Contributing guide

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -0,0 +1,93 @@
+# Contributing to Skript
+Skript is an open source project. That basically means that you are
+encouraged to contribute by reporting issues and writing code. Basic
+guidelines are posted below to save time from everyone.
+
+## Issues
+Issues are usually used to report bugs and request improvements or new features.
+
+Script writers should **not** use issue tracker to ask why their code is broken,
+*unless* theyt think it might be a bug. Correct places for getting scripting advise
+are SkUnity forums and Discord (see README again). That being said, this is
+mostly to save your time - if you're not sure if something is a bug, report it
+anyway.
+
+### Reporting Bugs
+So, you have found out a potential Skript bug. By reporting it correctly, you
+can ensure that it will be correctly categorized as a bug and hopefully, fixed.
+
+First, please make sure you have **latest** Skript version available. If there
+are no stable (no pre-release tag) versions, this means latest dev build.
+If you can find non-prerelease in downloads page of this repository, you may
+also use that one. Do **not** use 2.2, 2.1 or older, since while they are
+technically stable, they tend to not work reliably with Minecraft 1.9+.
+
+If you are running latest Skript and the error still persists, search the
+issue tracker for similar errors. Check if your issue might be already reported.
+If it has been reported, leave a comment, otherwise open a new issue.
+
+Now, what would you fill to the issue report?
+* Description of the issue, aka what does *not* work
+* Any error messages in the console (you can also use a paste service)
+* Any addons that you have - this is **very** important
+* Any additional information you think would be helpful
+
+Do not use offensive language or insult *anyone*. Distruptive behaviour in issue
+tracker will be dealt with harshly and in the end, will leave your issue unresolved.
+
+### Pull Requests
+Pull requests are a great way to contribute code, but there are still a few
+guidelines on how to use them.
+
+Note that these guidelines do not apply to pull requesting changes to
+documentation. For that kind of pull requests, just use common sense.
+
+## What to Contribute?
+You can find issues tagged with "help wanted" on tracker to see if there is
+something for you. If you want to take over one of these, just leave a comment
+so other contributors don't accidentally pick same issue to work on. You can also
+offer your help to any other issue, but for "help wanted" tasks, help is really
+*needed*.
+
+### Before Programming...
+If you did not pick an existing issue to work on, you should perhaps ask if your
+change is wanted. This can be done by opening an issue or contacting developer
+directly via Discord.
+
+Then, a few words of warning: Skript codebase will not be pleasant, easy or
+that sane to work around with. You will need some Java skills to create anything
+useful in sane amount of time. Skript is not a good programming/Java learning
+project!
+
+Still here? Good luck. If you did not learn how to use Git, now might be a good
+time to [https://help.github.com/categories/bootcamp/](learn).
+
+### When Programming
+Use a sane development environment. README has some instructions about working
+with Skript's code, please follow them. As said there, you really should follow
+them to get your pull request merged.
+
+If you cannot or do not wish to follow some of the guidelines, it does not mean
+that all is lost. You can change your code even after submitting a pull request,
+so you can later improve it. Also, if your feature is valuable enough, it might
+be merged and then fixed for you. It does not happen very often, though.
+
+### After Programming
+Test your changes. Actually, test more than your changes: if you think that you
+might have broken something unrelated, better to test that too. Nothing is more
+annoying than breaking existing features.
+
+When you are ready to submit a pull request, please follow the template. Don't
+be scared, usually everything goes well and your pull request will be present
+in next Skript release.
+
+Good luck!
+
+## Code Bounties
+Just to let you know, [https://www.bountysource.com/](Bountysource) is a thing.
+While putting a bounty on issue *probably* won't make me do it any faster,
+someone else might get interested.
+
+Other donation methods are possible in the future, but right now it is not
+possible to just donate money for me (bensku). Putting bounties on things
+I'm already doing is always possible, though :)

PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md

@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+*before submitting, remove all help text like this*
+
+Target Minecraft versions: *any means 1.9+*
+Requirements: *is Paper required? are there plugin requirements?*
+Related issues: *include issue numbers (if any) like #NUMBER*
+
+Description:
+*fill something useful that describes your pull request here*

README.md

@@ -76,32 +76,20 @@ with applicable nullness rules. Note that this really means *exceptional*;
 adding some expressions and stuff like that do not count.
 
 ## Contributing
-So, you want to contribute to Skript? You need to:
-* Have some skills in Java (unless said otherwise)
+Code guidelines can be found below. You should also see CONTRIBUTING.md for
+a lot of useful information.
+
+## Code Guidelines
+So, you want to work with Skript's codebase? There are a few guidelines for you:
+* Understand Java as a language (Skript is not good learning project)
 * Use Eclipse as your IDE for Skript *or* get your own IDE to support Eclipse's nullness annotations
 * Not alter Eclipse nullness annotation settings; they affect even the compiler
-* Use tabs as indentation; Eclipse does this for you
-* Write code that follows conventions in other files of Skript's source
+* Use tabs as indentation (Eclipse settings provided will do this)
+* Try to write code that looks similar to
 * **DO NOT** use NMS code
 
-Tl;dr; follow these directions unless you have good reason not to.
-
-### What to Contribute?
-You can find issues tagged with "help wanted" on tracker to see if there is
-something for you. If you want to take over one of these, just leave a comment
-so other contributors don't accidentally pick same issue to work on. You can also
-offer your help to any other issue, but for "help wanted" tasks, help is really
-*needed*.
-
-You don't have to pick an issue to work on. If you have good idea, you can first
-create an issue to ask what other people think about it. After that, you can
-write code for it, test it, and finally submit a pull request.
-
-### I'm not Java expert, can I still help?
-You do need to know something of Java programming to be much help, but you do
-not need to be an expert. If you can write code that works and doesn't contain
-too much [spaghetti](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti_code), you're
-good to go!
+Of course, these are just recommendations. However, not following them may get
+your pull requests rejected.
 
 ### Maven repository
 If you use Skript as (soft) dependency for your plugin, and use maven or Gradle,