[Ns-developers] new ns-2 software contributions

[John Heidemann]

On Fri, 25 Mar 2005 08:51:15 +0100, Mathieu Lacage wrote: 
>...
>I would like to add:
>
>- conformance to a clear established coding style

This would be good, but would require reformatting some code
since there are a few distinct styles in the current code base.

>- conformance to a clear established set of architectural guidelines
>(i.e., use of STL or use of BSD-style lists, etc.)
>
>- detailed ChangeLog entry for _every_ checkin. Scripts can be used to
>generate the bulk of these entries. See
>http://developer.gnome.org/tools/scripts/prepare-ChangeLog.pl.

Our policy has been to use CHANGES.html for this purpose:

	CHANGES.html

	NS and nam both have a CHANGES.html file. Please record
	``medium-sized'' (or larger) changes in this file.
	
	What is a medium-sized change? A judgement call. Simple bug fixes
	aren't (the Makefile had an extra .o in OBJS and was breaking, I fixed
	it). Larger bug fixes are (the tahoe TCP module produced wrong results
	in a particular case). New features certainly are (multicast code is
	now present). If in doubt, ask someone.

Also, we had pre-commit requirements:

	Before Committing Changes to CVS
	
	Before commiting changes to ns, you should always run the
	validation test suites (run "./validate" in the top-level ns
	directory). Since ns is a large and complex piece of software
	it's critical to locate bugs early.
	
	This applies to even "obviously correct" one-line changes. All
	too frequently there's a minor error that slips through and
	someone else has to fix it.


   -John Heidemann