How to contribute

To end this section, let us repeat something already stated in the introduction:

Important

ASPECT is a community project. As such, we strongly encourage contributions from the community to improve this code over time. Obvious candidates for such contributions are implementations of new plugins as discussed in Available plugin types since they are typically self-contained and do not require much knowledge of the details of the remaining code. Other much appreciated contributions are new test models or benchmarks, extended documentation (every paragraph helps), and in particular fixing typos or updating outdated documentation. Obviously, however, we also encourage contributions to the core functionality in any form!

Let us assume you found something in ASPECT to improve, something you did not understand, or something that is simply wrong. Do something about it! No matter whether you are a C++ expert or first-time user, there are no such things as too-unimportant contributions, and if you struggled with something, it is most likely somebody else will as well. The process of contributing to a new project can be daunting, but we appreciate every contribution and are happy to work with you on improving ASPECT. To get you started we have collected a set of guidelines and advice on how to get involved in the community. To avoid duplication we store these guidelines in a separate file CONTRIBUTING.md in the main folder of the repository, and you can also access them online at https://github.com/geodynamics/aspect/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md. Even if something in that file is not clear, this is an opportunity for you to ask your question on the forum (see Finding answers to more questions), and let us know that file needs improvement.