
How to contribute to the development of Ikarus Scheme.
(Abdulaziz Ghuloum) 

Ikarus Scheme is a Free Software, licensed under the GNU General
Public License (GPLv3).  

From the GNU web site:

  Free software is a matter of the users' freedom to run, copy,
  distribute, study, change and improve the software. More
  precisely, it refers to four kinds of freedom, for the users of
  the software:
  
  - The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).  
  
  - The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your
    needs (freedom 1). 
  
  - Access to the source code is a precondition for this.  The
    freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor
    (freedom 2).
  
  - The freedom to improve the program, and release your
    improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits
    (freedom 3).
  
  Access to the source code is a precondition for this.


There are many ways in which you can contribute to the development
of Ikarus.  The most important way is submitting bug reports.  When
you submit a bug report, try to follow these guidelines:
  
- Make the title short and descriptive.

- Describe the problem by including a simple program that exhibits
  the bug, the error that was observed, and the expected "correct"
  output.  

- If you're working on a development version of Ikarus, include the
  version of Ikarus that exhibited the bug.  This is as simple as
  printing the banner that you get when you run Ikarus.

- Expect to receive followup questions from the developers or
  status updates from the launchpad bug tracker.

- Do not hesitate on reporting anything.  Even a simple typo or a
  suggestion for improving an error message qualifies as a bug.  The
  bug tracker is essentially a way for you to suggest things to be
  put in our to-do list.

- In general, do not send patches.  Reporting the problem is the
  best way to help.  You can submit a small diff that shows which
  lines you think should fix the problem.  At this point, we reserve
  our right to not apply any submitted patches and to maintain
  complete ownership of the software.  This allows us to relicense
  the software at later time without having to seek permission from
  every person who submitted a patch.  It's not feasible for us to
  collect legal copyright waiver forms from all potential
  contributers.


