Before contributing effectively to\u00a0a C++ project , it’s recommended to take a tour in the existing code base, and identify some of its \u00a0design and implementation choices. Indeed your contribution must be coherent with the existing source code.<\/p>\n
Here are some basic steps to follow before contribute to a C++ project:
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1-Build<\/strong><\/p>\n Before going further, the first step is to build\u00a0\u00a0the project, it’s an obivious task for some projects but it could be a headache for other ones. If the build is very complicated, it’s recommended to well document it or create one entry point script to build the project.<\/p>\n Every\u00a0\u00a0C++ developer should know the basics of preprocessing, compilation and linking, there are many web resources to explain these phases. Indeed many\u00a0 C++ beginner developers spent many hours to understand why a code does not compile or link, and they could win a lot of time if they dedicate only few hours to understand how the build phase works.<\/p>\n 2-Debug<\/strong><\/p>\n Debugging is your first friend to understand how a code works. You must ensure that you can debug your project without problem. Furthermore it’s recommended to master some advanced\u00a0debug techniques to gain many hours when resolving a bug or try to understand the behavior of a specific source code.<\/p>\n 3-Identify the paradigms used<\/strong><\/p>\n C++ is a multi paradigm language and it’s very important to know for a defined project which paradigm is mostly used. Indeed each one has its specificities and a developer must master some basic concepts of the paradigm used before study the project code base.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For generics don’t hesitate to discover the static polymorphism,\u00a0Traits\u00a0<\/a>and\u00a0<\/span>Policy-based design<\/a>\u00a0techniques and f<\/span>or OOP\u00a0 it’s recommended to master \u00a0virtual methods, polymorphism and inheritence.<\/p>\n 4-Identify the style used<\/strong><\/p>\n Before adding your contribution, it’s recommended to know which coding\u00a0style is used, sometimes it’s documented like the google style guide<\/a>, but usually it’s not the case and you have to read some source code files to check:<\/p>\n