Coding standards =====================================================
+- Before contributing larger amounts of code to Guile, please read the
+documents in `guile-core/devel/policy' in the CVS source tree.
+
- As for any part of Project GNU, changes to Guile should follow the
GNU coding standards. The standards are available via anonymous FTP
from prep.ai.mit.edu, as /pub/gnu/standards/standards.texi and
entails adding a test to configure.in, and then adding #ifdefs to your
code to disable it if the system's features are missing.
+- The normal way of removing a function, macro or variable is to mark
+it as "deprecated", keep it for a while, and remove it in a later
+release. If a function or macro is marked as "deprecated" it
+indicates that people shouldn't use it in new programs, and should try
+to remove it in old. Make sure that an alternative exists unless it
+is our purpose to remove functionality. Don't deprecate definitions
+if it is unclear when they will be removed. (This is to ensure that a
+valid way of implementing some functionality always exists.)
+
+When deprecating a definition, always following this procedure:
+
+1. Mark the definition using
+
+#if (SCM_DEBUG_DEPRECATED == 0)
+...
+#endif
+
+2. Write a comment at the definition explaining how a programmer
+can manage without the deprecated definition.
+
+3. Add an entry that the definition has been deprecated in NEWS
+
+4. At the top of release, there is a list of releases with reminders
+about what to do at each release. Add a reminder about the removal of
+the deprecated defintion at the appropriate release.
+
- When you make a user-visible change (i.e. one that should be
documented, and appear in NEWS, put an asterisk in column zero of the
start of the ChangeLog entry, like so:
HCoop / bpt / guile.git / blobdiff