Advent Resource #6: Getting Involved in Development

A step-by-step guide for new developers

It is easy to be overwhelmed by the size and complexity of LibreOffice. The source is written in many different languages and formats — C, C++, Java, Bash, JavaScript, Python, Perl, SQL, Test, XML — and consist of roughly 102,000 files (excluding all localizations) with 36,000,000 lines of text (7,000,000 lines of source code).

Nobody understands the whole code in detail, but we have many core developers who each know part of the code in detail. This step by step guide shows an easy way going from “wanting to contribute” to successfully have the first patch merged to master. If you want help or need more information, please do not hesitate to contact the developer mentoring lead.