Contributing

If you want to contribute to pyroomacoustics and make it better, your help is very welcome. Contributing is also a great way to learn more about the package itself.

Ways to contribute

  • File bug reports
  • Improvements to the documentation are always more than welcome. Keeping a good clean documentation is a challenging task and any help is appreciated.
  • Feature requests
  • If you implemented an extra DOA/adaptive filter/beamforming algorithm: that’s awesome! We’d love to add it to the package.
  • Suggestion of improvements to the code base are also welcome.

Coding style

We try to stick to PEP8 as much as possible. Variables, functions, modules and packages should be in lowercase with underscores. Class names in CamelCase.

Documentation

Docstrings should follow the numpydoc style.

We recommend the following steps for generating the documentation:

  • Create a separate environment, e.g. with Anaconda, as such: conda create -n mkdocs27 python=2.7 sphinx numpydoc mock
  • Switch to the environment: source activate mkdocs27
  • Install the theme for ReadTheDocs: pip install sphinx-rtd-theme
  • Navigate to the docs folder and run: ./make_apidoc.sh
  • Build and view the documentation locally with: make html
  • Open in your browser: docs/_build/html/index.html

Unit Tests

As much as possible, for every new function added to the code base, add a short test script in pyroomacoustics/tests. The names of the script and the functions running the test should be prefixed by test_. The tests are started by running nosetests at the root of the package.

How to make a clean pull request

Look for a project’s contribution instructions. If there are any, follow them.

  • Create a personal fork of the project on Github.
  • Clone the fork on your local machine. Your remote repo on Github is called origin.
  • Add the original repository as a remote called upstream.
  • If you created your fork a while ago be sure to pull upstream changes into your local repository.
  • Create a new branch to work on! Branch from develop if it exists, else from master.
  • Implement/fix your feature, comment your code.
  • Follow the code style of the project, including indentation.
  • If the project has tests run them!
  • Write or adapt tests as needed.
  • Add or change the documentation as needed.
  • Squash your commits into a single commit with git’s interactive rebase. Create a new branch if necessary.
  • Push your branch to your fork on Github, the remote origin.
  • From your fork open a pull request in the correct branch. Target the project’s develop branch if there is one, else go for master!
  • …
  • If the maintainer requests further changes just push them to your branch. The PR will be updated automatically.
  • Once the pull request is approved and merged you can pull the changes from upstream to your local repo and delete your extra branch(es).

And last but not least: Always write your commit messages in the present tense. Your commit message should describe what the commit, when applied, does to the code – not what you did to the code.

Reference

This guide is based on the nice template by @MarcDiethelm available under MIT License.