Note: this question is about the general case... How things usually are. OK so I

Question

Note: this question is about the general case... How things usually are.

OK so I can download the code and mess around with it, but how do my changes make it into the project officially? Who decides what changes make it into the project, and how? Is there often a list of required changes/additions? What if I have a cool idea that is not mentioned there? How do I get it approved? And what if two people implement the same feature. Who chooses which implementation makes it into the project?

Basically, how is the whole thing managed (in the general case)?

Explanation / Answer

It really depends on the project. Generally speaking, the larger the project, the more formal the process for new contributors is. If you improve the source of a small project, a simple mail to one of the developers might be enough.

Before you implement a new feature, you should ask them if someone is already working on that. And you should work on the very latest version available, not the latest major/stable build. Otherwise, your changes might be harder to incorporate with the current version. I can only guess what happens when two people independently implement the same feature, either the first one wins (because nobody knows of the other version) or the decision is based on the quality of the contributions.

Sometimes there is a list of todo-features, but more often, you just implement what you need for your own needs. You fix the bugs that bugger you.

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