Limnoria/docs/HACKING

So, you want to hack on Supybot?  Cool!  I'm glad -- more developers
means more users, and more users means better software (although I
suppose more developers means better software even without the
addition of more users :))

Anyway, there are a few things you should know before you submit your
code to be accepted into Supybot.  The first, and most important
thing is that we really do value your contribution.  We may say that
it's not appropriate for the core distribution and any number of
varying reasons, but regardless, we're happy that you're hacking on
Supybot and bending it to your will, and we'll be happy to post your
patch as long as it applies cleanly.

The second thing you should know is that, despite the fact that we're
happy you want to contribute to Supybot, we're not afraid to piss you
off by turning down your code.  We won't hesitate to reject code
because it's "bad" or because it doesn't fit our style guidelines
(read docs/STYLE).  We don't really care if it makes you angry or
makes you use another IRC bot; we're in the practice of writing good
software, not placating whiners.  Despite this, we're not entirely
heartless, and if you've done something we're interested in, we're
willing to work with you and your code until such a time as it's
ready to be accepted into the core.  But if, at some point, we say,
"This needs fixed" and you say, "I refuse to fix it," you can go put
your code on the patch tracker; our time together is done.  Supybot
is #1 here -- we don't care about your feelings, we don't care about
jamessan's feelings, we don't care about jemfinch's feelings if it
means that the code quality and user experience of Supybot is to
suffer.

Anyway, the normal process is that you'll submit a few patches,
jemfinch will review them and tell you what needs to happen for them
to be accepted into the core, you'll fix those problems, jemfinch
will review them again, that cycle will repeat a few times.  When
your code is to jemfinch's satisfaction, it'll be integrated into the
core.  For many people, this is the end of the line.  For some
others (perhaps you!), you'll continue to write patches for Supybot,
and your coding ability and commitment will be obvious through
those.  If your code quality is consistently high enough that
jemfinch (or other Supybot developers) don't have to spend a
significant amount of time reviewing your code, you'll be added as a
developer on the SF.net project and given commit access to our CVS
repository.  From then on, you can do what you want, but be aware
that the other developers are watching what you do -- if you have a
big architecture change, you should probably talk to them before you
commit.

So welcome aboard, and have fun hacking on Supybot!