CONTRIBUTING.md

Contributing to FC: Pregmod

First off, thanks for taking the time to contribute!

If there is anything you don't understand feel free to ask. The advanced tooling is not required for fixing small typos or simple bugs.

Environment

Requirements

To effectively work on the project the following tools are required:

• Git
• Node.js or another npm client
• a code editor/IDE
  • VSCode is a popular option

While these tools make working on FC easier, they are not actually required.

Setting everything up

1. Clone the project from GitGud.io (Detailed Git setup and work cycle)
2. Navigate to the fc-pregmod root directory.
   • Windows: Run Windows Powershell or Command Prompt and execute cd C:\path\to\project\fc-pregmod
   • Mac/Linux: Open a terminal and execute cd /path/to/project/fc-pregmod/
3. Run setup.bat (Windows) or setup.sh (Mac/Linux) in your terminal
4. Follow the install steps until you get to the Welcome to FC development!... menu and then select Exit
5. Open the directory in your preferred editor/IDE

Make sure you have an extension for ESLint installed in your preferred editor/IDE to catch formatting errors

Recommended editor/IDE plugins/extensions

The list below is for VSCode. If you are not using VSCode but want some of these extensions functionality, then do some research. Many of these extensions exist or have alternatives in most common editors/IDEs.

• ESLint
  • Catches formatting problems and lets you know when your code doesn't conform to our standards
• Code Spell Checker
  • Catches most spelling issues
• Error Lens
  • Highlights lines that ESLint and Code Spell Checker have marked as having problems
• Git Extension Pack
  • Adds a few of tools that make working with git easier
• IntelliCode
  • Will make your day easier by suggesting functions and properties for autocompletion
  • Will also show you documentation for those suggested functions and properties
• TODO Highlight
  • Makes TODO comments stand out better
• Todo Tree
  • Adds a tab to the left sidebar that lists all TODO comments in the current project

Compiling

Use either the simple or advanced compiler. See the Compile the game yourself section in the readme for more information.

Code style

The coding style is based on our .eslintrc.json. If your editor/IDE has ESLint support it will let you know when your code doesn't conform to our standards.

• Most editors/IDEs don't have native ESLint support and will need you to install an ESLint plugin/extension.

Documentation

It's a good idea to provide meaningful documentation for new functions and classes where possible. We follow Typescript's JSDoc type dialect for the most part (and we provide a Typescript configuration and auxiliary type definition files if you'd like to use it yourself – it's pretty nifty). Don't worry too much about specific type syntax if you can't make TS work or don't understand it, someone else will probably fix it for you as long as you've made the intent clear in some form of JSDoc.

Naming conventions

• JavaScript variable and function names should be camelCase.

// good
let fooBar;

// bad
let foobar;
let Foobar;
let FooBar;

• JavaScript classes and namespaces should be PascalCase.

// good
class Foo {}
App.Foo.bar();

// bad
class foo {}
class FOO {}
App.foo.bar();

• Enum members should be ALLCAPS.

// good
enum Foo {
  BAR = 'bar',
  BAZ = 'baz',
}

// bad
enum Foo {
  bar = 'bar',
  Baz = 'baz',
}

This also applies to JavaScript objects that are used as enums.

// good
/** @enum {string} */
const Foo = {
  BAR: 'bar',
  BAZ: 'baz',
}

// bad
/** @enum {string} */
const foo = {
  BAR: 'bar',
  BAZ: 'baz',
}

// worse
/** @enum {string} */
const foo = {
  bar: 'bar',
  Baz: 'baz',
}

• CSS classes are kebob-case.

/* good */
.foo-bar {}

/* bad */
.fooBar {}
.FOO-BAR {}

New code should generally get organized into the App namespace. See fc-js-init.js for a rough outline.

JavaScript Features

Use modern JavaScript features when possible. We are currently targeting ECMAScript 2022, and aren't trying to support Internet Explorer or anything stupid like that (it isn't 2010 anymore). For example, use let/const rather than var, prefer Arrow function expressions to inline long-form functions, use nullish coalescing and optional chaining, etc.

Code quality

Contributions should generally not add any new sanity check errors. You can check for errors by running sanityCheck.bat (Windows) or sanityCheck.sh (Mac/Linux).

• With the default settings this will (mostly) show you just the errors that were caused by your changes.
• If you are not using the advanced tooling then use legacySanityCheck.bat or legacySanityCheck.sh instead.

Project Structure

Source files

• src/ is the main directory for source code. It also contains the embedded art files. Since it is inside an eval() statement debugging and minification is more complicated than for js/.
• js/ is loaded before SugarCube and therefore outside SugarCube's eval which src/ is contained in. This means accessing SugarCube features (like SugarCube.Engine) is more complicated however it other than src/ it can be minified and is easier to debug. Currently, contains mainly static data, however new code not relying on SC2 should be sorted in here too.
• css/ contains all CSS files. The internal structure is explained here.
• themes/ contains custom themes which are built separately.

Developer Files

• devNotes/ contains various wiki files and other potentially interesting files.
• devTools/ contains various scripts and executables needed for working with the project or compiling.
  • TypeScript typing files are stored here as well in the types/ subdirectory.
• submodules/ contains Git submodules
  • currently only a custom version of SugarCube 2

Art files

• artTools/contains files for creating and updating vector art
• resources/ contains various art related files

External Programs

• docker/ contains Docker files from which the docker containers for GitLabs CI are created
• FCHost/ contains the sources for FCHost
• saveTools/ contains tools for editing save files

Further Reading

Wiki Files

• Event Writing Guides
  • Twine¹
  • JavaScript
• Exception handling
• Sanity check²
• Slave List
• Pronouns
• External function documentation
  • Eyes
  • Limbs
  • Some potentially useful JS functions
  • Content embedding chart (for more details refer to this issue)

^{1. Twine is being phased out of the project and should not be used in new code, but the basic concepts found here still apply.}

^{2. Only applies to the legacy sanity checks.}

Useful issues

• Setting up VS Code
• Classes in Game State
• Self executing functions
• Sort a map
• How to create a Merge Request (MR)