18. Contributing

Up to date information about the development of can be found at the web page http://espressomd.org As the important information can change in time, we will not describe its contents in detail but rather request the reader to go directly to the URL. Among other things, one can find information about the following topics there:

  • FAQ
  • Latest stable release of and older releases
  • Obtaining development version of
  • Archives of both developers’ and users’ mailing lists
  • Registering to mailing lists
  • Submitting a bug report

18.1. Community support and mailing lists

If you have any questions concerning which you cannot resolve by yourself, you may post a message to the mailing list. Instructions on how to register to the mailing lists and post messages can be found on the homepage http://espressomd.org. Before posting a question and waiting for someone to answer, it may be useful to search the mailing list archives or FAQ and see if you can get the answer immediately. For several reasons it is recommended to send all questions to the mailing lists rather than to contact individual developers:

  • All registered users get your message and you have a higher probability that it is answered soon.
  • Your question and the answers are archived and the archives can be searched by others.
  • The answer may be useful also to other registered users.
  • There may not be a unique answer to your problem and it may be useful to get suggestions from different people.

Please remember that this is a community mailing list. It is other users and developers who are answering your questions. They do it in their free time and are not paid for doing it.

18.2. Contributing your own code

If you are planning to make an extension to or already have a piece of your own code which could be useful to others, you are very welcome to contribute it to the community. Before you start making any changes to the code, you should obtain the current development version of it. For more information about how to obtain the development version, refer to the Developer’s Guide.

If you are looking for good ways to get started with contributing, please have a look on the information available on github.

It is also generally a good idea to contact the mailing lists before you start major coding projects. It might be that someone else is already working on the problem or has a solution at hand.

You find more detailed information on our development processes in the Developer’s Guide.

18.3. Building the User’s guide

If, while reading this documentation, you notice any mistakes or badly (if at all) described features or commands, you are very welcome to contribute to the guide and have others benefit from your knowledge.

For this, you should also checkout the development version as described on the homepage. You can then build the documentation by typing

make sphinx