Introduction
This file contains some generic information about the development of FONSim.
Branching
The FONS project branching is based on the
Driessen or git-flow model.
Put simply,
the master branch is reserved for production-ready code.
All code in master should be stable and usable.
The dev branch contains the latest developed features,
yet as a result the software is not as stable.
The actual features (and improvements in general) are developed in the
feature branches, for example feature-plotting.
To get this repo locally
1. Clone the repo by running the following command in your console. The directory with the project will be located in the current working directory of the terminal.
git clone https://gitlab.com/abaeyens/fonsim.git
Go in the created directory (note: one can use TAB for autocompletion)
cd fonsim
Create a local install
A local install allows to try out the library locally. This can be useful during development. First, rename the project root directory to fonsim (default name after Git clone: fons). Second, run in the project root directory:
python -m pip install -e .
This installs the FONS package such that it is accessible like all other Python packages, e.g. using import fonsim. The -e option denotes that it uses a symbolic link: code changes in the project directory (including branch switching) take effect at the first following import. No re-installation is required.
Note: python should refer to Python 3. You may have to write python3 to avoid using Python 2.
Note: there appear to be problems with this method on some Windows machines.
Note: if you want to install several versions of the same package on your system, for example a stable version from PyPi and a development version from a local install, you may want to use a Python virtual environment.
Development tools
A git repository history visualizer tool like gitg can be helpful in developing this software. It shows the relations between version branches visually, lists all commits and allows to see the exact changes were made in a particular commit. In addition, it can show uncommitted changes.
Gitlab provides similar tools as a web version like the GitLab graph.