Hi Regina, Thanks for these excellent insights.
Best regards Simon Op 20-3-2012 13:29, Regina Henschel schreef: (...)
It is impossible to understand the code without guides and without mentoring. Conclusion, wish or how you might call it: (1) Document parts of the code very detailed in all steps, including help and accessibility. For example: How to make a new dialog? How does an Excel import filter works? I could start only after Eike Rathke has documented the process of adding new functions to Calc in http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Calc/Implementation/Spreadsheet_Functions (2) Document an overview of AOO. For example: What parts are all touched, when a user drags a corner of a shape till the shape is changed? Or what parts are touched, when a writer document is opened. And the other way round, what is handled in vcl or cosv or all the other modules? (3) Document AOO specific things. For example what are these OSL_*, which are used, when and why. What special types exists, why do they exist, when should they be used? (4) Increase mentoring. Such mentor should identify a "nice to have" feature and offer to guide the volunteer. Armin has mentored the "linecap" feature that way and it has worked well. Although some essential parts are done by Armin, I did a lot by myself and got some new insides in the code. Getting a build is a critical part for newcomers, especially on Windows. (5) Work very hard to provide a buildable trunk on Friday. It is very frustrating when you plan to do some coding on weekend and the build fails. (6) Without the document about building OOo on Windows by Mathias Bauer and the succeeding Wiki page http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Building_OOo_with_Cygwin_on_Windows I was not able to build OOo. So keep this information up to date; it is essential for newcomers. Kind regards Regina
-- Vriendelijke groet, Best regards, Simon Brouwer