V FAQ (HOW CAN I HELP?)

  • How can I contribute to the V project?

    • How can I contribute to the V project?

     Q:
    How can I contribute to the V project?

    A:

    As you may know from other sources, so far V has been pretty much a one person project - me. That means while V is getting pretty complete, there are still things missing, and things that could be done to make it better.

    I really appreciate help from the ever growing V community. There are several ways you can help contribute to V:

    1) Find bugs.

    If you discover a V bug, I really do appreciate bug reports. Better are bug reports with a solution. I've received an amazing number of bug reports along with a patch to the source code to fix it. While it would be ideal to get a report and a fix, I still want to get the reports.

    2) Contribute applications.

    I'd like to collect two kinds of V applications. First would be apps that would be useful to the whole V community, either as a tool, or perhaps as an example of something useful. I'd also like any kind of app that uses V that you might wish to share. Any time you can share code that others might learn from, it will be useful.

    3) Additions to V

    V does have some things missing (a direct draw canvas, multi-selection lists, double click in Athena, etc.). I would like to see all of these added to V eventually, but just don't have the time to get to them quickly. I'd really like contributions such as these.

    However, for the contributions to be really useful, they need to be developed using certain guidelines. First, if you see a hole you'd like to fill, e-mail me bruce@objectcentral.com first. Someone else might be working on it, or I might already have some specific ideas. If it is a big project (like the OS/2 port), I probably can put you in touch with others working on the problem.

    Second, a new feature for one platform isn't really useful for inclusion in V. Anything new must run on both Windows X, and OS/2. There are a few ways to handle this requirement. First, do the different versions yourself. Second, find someone else to do the other platforms. Third, use only existing V classes.

    One problem with distributed development by volunteers is keeping things in sync. I've been turning out a new version of V every few months, so it is hard to keep contributions current when they are necessarily done on older versions. We just have to work with it.

    In summary, I really do like help. It is hard to coordinate sometimes, but I will do my best. Contributors will be acknowledged in the appropriate places. Just send me e-mail with any bugs reports, contributions, or ideas.