Benjamin, Thomas, First of all, thank you for your contributions and continued support for this project. Contrary to what Rainer has stated, your code can become part of Empire-db, and you can become committers, though not immediately. Let me describe these two things in more detail. First concerning your code.
If you wish to submit your code for inclusion in the Empire-db project, you should attach the code to a JIRA ticket (http://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/EMPIREDB) and make sure you specify that you intend to have the code be included in Apache software. It would be even better if you would sign and submit a Contributor License Agreement (CLA), specifying that you license the code you commit (or have others commit) to the Apache Software Foundation. Read [1] for more information about the need for CLAs and for instructions on how to send one in, see [2] for the text version of the CLA and [3] for the PDF version. If you have questions concerning CLAs don't hesitate to ask. Once the code is in JIRA, and have the appropriate licensing in place (either the checkbox or a CLA on file), the Empire-db committers can include the code in the project. Now on becoming a committer. You are encouraged to continue to work on the code (of dbgenerator *and* the whole of empire-db!). You should ensure that your code style and formatting follows the guidelines set forward by the Empire-db project. If you have changes, please submit a patch with your changes (unified diff works best with Eclipse and svn). The Empire-db committers will evaluate the patch, perhaps suggest improvements, and soon apply it to the code base. You are welcome to submit patches for anything in the project (not limited to the generator code). When your patches are plentiful, and can be applied easily, the Empire-db project members can elect to grant you direct access to the code repository. Usually this happens when they get tired of applying your patches, and want you to do the work yourself. The idea is that people who have shown a continued interest in the project and are actively involved [writing code (*)] should be rewarded with committership. This is at the core of how the ASF works: a meritocracy [4,5]. (*) there are also Committers who don't write code, but gaining merit for non-coders is usually more difficult than for coders If you have any questions, please let me know. Martijn [1] About Contributor License Agreements: http://www.apache.org/licenses/#clas [2] The CLA (text): http://www.apache.org/licenses/icla.txt [3] The CLA (PDF): http://www.apache.org/licenses/icla.pdf [4] About Meritocracy: http://www.apache.org/foundation/how-it-works.html#meritocracy [5] About contributing: http://www.apache.org/foundation/getinvolved.html
