path: root/doc/HACKING

Guidelines on Code Modification
===============================

Coding Style
------------

* Use syntax compatible to both python 2.6 and 3.1.
* Use docstrings with pydoc in mind
* Follow the style guide for python code:
    http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/
* Although this guide suggests otherwise, tabs are used for indentation
    of code and docstrings.  In other documents (readme, etc), use spaces.
* Test the code with "doctest" where it makes sense


Patches
-------

Send patches, created with "git format-patch", to the email adress

    romanz@lavabit.com

If you plan to do major changes, or many changes over time, I encourage
you to create a fork on GitHub, Gitorious or any other site.


Starting Points
---------------

Good places to read about ranger internals are:
ranger/core/actions.py
ranger/core/environment.py
ranger/fsobject/fsobject.py

About the UI:
ranger/gui/widgets/browsercolumn.py
ranger/gui/widgets/browserview.py
ranger/gui/ui.py


Common Changes
--------------

* Change which files are previewed in the auto preview:
In ranger/fsobject/file.py
the constant PREVIEW_BLACKLIST

* Adding options:
In ranger/defaults/options.py
add the default value, like: my_option = True
In ranger/container/settingobject.py
add the name of your option to the constant ALLOWED_SETTINGS

The setting is now accessible at self.settings.my_option,
assuming <self> is a "SettingsAware" object.

* Adding colorschemes:
Copy ranger/colorschemes/default.py to ranger/colorschemes/myscheme.py
and modify it according to your needs.  Alternatively, mimic the jungle
colorscheme.  It subclasses the default scheme and just modifies a few things.
In ranger/defaults/options.py (or ~/.config/ranger/options.py), change
    colorscheme = 'default'
to: colorscheme = 'myscheme'

* Change the file type => application associations:
In ranger/defaults/apps.py
modify the method app_default.
The variable "f" is a filesystem-object with attributes like mimetype,
extension, etc.  For a full list, check ranger/fsobject/fsobject.py

* Change the file extension => mime type associations:
Modify ranger/data/mime.types


Version Numbering
-----------------

Three numbers;  The first changes on a rewrite, the second changes when major
configuration incompatibilities occur and the third changes with each release.