FRED that works on Windows, Linux or OS X. It will also be better than regular FRED.
Oh I see, then it's not that bad, but still wrong.
Title: Re: Joining/contributing to the SCP
Post by: The E on November 18, 2010, 12:58:33 pm
No, it's correct. The bug that causes that bug (Yes, it's a hierarchy) is so deep in the basic concepts that make up FRED that fixing it was put into the todo list for wxFRED.
Title: Re: Joining/contributing to the SCP
Post by: Nuke on November 18, 2010, 07:36:41 pm
theyve even accepted patches from me on some occasions