Add a "How to Contribute" section to the readme

[EmbraceLife]

Hi Joel,
Your work is cool and I like this tool and even more so especially when it is complete in the future. Thanks a lot.

I am a newbie in programming and processing, but I really want to speed up the process of Git-manager at least to complete the git branch function, as I want to have the function of making and checking branches.

Is it possible for you to provide me some guides or a map on how to learn to contribute in your Git-manager project? The guides or map does not have to be complete, a few steps on how I can start on this direction would be great too.

Thanks again

Kenny

[joelmoniz]

Hi Kenny,

First off, thank you very much for your interest in the Git Manager! A new branch/checkout feature would be awesome, and is very high on the list of to-do things to make the Git Manager better.

This would be easiest to do in four phases:

1. Branch

   a. Make changes to the UI for the branch button. This would involve making the following changes:

   • Adding in appropriate changes to the GitOptionToolbar and the OptionBar classes- this would involve things like adding in a new button, appropriate constants and locations of the button, etc. This would be done by (almost) simply copy-pasting the code pertaining to another feature and renaming things appropriately.
   • Adding in icons: Icons would be added to the data/toolbar/novice folder

   b. Add in the branch feature. This would involve using JGit to create new branches. The GitOperations.java class would be where this part would go. This could use a pop-up to take in input from the user, possibly using a JOptionPane, similar to how the snapshot feature works.

2. Checkout

   a. Make changes to the UI for the checkout button. This is almost identical to 1a.

   b. Add in the checkout feature, with JGit's help. This could be in the form of a pop-up box that has a drop-down list, presenting available branches to the user.

Feel free to skip anything here (especially the UI related stuff- 1a, 2a), and I'll add it in later on. Also feel free to reply to this thread if you'd like any further help/clarifications.

Thanks again for the interest and help!

Cheers,
Joel

[EmbraceLife]

Hi Joel,
Thanks a lot for your reply and offering to help.
The level of programming I am at the moment is to play with examples of learningprocessing book and basic java syntax. I am sure your guides for me above are very useful and detailed, but are still a few steps ahead of my grasp. I guess my problem is, with my limited knowledge of both processing and java I don't know where and how to get started in learning and contributing to processing libraries.

What I do know is, I want to learn processing well and contribute to it in writing libraries, and I prefer the style of learning by learning through working in real and interesting projects. I like your library and hope to study it and contribute to it whenever possible.

With the purpose in mind, if you were me, how would you design a learning path for yourself? again, if it is too wild to imagine :) , maybe just one or two steps to get me started with learning your libraries?

I don't know whether I make sense of myself.

Thanks again

Kenny

[joelmoniz]

Hey Kenny,

Have you built processing yet? That would be a great first step! You can find detailed instructions on how to do that here. Then, perhaps look through a few of the bugs, and try and tackle one that you find relatively easier. Of course, feel free to post one the issue if you get stuck somewhere (such as can't locate where something is done in the codebase).

Regarding the Git-Manager itself, thanks again for offering to help out! The best way, again, would be to try and get it building. Feel free to post on this issue if you would like any help/get stuck somewhere. Next, perhaps try adding a (relatively) easier feature, either git stash or git branch? git stash should be slightly easier to add in when compared to git branch, but I haven't had a chance to look at how they would be implemented using the jgit API yet, so I'm not very certain. If you decide to tackle either of these, and need help (how to go about it, where some part of the code is located, etc.) feel free to open a separate issue (such as one titled "Git-Manager requires git branch functionality"), and to ask queries related to that specific functionality there.

Cheers,
Joel

[EmbraceLife]

Hi Joel,
Thanks a lot for your reply and encouragement. Currently I plan to stick with basics stuff and gradually move onto build later. I will let you know if I start to work on Git-manager features.
Thanks again.

Best,
Kenny