Proposal: Create a Comprehensive Developer's Manual

[markgomer]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

The onboarding process for new contributors to the Apache AGE project is challenging due to a lack of comprehensive documentation about the codebase, standards, and procedures. This makes it difficult for new developers to understand how they can best contribute to the project. Furthermore, the absence of a standard guide may lead to inconsistencies in code and practices across the project.

Describe the solution you'd like

I propose that we create a comprehensive Developer's Manual for the Apache AGE project. This document should provide:

1. An overview of the project structure and codebase to help newcomers understand the system quickly.
2. Our coding and documentation standards, best practices, and conventions to ensure consistency across the project.
3. Step-by-step procedures for common tasks like submitting pull requests, reporting bugs, or proposing new features.
4. Information about the project's vision, goals, and roadmap to ensure that all contributors are aligned in their efforts.

Describe alternatives you've considered

An alternative solution could be creating separate documents for each of the points mentioned above. However, having all the information in one comprehensive Developer's Manual would provide a central source of truth and would be more efficient for both new and existing contributors.

Additional context

Creating a comprehensive Developer's Manual would not only ease the onboarding process for new contributors but also enhance collaboration among team members. It would provide a shared understanding of the project and its goals, making the development process smoother and more efficient. As the project grows, this manual will be an invaluable resource to ensure consistency and quality in our collaborative efforts.

[carlasanches]

I support this proposal and would like to contribute if it becomes a project. Another suggestion I've seen in other open-source projects is to create a "good first issue" category. This helps new contributors find issues easier to contribute to when first introduced to the project and still add value.

[titoausten]

This will help alot. Unfortunately, I made some PRs that wasn't considered because of lack of such info. If there are clear details about contribution, It's going to be a great foundation for new contributors.

[M4rcxs]

It would be really helpful if this proposal goes ahead! If there are other interns to guide the newest ones, using techniques like pair programming and explaining how to contribute, that would also be good!

[rafsun42]

For (2), there is a web page https://age.apache.org/contribution/guide. I will add setting up clangformat as well.

[talhahahae]

This would be a great addition as it will reduce most of the confusion and accelerate the new intern's ability to contribute effectively. It will also lead to better code quality and easier maintenance.

[MatheusFarias03]

I think that, for now, we can add to the documentation some of the functions that are missing. But it would really help to have a developer's manual. For that, we might need to do some reverse engineering, it would probably be best if someone with more knowledge on AGE could guide us through on which files to look for and in which order it would be best to do that, so we can see how exactly things work.

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