Contributing code to midish

Using CVS

Midish sources are kept in a cvs repository, if you're making local changes to midish, cvs could help you update your copy, it never blows up your changes, rather it merges them in. Refer to guides to cvs on the web for more details.

To retrieve midish sources the following could be used:

export CVS_RSH=ssh
export CVSROOT=anoncvs@moule.caoua.org:/midish
cd /tmp
cvs checkout -P midish

then, each time you want to synchronize your copy you can run:

cd /tmp/midish
cvs update -Pd

for instance to create a diff for the track.c file you modified:

cd /tmp/midish
cvs diff -up track.c >mydiff.diff

Modifying the sources

If you fixed a bug, you developed a new feature or changed an existing one, you may want your changes to be integrated in the main repository (so they are shared and maintained across future releases), then please take note of the following:

avoid features specific to a given operating system. The platform specific code should stay as small as possible.
try to follow coding style of the rest of the code, if you're using emacs, ``c-set-style bsd'' could help.
avoid C99 constructs, midish is supposed to compile on old compilers and compilers other than gcc
if you add a new feature or change the behaviour for an existing feature, make sure it doesn't break existing scripts. Don't forget to update the documentation and the regression tests too.
midish is supposed to work on slow machines, avoid slow code. Especially features that will slow down other features.
avoid making features optional or tunable. Everything should just work without customization.

Submitting changes

Please send your changes by e-mail either to the mailing list or to alex@caoua.org as an unified diff in the e-mail body. Be careful about mailers mungling diffs, if unsure attach the diff.

be sure to submit diffs against the latest midish sources, use cvs to synchronize your sources
if possible, avoid mixing multiple logical changes into a single diff.
don't send incomplete diffs; don't suppose someone will finish the job you started.

Thanks!