mono/doc/contributing

* Contributing to the Mono project

	There are many ways in which you can help in the Mono project:

	<ul>
		* <b>Programmers:</b> You can work on a free
		  implementation of the <a
		  href="class-library.html">class libraries</a>, the
		  <a href="runtime.html">runtime engine</a>, <a
		  href="tools.html">the tools</a>, the <a
		  href="testing.html">testing framework</a>

		* <b>Writers:</b> You can help us bywriting <a
		  href="documentation.html">documentation</a>.
	</ul>

	Those are just broad things that need to be worked on, but
	something that would help tremendously would be to help with
	small duties in the project that need to be addressed. 

	You can see what needs to be done in the class libraries <a href="class-status.html">here</a>

** To start contributing

	As a programmer, you can contribute in three different scenarios to Mono:

	<ul>
		* If you only have Linux/Unix.
		* If you only have Windows.

		* If you have both Linux and Windows.
	</ul>

	You might also want to check our <a href="#setup">common
	setups</a> section that describes some common setups that people
	use while working on Mono.

*** Contributing to the class library, regression tests or the compiler

	This only requires Windows currently.

	To start developing classes or to contribute to the compiler,
	you only need Windows and the .NET Framework 1.0 SDK.  Please notice
	that you do not need Visual Studio (although you can use it if
	you want).  The .NET Framework SDK requires some version of
	Windows XP or Windows NT.  If you are running Windows 98, 95
	or Me, you could use instead the <a
	href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads/default.asp?url=/downloads/sample.asp?url=/msdn-files/027/001/829/msdncompositedoc.xml">.NET Redist package</a>, but it
	lacks the documentation browser and the ildasm program (C#, VB, JScript and IL 
	assembler are included).

	You can get it <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads/default.asp?url=/downloads/sample.asp?url=/msdn-files/027/000/976/msdncompositedoc.xml&frame=true">here</a>

	If you are new to .NET, writing regression tests is a good way
	of starting to contribute: it will help you get used to C# as
	well as getting comfortable with the .NET APIs.  

	This helps because at this point you might be the best
	qualified person to fix a problem found by the regression
	test, or you might have a new class to implement in the .NET
	world that only has a test suite.  
	
	To get started writing tests see the <a href="testing.html">Test Suite</a>
	section. <a href="mono-contribution-howto">Here</a> there is a good All-In-One introduction to the art of writing tests.


*** Contributing to the runtime engine

	This only requires Linux, currently some tasks are easier if you
	have access to Windows as well.

	Here are a few things you can do:
	<ul>
		* Port the runtime to other architectures.
		* Port the runtime to other operating systems.
		* Finish the IL code verifier in the runtime.
		* Hack the JIT, improve the code generator, add new
		  pattern rules, improve the register allocator.
		* Implement the debugging interfaaces
	</ul>

** Bug reporting

	If you find bugs in Mono, please make sure you enter a bug
	report so we can keep track of problems in Mono.

	To enter bug reports go to <a href="http://bugzilla.ximian.com">
	http://bugzilla.ximian.com</a> and enter bug reports against
	your favorite component (Mono, Runtime, C# compiler).

	You can review the list of current bugs by going <a href="http://bugzilla.ximian.com/buglist.cgi?product=Mono%2FClass+Libraries&product=Mono%2FMCS&product=Mono%2FRuntime&bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&email1=&emailtype1=substring&emailassigned_to1=1&email2=&emailtype2=substring&emailreporter2=1&changedin=&chfieldfrom=&chfieldto=Now&chfieldvalue=&short_desc=&short_desc_type=substring&long_desc=&long_desc_type=substring&bug_file_loc=&bug_file_loc_type=substring&keywords=&keywords_type=anywords&op_sys_details=&op_sys_details_type=substring&version_details=&version_details_type=substring&cmdtype=doit&order=%27Importance%27&form_name=query">here</a>

** Small tasks

	A few smaller tasks are here, dropped in no particular order:
	<ul>
		* <b>Mono/doc and web site:</b> They need to be
		  packaged up in the official `distribution'

		* Adding serialization support to all the classes.

		  We have many classes, but we have not implemented in
		  many cases the serialization and re-incarnation support in 
		  them (this is pretty straight forward code, and simple,
	  	  but there is a lot to be done here).
	</ul>

* Emacs support

	Brad Merryl's C# mode for Emacs is available: <a
	href="http://www.cybercom.net/~zbrad/DotNet/Emacs/">http://www.cybercom.net/~zbrad/DotNet/Emacs/</a>

* Books on C# and DotNet.

	<ul>
	* Dotnet Books (<a href="http://www.dotnetbooks.com">http://www.dotnetbooks.com</a>)

	* Dotnet Resources (<a href="http://www.dotnetexperts.com/resources/">
	  http://www.dotnetexperts.com/resources</a>)

	* O'Reilly C# Essentials (<a href="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/csharpess/">
	  http://www.oreally.com/catalog/csharpess</a>)

	* O'Really .NET Essentials (<a href="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/dotnetfrmess/">
	  http://www.oreally.com/catalog/dotnetfrmess</a>)
	</ul>

<a name="setup">
* Common Setups

	People running both Linux and Windows while contributing to
	Mono use a number of tricks to increase their productivity.

	Scenarios:

	<ul>
		* <b>Linux host and Windows host</b>

		  The Windows file system is shared (right click on
		  your hard drive icon, and select sharing, allow this
		  to be shared).  

		  The Windows machine has the required build tools
		  (cygwin, and the .NET framework).  On the Windows
		  machine, you want to setup the ssh server (run the
		  ssh-host-config program to configure your ssh) and
		  run it (from a cygwin terminal, type: /usr/sbin/sshd).

		  From the Linux side, you want to mount the Windows
		  file system, using something like this:

<tt><pre>
	mount -t smbfs -o uid=miguel,username="Miguel de Icaza" "//quack/c$" /mnt
</pre></tt>

		  In the above example, my Linux user name is
		  `miguel', and this will allow this user to have
		  read/write access to the share.  

		  The host name is `quack', and the name of the share
		  is `c$' (that is the C: partition).  

		  The file system is accessible on /mnt.

		  You can perform your cvs update and cvs commits from
		  the /mnt directory, and run Emacs or your favorite
		  Linux text editor on the Unix side in this way.

		  Then from another terminal, you can ssh into your
		  Windows box using ssh, like this: ssh "Miguel de Icaza@quack"
	</ul>

* Special Note

	If you have looked at Microsoft's implementation of .NET or
	their shared source code, you may not be able to contribute
	to Mono.  Details will follow when we know more about this.

	In general be careful when you are implementing free software
	and you have access to proprietary code.  We need to make sure
	that we are not using someone else's copyrighted code
	accidentally. 

	Please do not use the <b>ildasm</b> program to disassemble
	proprietary code when you are planning to reimplement a class
	for Mono.  If you have done this, we might not be able to use
	your code.

	Please stick to published documentation for implementing any
	classes.