How to Contribute
There are many ways to contribute to Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Mac: logging bugs, submitting pull requests, reporting issues, and creating suggestions.
This document regroups different advice that are useful when writing bindings and explain our release process and tools.
When a new version of Xcode comes out, we run a diff tool to see the changes. The results then becomes wiki pages and these are the documents we use to add or update our bindings. As changes can be pretty massive, we need to split the work between Xamarin iOS/macOS team members and our lovely contributors.
Even if you have push rights on the xamarin/xamarin-macios repository, you should create a personal fork and create feature branches there when you need them. This keeps the main repository clean and your personal workflow cruft out of sight.
To enable us to quickly review and accept your pull requests, always create one pull request per issue and link the issue in the pull request. Never merge multiple requests in one unless they have the same root cause. Be sure to follow our Coding Guidelines and keep code changes as small as possible. Avoid pure formatting changes to code that has not been modified otherwise. Pull requests should contain tests whenever possible.
Where to Contribute Check out the full issues list for a list of all potential areas for contributions. Note that just because an issue exists in the repository does not mean we will accept a contribution to it. There are several reasons we may not accept a pull request like:
- Some
enhancementdescribe a real issue but the proposed way to solve it might not be the best one. Discussions on how to best solve the root issue should happen on the GitHub issue (and before a pull-request); - Negative impact on build time or build size. E.g. ideally the cost of fixing something should not have a huge impact on people that do not require that feature;
- Incomplete support of all platforms. If a feature can exists across all platforms then it should be implemented for all of them. This helps to create cross-platform applications;
To improve the chances to get a pull request merged you should select an issue that is labeled with the help wanted or bug labels. If the issue you want to work on is not labeled with help-wanted or bug, you can start a conversation with the issue owner asking whether an external contribution will be considered.
To discuss this project, and participate in the design or development, we use the Gitter chat.
We're also interested in your feedback for the future of Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Mac. You can submit a suggestion or feature request through the issue tracker. To make this process more effective, we may ask that these include more information to help define them more clearly.
Take a look at our guide to filing issues.
We use Mono's Coding Guidelines.
In order to keep the conversation clear and transparent, please limit the discussion to English and keep things on topic with the issue. Be considerate of others and try to be courteous and professional at all times.