CONTRIBUTING.md

Contributing

This document outlines best-practices and contributing guidelines to VampireLib.

By contributing to VampireLib you agree with the Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO).

Other

Trivial fixes that do not require review (e.g. typos) are exempt from this policy. VampireLib team members should double check with other members of the team on Discord before pushing a commit or merging a PR without going through this process.

PRs that do not fit under any of these categories but are not "trivial fixes" are merged at the consensus of the VampireLib team, using whatever criteria they determine to be appropriate.

This is only a summary of VampireLib's PR process and an explanation of VampireLib-specific exceptions to it. For exact definitions and more information, see RFC 39.

Conventions

General

Use UpperCamelCase for class names. Use lowerCamelCase for method names, variable names, and names of fields that are not both static and final. Use UPPER_SNAKE_CASE for names of fields that are both static and final, excluding atomics like AtomicInteger, AtomicBoolean or AtomicReference.

Method names should generally be verb phrases (tick, getCarversForStep), except for "withX", "toX", "fromX", "of" and builder methods. Class names and non-boolean field and variable names should be noun phrases (ChunkRegion, color). Boolean field and variable names should always be adjective phrases or present tense verb phrases (powered, canOpen), avoiding the is and has prefixes when possible (colored, not isColored or hasColor).

To make code as easy to read as possible, keep names in the natural language order. For example, a class representing a chest block entity should be named ChestBlockEntity rather than BlockEntityChest. Though prefix naming may be helpful for grouping classes together in an IDE's tree view, reading and writing code is done much more often than browsing files.

Spelling

Use American English for consistency throughout VampireLib.

If there are two acceptable spellings of the same word, first check if one is already being used in VampireLib, Quilt Mappings or by Mojang, and if not, use the most common spelling.

Conciseness

Omit words that are made redundant by parameter names or owner class names. For example, use getChunk(BlockPos pos) rather than getChunkAtPosition(BlockPos pos) and Box.create rather than Box.createBox. Don't avoid overloading methods or shadowing fields.

However, it's more important for a name to be descriptive rather than short, so don't omit important words. When naming something always look at all its usages, including overriding methods and inheriting classes.

It's important to be concise especially with names used in many places throughout the code, while more obscure names can be longer and more descriptive.

Abbreviations

Avoid abbreviations unless it's a common one everyone knows and other Quilt Mappings names involving the same word use its abbreviated form. Full names are easier to read quickly and remember ("Which words were abbreviated?") and they often don't take more time to type thanks to IDE autocompletion. Common abbreviations you should use are:

• "id" for "identifier"
• "pos" for "position"
• "nbt" for "named binary tag"
• "init" for "initialize"
• "min"/"max" for "minimum"/"maximum"
• Any abbreviations used by Java or libraries ("json", "html", etc.)
• "o" for the parameter of equals(Ljava/lang/Object;)Z methods
• "prev" for "previous"

Treat acronyms as single words rather than capitalizing every letter. This improves readability (compare JsonObject and JSONObject) and it's consistent with Mojang naming (a known name is NbtIo).

Abbreviations you shouldn't use are:

• "loc" for "location"

Please avoid the use of abbreviations in javadocs, except if those describe the name of a format, a library, etc.

Consistency

Consistency is important as it makes code more readable and names easier to memorize. When possible, use terms that are present in VampireLib, in other Quilt Mappings names, in libraries used by Minecraft, or in vanilla strings. The rest of this section lists common names and name patterns you should use.

Ticks and updates

Use "tick" for updates done once per tick. Use "update" for other kind of updates.

Value last tick

Use the word "last" for the value that something had last tick (lastX, lastWidth, etc.).

Getters, setters, withers, and creators

Use "get" for non-boolean getters and other methods that calculate some property with no side effects other than caching a value in a private field. For boolean getters, use "is".

Use "set" for methods that set some property. Name the parameter the same as the property (setColor(color), not setColor(newColor)).

Use "with" for methods that return a copy of an object with a different value for some property. Name the parameter the same as the property.

Use "create" for methods that create a new instance of some object. Use "get or create" for methods that create a new instance only if one does not already exist. Don't use "get or create" for lazy initialization, though.

Serialization

Use "serializer" for objects whose purpose is serializing or deserializing some type of object (RecipeSerializer). Use "serialize" and "deserialize" for methods only when serializing or deserializing an object other than the one the method is in.

Use "from" for static methods that create an object of the method owner's type (fromJson, fromNbt, fromString). Use "to" for methods that convert an object to another type (toString, toLong, toNbt).

Use "read" for non-static methods that load data into the object. Use "write" for methods that save data to an * existing* object passed as a parameter.

Factories and builders

Use "factory" for objects whose purpose is creating other objects.

Use "builder" for objects whose purpose is helping with the creation of an immutable object. Name builder methods the same as the field they're setting, without any prefix.

Collections

Use a plural name for collections and maps rather than the words "list", "set", "array", etc., unless it's a collection of collections or there are several collections of different types containing the same objects (entities , entityLists).

When it's enough, name maps based on the value type. Otherwise, name it in the "valuesByKeys" format.

Coordinates

Coordinates can be named x, y, and z when it's clear what they represent. If clarification is needed, add a word in front of the coordinate (velocityX, not xVelocity).

Name screen coordinates x and y, rather than left and top.

Javadocs

Write sentences for class, method and field javadocs, starting with an uppercase and ending with a period. Start method docs with verbs, like Gets or Called. Use HTML tags such as <p> between paragraphs if the docs have several, as line wraps are converted to spaces in the generated documentation. Feel free to start a new line whenever you feel the current line is too long.

Parameter and @return documentation should use quick descriptions without initial capitalization or punctuation, such as {@code true} if the block placement was successful, {@code false} otherwise. {@return} used in the first sentence can duplicate enclosed text to the return description.

Use {@index} to allow enclosed text to be indexed by the Javadoc search.

Javadoc will take the first sentence, ended by the first ., as a brief description of the member you are documenting. Note that . from abbreviations, such as i.e., count.

Use of the $ character

The $ character may be used in mixins to mark a semantic separation in the name, in other words it allows to separate the actual name of the variable and the namespace.

@Unique fields must be prefixed with vl$, but @Unique methods don't need prefixes.

In the case of a pseudo-local variable (a field used briefly to pass around a local variable of a method between 2 injections of said method), the field should be named with the namespace first, then the name of the injected method, and finally the name of the local (vl$injectedMethod$localName).

Licensing & DCO

VampireLib is licensed under Apache 2.0, and have a Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO) which you need to agree with to contribute. Commit author may be sufficient, but a sign-off can be added too, and legal names are not required for privacy reasons.

License Headers

Every Java source file in VampireLib has a license header with a copyright notice that keeps track of its creation date and last modification date.

Two gradle tasks are dedicated to them:

• :checkLicenses will check the presence and validity of the license header in each Java source file;
• :applyLicenses will automatically apply the correct license header to every Java source file; it can be used to add missing headers and update copyright dates across the whole code base.

So, before committing, remember to run :applyLicenses!

Derivative Work

Please refer to the DCO.

My work comes from Fabric API or QSL

If your work comes from Fabric API, then you should put /// FABRIC at the beginning of your file, and if your work comes from QSL, then you should put /// QUILT instead of /// FABRIC, or in the case you're copying an entire file in it, you can just keep the same header without modification.

Make sure to execute the :applyLicenses task as it will apply a special license header to Fabric API or QSL-derived files mentioning Fabric's or Quilt's copyright notice. Files derived from Fabric or Quilt must use this license header!