xorg/ guide/ The X New Developer’s Guide: Contributing To X

Contributing To X

Matt Dew

This section describes skills new developers will need to successfully contribute to X. As noted in the Concepts chapter, there is a lot to X.Org and there is a significant learning curve. However, the curve is less steep than you might think, and the rewards are worth it.

One thing that bears repeating is that X is a fairly complicated project. It is one of those projects where you will not understand everything---nor are you expected to. There is simply too much. Nobody on the project understands everything, not even the graybeards. However, you will be able to understand parts of the system immediately, and most of it eventually. Most X.Org developers are truly nice and genuinely want to help you when you have questions.

If you are uncomfortable with the tools used to develop X, you are going to have a difficult time. This admonition may seem harsh, but it is not meant to discourage you. Rather it is meant to remind you to prepare up front, so that you are properly equipped.

Here is a list of things you will need to understand. Maybe they are obvious, but you might be surprised how many people jump in without them.

  1. The C programming language. If you are relatively unfamiliar with C, X may not be the right project for you. You do not need to be a C guru, but you need to be comfortable working with the language. If you are working on part of the project that is not directly written in C (for example, the XCB language binding generator or Python bindings), you might be OK. However, you will never be far from a code base written in C. If you cannot program, there are still plenty of ways for you to contribute to X. Talk to the documentation or build system folks: they can always use help.

  2. Revision control / version control / source code management. You need to be comfortable with the concepts behind modern source code management systems (call them what you will). X.Org uses Git for most of its work, so you will need to learn at least the basics of Git. Git is a distributed source code management system rather than a centralized one. The more familiar you are with Git the better off you are; however, you can learn simple Git commands quickly if you understand source code management and why it is important.

  3. Building and compiling programs from scratch in the UNIX environment. X is a software project. That means you will be compiling software. Really, really cool software, but still software.

  4. Working remotely and asynchronously. X developers are scattered around the world. Communication among them involves the use of IRC, email lists, Skype, IM and other high-tech tools. Rarely are you in the same room, or even the same time zone, as a developer you are trying to work with. This can be a bit frustrating: sometimes questions are hard to ask, and sometimes replies to your questions are slow.

  5. Debugging. Debugging is an integral part of large projects like X. You should be familiar with standard debugging tools such as gdb, valgrind and strace. More importantly, you should know the methodology of debugging, with or without tools. Luckily, you need not be extraordinarily proficient: there are plenty of smart developers who can help you.

  6. Testing. You need not be a testing guru. However, you should be comfortable with creating and running basic tests of your code. You should know what a regression test is, and be prepared to use one. You should be unsurprised when X developers refuse to commit your untested patches.

If you are comfortable in these areas, you should be in good shape. Again, you don't need to be guru-level. You need to be familiar enough with the items on this list that you can focus on design and implementation rather than getting stuck.

The other chapters of this book discuss the overall architecture and individual parts of X. Here's a quick summary of the technologies X.Org uses:

  • C
  • Multiple Git repositories
  • Bugzilla
  • IRC channels
  • Mailing lists
  • Doxygen
  • DocBook/XML (not SGML)
  • IkiWiki (wiki)

Below is a list of resources that you can refer to as you begin to work on X.

This document is still a work in progress. If you have suggestions on things that would be helpful, please let us know.

Welcome aboard.