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authorLars Wirzenius <liw@liw.fi>2016-02-20 14:23:49 +0200
committerLars Wirzenius <liw@liw.fi>2016-02-20 14:23:49 +0200
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Start chapter on contributing to project
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+Participating in Obnam development
+==================================
+
+The Obnam project is quite small, as far as software projects go.
+There is one main developer, plus a few others who sometimes help out.
+It would be nice to have more people involved, and this chapter is an
+introduction for that.
+
+It is a common misunderstanding that only code matters in a software
+project. On the contrary, without a number of other things, code is
+useless, particularly so in a free software project, including Obnam.
+Examples of necessary things in almost any serious software project:
+
+* writing and updating documentation, which includes manuals and
+ websites
+* translating documentation, and the software's user interface
+* providing support to users with questions or problems
+* reporting actionable bugs
+* processing bug reports: asking for clarifications, reproducing the
+ reported problem, finding the cause of the problem, and developing a
+ suitable fix
+* porting the software to various platforms, including different
+ operating systems, different versions of said operating systems,
+ different versions of the languages and libraries the software uses,
+ different hardware, etc
+* quality assurance: developing and performing manual and automated
+ tests and benchmarks, and analysing results
+* hosting and operating web sites, mailing lists, IRC channels, other
+ communication channels
+* handling project governance, which includes dealing with conflicts
+ between people
+* managing the project in general, including making sure things don't
+ stall
+* finally, writing the code itself, which is a necessary, but not
+ sufficient part of having a project that people other than the
+ developers can use it
+
+This list is insufficient; additions are welcome. See the rest of this
+chapter for suggestions on how to contribute to the list.
+
+
+Helping support users
+---------------------
+
+Writing and updating documentation
+----------------------------------
+
+Developing the code
+-------------------
+
+Project governance
+------------------