Contributing to OpenRTE

Would you like to contribute to OpenRTE?

We'd love it! One of the explicit goals of the OpenRTE project is to actively engage users, third party researchers, ISVs, hardware vendors... pretty much the entire distributed computing community. So if you've got some ideas, we'd love to hear them.

That being said, we're not giving out commit access to our repository to just anyone. We do need to maintain production-quality control on our code base. It is important to remember that if you write new components (or modify existing components) for OpenRTE, they can be published independantly of the main OpenRTE distribution -- new components can be added to an existing OpenRTE installation. This means that you do not have to distribute all of OpenRTE -- you can just publish your own components on your web page, FTP site, etc. Users can download your components and add them to their existing OpenRTE installation.

Here's several typical forms of contributions to OpenRTE:

• Publish research results using your own modifications to OpenRTE (e.g., performance enhancements, new algorithms, etc.). If possible, make the code available to others.
• Write your own components for custom functionality (e.g., support a new network or back-end run-time environment).
• Modify existing components for new functionality or performance enhancements
• Suggest new functionality to the OpenRTE community.
• Send complete bug reports and/or patches to the mailing lists. We always appreciate help in making OpenRTE better!
• Submit code for new functionality to OpenRTE. We're not total snobs; we really do love code contributions. They just must be robust codes that are suitable for widespread use. Additionaly, all code submitted to OpenRTE must be accompanied by an OpenRTE Contributor License Agreement form (very similar to the Apache Foundation's contriubtion forms - we currently are just using the Open MPI forms since the language would have been identical and the codes are distributed together). There are two versions: one for individuals and one for organizations. Look them over, decide which is appropriate to your situations, and follow the included instructions.

Enough talk -- how do you contribute to the OpenRTE project? Here's several ways:

• Get involved -- Subscribe to the OpenRTE mailing lists. Talk to the developers and find out what's going on in the project.
• Read the developer's documentation -- see the "Developers" section of the FAQ. We do not yet have a set of glossy PDF's for developer documentation, but we are continually adding detailed, technical information to the FAQ. Keep checking the site, though, as we will be adding design documentation on a regular basis. In addition, the API's are documented in the code base itself - see here for an explanation of how to create and browse the code documents.
• Read the contribution guidelines -- see the "Contribution" section of the FAQ. Determine how you want to make your contribution available.
• Look through the source code -- get a Subversion checkout. Open MPI and OpenRTE are active development efforts -- it is usually better to work with the most recent development version of the code than the last stable release (especially for new projects).
• If you want to submit code to be included in OpenRTE, you must fill out, sign, and submit an Open MPI Contributor License Agreement. There are two versions: one for individuals and one for organizations. Look them over, decide which is appropriate to your situations, and follow the included instructions.

Probably the most important of these is the first: subscribe to the mailing lists and become involved in the project. If possible, let others know what you're working on.

Make today an OpenRTE day!