CONTRIBUTING.org

How to help

See issues at https://github.com/meedstrom/eva/issues.

Design goals

To never have to disable

We should never have to disable the package, especially in permanent fashion by commenting out (eva-mode) in our init files. It carries so many disparate responsibilities that it harms the user to be forced to disable it. That means:

• We should decouple things so that most of the functionality survives when one part breaks.
• We should be able to interactively disable a bothersome element.
  • The means to do this should be discoverable. Put it in eva-dispatch, and eva-chat-mode-map, name it so it’s easy to find in counsel-M-x, helm-M-x etc, and talk about it in documentation.
• The errors from the broken part should not recur (spam the user). For example, it’s terrible when a recurring timer or a buffer change hook emits an error every time. Minimize the possibility of this! Consider detecting repeated misbehavior and automatically turning off the offending component.

Don’t risk data

Don’t carry out destructive operations on datasets.

• This is why we use append-only, and when edits are needed we simply print out the file path and let the user edit manually.
  • Exceptions may apply to eva-mem since it’s not user data, but it’s still a good idea.

Datestamp

When the code or doc notes known issues or deprecations, datestamp the note.