Some questions about contributing

[Christoffer Fink]

Hi, I'm interested in contributing more regularly, and I have some questions about etiquette.

First, are random refactorings and cleanup (not associated with work on any specific issues) welcome?

What about adding tests?

I'm currently setting out to work on PLANNER-2208. Would it be a good idea to make pull requests for intermediate steps along the way? Again I'm mostly thinking of refactorings. The reason I ask is that it might be useful (for me) to get changes approved along the way. And it might also be useful (for the team) to be able to easily accept some of the changes even if the final version cannot be accepted as a whole. (While it would mean more PRs to verify, they would also be smaller/simpler.)

While I already have had 2 PRs merged into main so far, I'm still very much a noob when it comes to contributing to open source projects.

/Christoffer

[Lukáš Petrovický]

Christoffer,

On Tue, Aug 2, 2022 at 9:09 AM 'Christoffer Fink' via OptaPlanner development <optapla...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Hi, I'm interested in contributing more regularly, and I have some questions about etiquette.

Welcome. :-) Bring it on!

 

First, are random refactorings and cleanup (not associated with work on any specific issues) welcome?

Generally, we prefer refactorings to have a specific goal - to fix something that is broken, to improve performance, to add a new feature. If that's the case, I don't see why we wouldn't merge it.

 

What about adding tests?

Adding test coverage is always welcome.

 

I'm currently setting out to work on PLANNER-2208. Would it be a good idea to make pull requests for intermediate steps along the way?

I think that smaller, more frequent PRs are generally preferred. I know I prefer to work that way. However, as long as the PR is isolated to one particular change and does not contain several unrelated changes, there shouldn't be a problem.

One thing should be said, though - we are very particular about code quality, and we strive for consistency between different parts of code. Sometimes it may take an iteration or two to get the PR up to our standards. 

As long as CI passes, you have met most of the requirements - but occasionally there will be code review comments which may seem like nitpicking. You'll get used to it - we do the exact same thing to ourselves too. :-)

 

In general, don't worry - we are a friendly bunch. If you're ever unsure about anything, find us on Zulip and we can discuss any plans you have.

Regards!

--

Lukáš Petrovický

Principal Software Engineer

lukas.pe...@redhat.com

My work week is Monday to Thursday.
No need to respond outside of your working hours.