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Contributing to ByteWeasel

Thank you for considering contributing to ByteWeasel!

Philosophy

ByteWeasel exists to make VM development accessible. The goal is a VM framework where any intermediate C programmer can understand the code and extend it without needing to understand thousands of lines of complex code.

When contributing, keep these principles in mind:

  • Simplicity over cleverness - Clear code beats clever code
  • Hackability - Make it easy for users to extend and modify
  • Minimal dependencies - Pure C, minimal external requirements
  • Good documentation - Code should be self-explanatory, but comments help

How Can I Contribute?

Reporting Bugs

Open an issue with:

  • Clear title
  • Steps to reproduce with minimal code example
  • Expected vs actual behavior
  • Environment (OS, compiler version)

Suggesting Features

Open an issue describing:

  • What feature you'd like to see
  • What problem does it solve
  • Implementation ideas (optional)

Your First Contribution

Look for issues labeled:

  • good first issue - Small, well-defined tasks
  • help wanted - We'd love help with these
  • documentation - Improve docs, examples, or comments

Easy starter contributions:

  • Add example projects showing ByteWeasel in action
  • Improve documentation or code comments
  • Add utility functions to the framework
  • Optimize existing code
  • Fix typos in documentation

Pull Request Process

Before You Start

  1. Check existing issues/PRs - Someone might already be working on it
  2. Open an issue first for big changes - Let's discuss the approach
  3. For small fixes - Just open a PR

Code Guidelines

Style:

  • Use K&R style bracing
  • 4 spaces for indentation (no tabs)
  • Clear, descriptive variable names
  • Keep functions focused and under 50 lines when possible

Commit Messages:

  • Use present tense ("Add feature" not "Added feature")
  • Be descriptive ("Add memory pool utility" not "updates")
  • Reference issues when relevant ("Fix #42")

Submitting a PR

  1. Fork the repo and create a branch from master
  2. Make your changes following the code guidelines
  3. Test your changes - Make sure everything compiles and works
  4. Update documentation if needed
  5. Write a clear PR description: What does this do? Why? How did you test it?
  6. Be patient and responsive to feedback

Development Setup

Building:

cd util
./compile.sh  # Linux
compile.bat   # Windows

Testing:

gcc -Wall -Wextra -std=c99 src/byteweasel.c src/main.c -o byteweasel
./byteweasel

Example Contribution Ideas

Framework Improvements:

  • Performance optimizations
  • Memory management utilities
  • Debugging tools (bytecode disassemblers, instruction tracing)
  • Platform support improvements
  • API enhancements

Documentation & Examples:

  • Tutorial projects (build a simple language on ByteWeasel)
  • Use case examples (game scripting, config DSL, expression evaluator)
  • Architecture guide explaining internals
  • Performance benchmarks
  • API reference documentation

Tooling:

  • Build system improvements
  • Testing framework
  • Profiling tools
  • Code generation helpers

Code of Conduct

Be respectful. We're all here to make ByteWeasel better.

Acceptable:

  • Being welcoming to newcomers
  • Accepting constructive criticism gracefully
  • Focusing on what's best for the project

Unacceptable:

  • Harassment, insults, or personal attacks
  • Trolling or inflammatory comments

Recognition

Nothing here...

Contributors will be added to CONTRIBUTORS.md and mentioned in release notes.

Thank you for contributing!