Category:Contribute

Open Babel is developed using open, community-oriented development made possible by an active community -- developers, testers, writers, implementers and most of all users. No matter which 'er' you happen to be, or how much time you can provide, you can make valuable contributions.

Not sure where to start? Look over the list of possible avenues for contribution listed below.

Provide Input

• Suggest a needed feature.
• Suggest a needed file format.
• Report a bug.
• Send a note to the mailing list and tell us what you think.

Spread the Word

• Include references to Open Babel in research talks or publications.
• Blog about Open Babel and chemistry.
• Help improve the documentation or website.

This wiki can be edited by any contributor who creates an account and logs in to ensure proper attributions and citation. Send an e-mail to validate yourself as a real person and you'll be added to the editors group.

The main user documentation is also available for patching through GitHub

• Contact your proprietary software vendors and suggest they support Open Babel and open file formats.
• Use Open Babel in another program.

Join In

• Share your projects, small or large on the mailing list.
• Help translate Open Babel to a foreign language.
• Test new code snapshots.
• Sponsor development.

Code a Storm

• Fix a bug.
• Add additional tests for stress-testing the code.
• Perform "software archeology" tasks for improving the codebase.
• Add a new file format.
• Write Perl or Python scripts using the Open Babel bindings for these languages.
• Add a requested feature from the tracker.
• Add support for additional data type translation and perception.
• Contribute an item off of the potential roadmap.

Also, please take a look at the documentation for developing with Open Babel.

In short, we're just getting started. There's still plenty to do. Contact the openbabel-discuss mailing list for more questions, comments, suggestions, etc.