CVS developer's policy
Background
With CVS, we can concurrently work on the code tree. Now it gets easy for
an individual to solve a simple bug. No more annoyingly waiting for lazy me to
accept your patch or take your hint -- just fix it right there. No longer will
you have to tell me what I have to change for port FOO to work, and then wait
for the next developer's release to see if I got your message; if you run this
platform at home, you can change and test it yourself, all in real-time.
But such a powerful weapon needs to have a usage policy; without the right
instructions, you can do the code a lot of harm. So please read this policy
thoroughly before starting to use L.O.S.E.R. CVS. Thank you.
How to CVS
To get to know how CVS works, please read the Sourceforge documentation on
this subject. This document doesn't cover this topic.
Working on tasks
Discuss what you plan to do on the mailinglist first. Maybe someone else is
working on this too, or maybe your plans don't fit well with our plans and we
need to work things out.
Moving/ adding/ deleting files/ directories
If you want to do any of these, please discuss it with the mailinglist
first, for the following two reasons:
- These actions are maintenance actions, and should happen in accordance to
the maintenance plans. Of course if you are appointed to some porting task, and
you need to add a C file in your directory, well, be my guest. Just don't
throw over the file structure just because you like it.
- There are some topics with moving directories in CVS and I still need to
read the manuals :-D
Code credits
If you want credits for your code, you'll have to have the patience to do
the following few things:
- Update the copyright header on top of the .c (or .h, or other) files you
have been working on. (If not already there, create the header!)
- Add yourself to the AUTHORS file in the root directory.
NOTE: only do this if you made considerable changes. You will understand that
it is not practical to change more lines in the copyright or in AUTHORS, than
you changed in the code itself. We are trying to keep a good overview of the
code credits, so please help us keeping it. Thank you.
The copyright header
The copyright header should look like this one:
/* nameoffile.c
*
* description of what the heck this file does and
* of what program it is part, and stuff like that
*
* Copyright year, year nameofauthor1 <mail>
* nameofauthor2 <mail>
* Copyright year nameofauthor3 <mail>
*/
(So if you've been working in 1991 and 2001 on this file, write a line
"Copyright 1991, 2001 yourname"; this is how copyright should be
notated.)
By specifying of what program(s) this file is a part, you also agree
that your code may be used under the license terms of that program. So
if you're worried about the license under which your changes fall, please look
that up. Also, if we ever think of relicensing our code, we can now easily see
who we'll have to ask for permisson for which part of the program(s).
The AUTHORS entry
By specifying your name in each file that you have worked on, we can resolve
copyright issues whenever they apply. But for a simple credit listing (e.g. in
the game itself), we don't want to sort out all these names from all these
files. Therefore, you should add yourself to the AUTHORS file.
This file should be formatted as follows:
Networking code:
John Doe <the.man@thestreet.com>
I. R. "Sniff" Baboon <baboon@r-u-talking2i-r.com>
Commodore-64 port:
Giana Sisters <zaxxon@gcs.de>
John Doe <the.man@thestreet.com>
NOTE: Authors of data files shouldn't add their names to this list, as this
would only mess up this list (we would have to list each and every character,
tileset and audio file apart). Data files will have their own credit system in
the future.
Also note that you can put your nickname in double quotes between your first
and last name(s). Please hold on to these formatting rules (name-of-project
[enter] [three spaces] first name(s)"nick" last name(s)
<e-mail>); maybe we want to be able to parse this file one day.
Data files (graphics, sounds, etc.)
Data files may be maintained outside of CVS in the future. This still needs
to be worked out. Please don't change data files in CVS for now; instead show
your data files on the mailing list (NOT attached plz %) so that we can decide
upon using them in the next release.
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