Contributing code to MIPAV

From MIPAV
Revision as of 21:46, 4 December 2012 by Mccreedy (Talk | contribs)

(diff) <previousrevision> | Latest revision (diff) | <nextrevision> (diff)
Jump to: navigation, search

What types of changes should you contribute to MIPAV?

  • Bug fixes to existing parts of MIPAV.
  • New algorithms or utilities that are of general interest to users of MIPAV.

What shouldn't you contribute?

  • Anything that you don't want to make publicly available (in binary and source form) under the BSD license.
  • Algorithms or utilities that are very specific in their application, which are probably better suited to be MIPAV plug-ins. You may email us here to let us know about a plug-in you have developed if you would like to have it linked to from our website.

Generating a patch file

  1. Start by downloading the most current version of the MIPAV source code from here.
  2. Extract the source code zip file. In this example, we will name the extracted directory mipav.old.
  3. Make a copy of the extracted directory and import it into your preferred development environment. In this example, we will name this copied directory mipav.new.
  4. Make your changes to the source code in the copied directory, making sure that the result compiles without errors. We currently package MIPAV with Java 1.6 for most operating systems, so please use and target that JVM release.
  5. Use the diff command to generate a patch file, comparing the original and modified source code directories: diff -Naur mipav.old mipav.new > mipav.patch
  6. Email the generated patch file to this address. In this email, you should indicate the MIPAV source code release you started with along with a description of your changes. To contribute code to the MIPAV project, we ask that you certify (1) that the changes are entirely your work or that any third-party source code is compatible with the MIPAV license, and (2) that you are contributing this source code for possible inclusion in MIPAV under the BSD license. We will try to respond to your submission in a reasonable amount of time, but we ask for your patience while we review the contribution.