kicad-lib-committers team mailing list archive

[Carl Poirier <carl.poirier.2@xxxxxxxxx>]

Sent this just a few seconds ago but in the wrong discussion, so I'm
sending it again here.

> Unfortunately i do not understand how to actually contribiute to any lib
component since the lib component editing is not done with a txt editor but
instead with kicad lib comp editor.
> So this is what users will want to know:
> - how to download or get the lib comp to midify (do i already have it in
kicad?) or how to generate a new lib component file to send to you
> - how to turn this new component into a patch
> - how to send it to you
> - how to get newest lib components in my kicad distro

> Best way is a 1 min video where u do it and i can describe it by txt
using google docs. Once done i ask for quick contribiutions from any
developers.
> Git anf github is for coders and i have the impression we are trying to
get kicad users to use it to make kicad lib better. Is it doable? How?
> What do u think?

Hi Fabrizio,

Contributing to the library components is done the same way. I do think git
is simple enough (compared to bzr) for contributors to use. If not, they
can still email us their changes directly.

0. fork a git repo though Github
1. git clone https://github.com/yourUsername/kicad-library
2. in eeschema, change library folder to that dir
3. Make modifications
4. git commit
5. git push
6. Create pull request.

To update the libraries on your computer, if you use this method, then it
would be a simple matter of doing "git pull".

A video is a good idea. I'll look into that.

Regards,

Carl


On Mon, Mar 17, 2014 at 6:38 PM, Carl Poirier <carl.poirier.2@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:

> Hi everybody,
>
> We have recently got some offer to contribute to Github librairies either
> by adding more parts or helping with the validation process. There were
> some questions from a few people about how it all works, so this email is
> explaining it all.
>
> First, let's explain how a simple user would be contributing to an
> existing library. It works by forking the chosen library repository,
> modifying it, and then opening a pull request. Then, the librarians will
> validate the changes and do the actual pull. The relevant documentation on
> github is here <https://help.github.com/articles/fork-a-repo> for how to
> fork and clone the fork.
>
> When the fork is cloned locally, it is time to make the changes. When
> KiCad is installed and the Github plugin is enabled, which is now by
> default when compiling, KiCad gets its footprints directly from there, but
> by adding the option "allow_pretty_writing_to_this_dir" to an entry in the
> fp-lib-table (the options dialog in the library management window can be
> used for that), files in the typed directory will prevail over the github
> one. Another option is to add a entry of type "Pretty" in the table.
>
> So when the changes are ready, they need to me committed and pushed to the
> fork. Finally, to initiate the pull request, it is clearly thoroughly
> explained here<https://help.github.com/articles/using-pull-requests#fork--pull>.
> One thing I want to mention is that it will be really helpful if the
> contributor writes his source for the footprint in the pull request
> message. For example, a link to a datasheet.
>
> Now, this means we need people who look over every pull request and
> validate the changes before pulling it in. Obviously, this is very time
> consuming, but it's needed if we want good quality libraries. Our team of
> librarians currently is quite small and it will need to expand if we want
> to be able to manage contributions, which will only go up in quantity once
> the github plugin is used more and more.
>
> So I hope this summarizes well the process of contributing to libraries. For
> the people who recently expressed interest to help and/or contribute on the
> developers mailing list, namely Jean-Paul Louis and Alejandro Méndez A, I
> was thinking you could start off small with a contribution in the form of a
> pull request, and then if all goes well we'll look into adding you to the
> librarians team. There are lots of things to do, some of which are in
> progress already. We'll discuss some of them if you guys are alright with
> all of this.
>
> Regards,
>
>
> Carl Poirier
>