github-desktop/docs/process/notes-for-contributors.md
2018-12-27 15:38:17 -08:00

1.5 KiB

Notes for Contributors

Work-in-Progress

We recommend open pull requests early - ideally as soon as you have something to show. This is especially helpful for large pieces of work, as continuous integration tests are run earlier on, and regressions can be caught before humans get involved.

Until the code is ready for review, you can prefix the PR title with [WIP] to indicate that it's under development.

Use Task Lists

If you are working through a list of tasks as part of a pull request, listing those tasks and indicating when they have been completed helps reviewers to understand quickly what's changed.

Keep The Commit History Tidy

We're not that fussy about the history, but to make reviewing easier here's some general tips:

  • make small, meaningful and logical commits - these make the review process easier
  • write good commit messages - these help the reviewer to understand the changes
  • keep up to date with development - not only does this address potential merge conflicts, it ensures you're integrating with the latest code

When merging, we prefer you merge development into your branch, but for small PRs a rebase is fine.

These Things Take Time

Our team is distributed around the world, and often we like to get their feedback for specific areas of the codebase. And even with minor changes, we often like to let them sit for a while and give everyone a chance to provide their input.