[Bf-committers] Some Guidance

[Ounan Ding]

Hello,

I am not a real Blender developer(since I have not contributed bug fixes),
but I think maybe I can share some ideas with you as also a beginner.

* Do not just read the source. Trace it.
  The source code contains only the static information.
  You need to trace the function call and collect the dynamic(runtime)
information for understanding of Blender system.
  You may find it helpful to step the function calls and see how data get
passed between different modules.
  And the call stack is your friend. (Use `bt`(backtrace) to view stack and
use `f`(frame) to jump to a specific stack.)

* wiki.blender.org is useful.
  But it may not be so useful for the first time reading. I cannot
understand the whole system in only one step.
  My own experience is that I read it for a general overview at my first
time reading,
  and I may have some question while reading,
  then I try to solve those questions by tracing the code.
  Later I will return to the wiki for better understanding of the design.

* Something may be improved.
  I do think many factors in Blender coding cannot be learnt from just
tracing.
  Such as the lifetime/ownership of objects in Blender, and many design
choice/trade-off I cannot infer from the implementation.
  For this kind of information I think the Blender developer can provide
more help.
  Based on my working experience in a game company,
  this is not necessarily mean documentation. This can also be done by unit
testing.
  Usually we write unit test cases to convey our design, the relation
between modules, and other constraints.
  I would like to know how Campbell think about this.

  I also have an idea that we can run a blenderweekly, which is very
similar to http://llvmweekly.org/.
  But it seems a bit overlapping with our weekly meeting report.

Finally, let me advertise my own blog on Blender coding:
blender.linearconstraints.net.
I take notes there to record how I learn Blender coding from last year.
You may find it useful.
I am always glad to help you and looking forward to hearing your feedback
or questions.
I believe the understanding of the code can be improved by helping others.

Thank you for reading.

On Thu, Feb 18, 2016 at 6:57 AM, Bailey Pumfleet <
PUMFLEETB at hassenbrook.org.uk> wrote:

> Hello All,
>
> I really hate to sound like an idiot that does not know what he is doing,
> but I would appreciate, as I am new to the Blender development thing, some
> guidance of how to get started with becoming a fully fledged Blender
> developer.
> I have read the wiki and I'm afraid it doesn't really explain about the
> process of things.
> I am active on Phabricator and have signed up, which I assume is an
> important part.
>
> I would really appreciate guidance of how to contribute to Blender, and
> how, once I have coded a patch, to submit it.
>
> Thanks for any help you can give,
>
> -Bailey Pumfleet :)
>
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