xfce4 Hacking

[Jasper Huijsmans]

Hello Robert,

Robert Lee wrote:
> I was wondering if there is a public how-to (or starter guide) for 
> experienced developers interested in Xfce hacking. Also, is there any 
> particular bug/feature/project/team/todo where additional help might be 
> especially appreciated? Are Jasper and Nick the only active developers?

I am flattered, but I'm afraid there is not much evidence to back up 
that qualification ;-) Scanning the xfce4-commits list should give some 
idea of activity (http://foo-projects.org/pipermail/xfce4-commits/).

> 
> I've read HACKING and TODO for a couple of projects (panel and goodies) 
> in SVN and both of those resources were helpful, but I'm still not sure 
> where to begin. Perhaps I should just start hitting Bugzilla-reported 
> issues for now?

First of all, it's very hard to tell other people what to do. Basically, 
  it depends on what you want. If there is something you find lacking or 
something that really annoys you when working with Xfce, that would be a 
  good place to start looking.

Of course, it can be extremely helpful if you start looking at bug 
reports, and it could be a good way to get more familiar with the Xfce 
code base.

> 
> By the way, I'm an experienced developer (C, x86 Assembly, Perl, PHP, 
> Shell Scripting), but I'm a recent convert to (desktop) Linux. 
> Previously /all/ my Linux experience has been via an SSH terminal 
> connection from a remote windows box. Needless to say, I'm still 
> learning the basics of xorg, gtk, xfce, and so forth even from a user 
> stand-point. Still, I'm not a clue-less dolt. :)

X an Gtk programming may take some time to get used to. Personally, I 
have found the Gtk tutorial a fairly good introduction to the most 
important concepts.

> 
> Thanks for any direction you guys can offer,

Just try changing little things to get more familiar with how the code 
works. Oh, and just ask if something is unclear.

-- 
	Jasper