Making and Accepting Pull Requests

Making a Pull Request

In the pull request description (editable on GitHub), you should include the following information (some may be omitted if it is e.g. a small bug fix and not a new feature or design change):

• What does the change do? (description of the new features, changes, or refactorings)

• Where should the reviewer start the review? (what is the central module that changed, etc.)

• What is the use case, if it is a new feature?

• give an example of use or screenshot/plot if applicable

• Are any new dependencies required? (dependencies should be kept to a minimum, so all new dependences need to be accepted by management)

• is there a relevant issue open that this addresses? (use the #ISSUENUMBER syntax to link it)

Note that you can include syntax-highlighted code examples by using 3 back-tics:

```python

code here

```

Keep in Mind

• make sure you remember to update the documentation as well as the code! (see the docs/ directory), and make sure it builds with no errors (make doc)

• Pull requests that cause tests to fail on Travis (the continuous integration system) will not be accepted until those tests pass.

• make sure to add a news fragment for the changelog. In order to do this add a file to the directory docs/changes and use the following naming scheme <PULL REQUEST>.<TYPE>.rst (take a look at the README inside of the directory for more details). The file should contain a brief summary of the purpose of this pull request.

Accepting a Pull Request

ctapipe maintainers must do a code review before accepting any pull request. During the review the reviewer can ask for changes to be made, and the requester can simply push them to the branch associated with the request and they will automatically appear (no new pull request needed). The following guidelines should be used to facilitate the review procedure:

• Perform a scientific or conceptual Review if the request introduces new features, algorithms, or design changes

• Look at the use case for the proposed change.

  • if the use case is missing, ask for one

  • does it make sense? Is it connected to a goal, requirement, or specification?

• Perform a Code Review

  • Check that all automatic checks succeeded, if not notify the author and give guidance how to fix the identified issues.

  • Check that all functions and classes have API documentation in the correct format.

  • Check that there are at least basic unit tests for the added functionality / fixed bug.

  • Check that the API (function and class definitions) is clear and easy to understand.

  • Check for common coding mistakes.

  • Check for obvious performance issues.

  • Check that the code uses the existing features of ctapipe.

  • Check that the code doesn’t introduce new features that are already present in another form.