[wp-hackers] st00pid n00b questions

[Mark Jaquith]

On Jun 19, 2007, at 4:49 PM, Stephen Rider wrote:

> Now I want to get down to brass tacks and get some of these ideas  
> moving -- do some of the work myself and so forth, and possibly get  
> it into "official" code.
>
> How do I go about it?

1. Subscribe to the WP-Trac mailing list (gives you updates on new  
tickets, modification to existing tickets)

2. Subscribe to the WP-SVN mailing lists (lets you know when new code  
gets committed)

3. Become familiar with SVN (subversion), download a client, checkout  
the entire WP branch locally

4. Create a ticket for a new issue, or go find an existing issue that  
lacks a patch

5. Keep your SVN checkout up to date by doing "svn up" or equivalent  
before starting work on a particular issue

6. Create patches by doing "svn di > ~/wp-patches/patchname.diff" or  
equivalent (we really appreciate it when patches are done relative to  
the root of the WP branch you are editing... so /trunk/ or /branches/ 
2.2/ e.g.)

7. Upload these patches to the correct ticket, and leave a comment  
announcing the patch and briefly describing what it does (this is  
important, because uploading an attachment doesn't generate an e-mail  
to WP-Trac)

8. Monitor the ticket for updates, answering any questions posed to you

9. Beam with pride when your patch is committed

10. Repeat!

Other tips:

* Peruse the WP source code to get a feel for the general coding  
style.  Mimic it.

* Don't be frustrated if some of your patches are sent back to you  
for additional work.  We're not mean people, just we want to help  
hone your skills.

* You don't need to take on mammoth tasks to impress us.  Go grab  
some low-lying fruit, especially in the beginning.

Oh, and welcome to the party! :-)

--
Mark Jaquith
http://markjaquith.com/

Covered Web Services
http://coveredwebservices.com/

WordPress Ninja @ b5media Inc
http://b5media.com/