The following is a list of suggestions (not necessarily in sequential order) on how an intrepid Software developer like yourself can start down the road to the fulfilling and, indeed, life affirming career as a contributor to the Groovy Eclipse plugin. Ok maybe that is overstating it a bit, but please know that any and all contributions are most welcome and that this is an area where you can make truly make a difference. In this day and age, IDE support for any tool in IT is crucial. If someone is doing development solely with a command line compiler and a text editor, he/she is either not doing complex work, is a glutton for punishment or is stuck in the 70's with a green terminal and, dare we imagine, wearing copious amounts of polyester.
Here are some links to some background that would be useful to review:
- There is an interview for the Grails podcast with the Groovy Eclipse lead not too long ago on the subject of Groovy Eclipse: http://www.grailspodcast.com/blog/id/69
- There is a blog entry on the subject of the roadmap for Groovy Eclipse: http://iacobus.blogspot.com/2008/07/roadmap-for-groovy-eclipse-work.html
- There is a wiki page where ideas for the Groovy Roadmap can be collected: http://docs.codehaus.org/display/GROOVY/Groovy+Eclipse+Roadmap
The main point is that you need to be familiar with Groovy (the language and the platform) and the Eclipse SDK (how to write plugins and to leverage other plugins). This is a rare combination of skills, but don't worry they can be acquired, that is one of the great things about Open Source right?
So enough of the bluster, you want to be able to contribute, so hear are some pointers to begin:
- Check out Groovy Eclipse into your Eclipse workspace. The SVN URL is https://svn.codehaus.org/groovy/eclipse
- Inside of trunk, there are four sub-folders: base, base-test, ide, and ide-test. The base folder contains the compiler, the JDT core patch, and core language support to connect the Groovy-Eclipse plugin with JDT. The ide folder contains a set of plugins that provides UI support and the Groovy-specific project model. The other two folders contain tests.
- Self host the plugin (launch it from your Eclipse) and try modifying stuff to see what happens. To learn how to work with Eclipse there are many online resources and a book that I highly recommend: Eclipse: Rich Client Platform. The link to it on Amazon.com is here. The current version is nice, but there are rumors of a second edition, can't wait.
- Goto the JIRA site ( http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/GRECLIPSE ) and see what things you would like to work on. You will need to register with Codehaus, but it should not be a big deal ( goto http://xircles.codehaus.org . for more information ).
- If you have a fix, go ahead and post a patch to the associated JIRA issue.
- Use the mailing list for Groovy Eclipse: http://xircles.codehaus.org/lists/eclipse-plugin-dev@groovy.codehaus.org
- If there is a particular bug you are interested in fixing, then let us know on the mailing list. We can give you suggestions on how to proceed, and we can let you know if anyone else is currently working on that bug.
- There is a weekly Skype conference call for contributors to Groovy Eclipse every Monday, feel free to contact members of the Groovy Eclipse team to get the details.
- The Groovy Eclipse lead has a twitter account dedicated for Groovy Eclipse: http://twitter.com/GroovyEclipse
The Groovy Eclipse team and, indeed, the Groovy community are grateful for your help.
