New Developer Introduction

Here's the place for discussion related to coding in FreeCAD, C++ or Python. Design, interfaces and structures.
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dreamy_jy
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New Developer Introduction

Post by dreamy_jy »

Hi everyone 👋🏿,

My name is Jordane, I’m a computer engineering student in New York. I’m interested in contributing to FreeCAD and hoping to participate in the Google Summer of Code program in 2022. I’m testing the waters by making my first bug fix, hopefully, in the next couple of weeks.

Who are the core maintainers I should reach out to?
What is the best way to learn how FreeCAD works?
Dreamy Jy's back at it again.
chrisb
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Re: New Developer Introduction

Post by chrisb »

Hi and welcome to the forum! Developers are always welcome. I am not a developer myself, but I recommend to learn modeling with FreeCAD too and to follow the forum here, so that you learn how the community works, what is needed, etc.
A Sketcher Lecture with in-depth information is available in English, auf Deutsch, en français, en español.
openBrain
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Re: New Developer Introduction

Post by openBrain »

dreamy_jy wrote: Mon Sep 27, 2021 3:05 am Who are the core maintainers I should reach out to?
That's FOSS and you basically don't need reach maintainers before contributing. :)
If you need to do though (for example because you want to propose very specific helping), you can post on the forum. Most maintainers regularly answer here.
What is more important IMO is to implement the features/fixes in the way the community want it (that is not always the way you want yourself :P).
What is the best way to learn how FreeCAD works?
My (always same) advice on this is to use a decent IDE that will help you navigate quickly in the code, and integrate a debugger so you can easily see the callstack when reaching a function.
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Zolko
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Re: New Developer Introduction

Post by Zolko »

dreamy_jy wrote: Mon Sep 27, 2021 3:05 am What is the best way to learn how FreeCAD works?
by scratching an itch : if there is something that YOU would like to see changed, dive into the code and try to change it.
try the Assembly4 workbench for FreCAD — tutorials here and here
KAKM
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Re: New Developer Introduction

Post by KAKM »

If you're looking for an overview of how FreeCAD works as a developer, the Mod Dev Guide might be helpful https://github.com/qingfengxia/FreeCAD_Mod_Dev_Guide and if you want an overview of how to use it, the manual is pretty good https://wiki.freecadweb.org/Manual:Introduction. If you want to do anything with the Python, check the Power Users Hub rather than the Developer Hub on the wiki–the Developer hub is focused on the C++.

I've found that pretty much everything you could want to know is documented somewhere, the trick is just finding it. Between the wiki, the Python console, the source code, and the forum, I usually get there eventually. It's often an iterative process that culminates anywhere between the fifth and fifteenth place I look. I recommend using a regular search engine rather than the one within the wiki documentation to look for things that you can't find through the index.

Oh, and Kunda1 has a link in their signature to the "low hanging fruit" bugs, if you haven't found that already. https://tracker.freecadweb.org/view_all ... 201cc0186e
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dreamy_jy
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Re: New Developer Introduction

Post by dreamy_jy »

chrisb wrote: Mon Sep 27, 2021 5:52 am Hi and welcome to the forum!
Hi Chris Thank you for the warm welcome. I'm looking forward to getting good with freecad.
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dreamy_jy
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Re: New Developer Introduction

Post by dreamy_jy »

openBrain wrote: Mon Sep 27, 2021 7:20 am My (always same) advice on this is to use a decent IDE that will help you navigate quickly in the code, and integrate a debugger so you can easily see the callstack when reaching a function.
Do you have any IDE recommendations for working with FreeCAD. I've never used a debugger.
Dreamy Jy's back at it again.
openBrain
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Re: New Developer Introduction

Post by openBrain »

dreamy_jy wrote: Tue Sep 28, 2021 3:49 am Do you have any IDE recommendations for working with FreeCAD. I've never used a debugger.
I'm on Linux and I'm satisfied with KDevelop (which also has debugger integration BTW).
I think buddies running Windows mainly use VSCode with same satisfaction. :)
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