path: root/tde-i18n-en_GB/docs/tdebase/faq/contrib.docbook

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<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, &eg; 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 (&eg; 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>