Notepad++ Community Release
===========================
Project page: http://github.com/npp-community/npp-community
IRC Support: irc://irc.freenode.net:6667/notepad++
Issue Tracking: http://nppcommunity.lighthouseapp.com

Overview
--------
Notepad++ is one of the leading open-source text editors for the Windows
platform, this Community Release is based the Notepad++ source with many
enhancements.  The project is focused on optimizing the code, adding features,
using unit tests, enhancing the UI, and fostering open collaboration and
recognition of contributions using distributed version control.  Lastly, this
project is the place where the ideas from Notepad++'s IdeaTorrent, fix and
enhancement patches, and plugin developers can have a public distribution
where changes can cook and the public can give feedback.  If the feed-back is
good and the demand is high, then perhaps it will be added to Notepad++.

Requirements
------------
The Community Release source repository tries to minimize the requirements
for getting started on hacking Notepad++, but there are still dependencies.

	* Microsoft Visual Studio 8 or newer
	* C++ TR1 implementation
	* Google Testing Framework
	* Google Mock

If Microsoft Visual Studio 9 with SP1 or newer is used and the build source
is a Git clone then there are no additional requirements.

Getting the Source
------------------
The primary way of obtaining the source code is by using Git to clone the
source repository.  To make it easier to contribute any modifications back
to the project the use of a Github account and a fork of the repository is
recommended.

### Cloning with a Github Fork ###
	open http://github.com/npp-community/npp-community
	Click the 'fork'button next to the repository name
	Copy the 'Your Clone URL' on your forked repository page
	git clone $YOUR_CLONE_URL

### Cloning without a Github Fork ###
	git clone git://github.com/npp-community/npp-community.git

### Downloading the source package ###
	http://github.com/npp-community/npp-community/downloads


Building the Source
-------------------
### Google Test and Mock ###
Google Test and Mock are available as submodules in our source repository or
they can be used from external installations setting the following environment
variables to the source paths.
	GOOGLE_TEST_DIR
	GOOGLE_MOCK_DIR

To initialize as Git submodules use your Git client to:
	cd \path\to\repo_base_dir
	git submodule init
	git submodule update

Google Test and Google Mock are both automatically executed when Notepad++CR
is built using the Debug or Release configuration, but not the Shipping.

Open the Google Test .sln for your Visual Studio and build both configurations.
Do the same for Google Mock.

### Notepad++ CR ###
Open the notepadPlus solution for your Visual Studio edition and build the
configuration you want to work with.

Contributing
------------
Everything except trivial code cleanup needs to have a test included with it
prior to being merged into the master branch.  Do not worry about creating the
tests at first.  Code up your solution and make it available for feed-back.
This is ually done by pushing your modifications branch to your GitHub fork
and sending a pull request to other members in the network.

We are not setup yet with a public forum/mailing list to directly submit patch
series.  This will hopefully be available soon.  Until then, if you do not have
a public repository to push a topic branch to, please visit our irc channel and
ask for someone to review the patches.

Try to base any new changes off of what is currently the head of the master
branch.

###  The Repository ###
We try to follow the Git project's methods to maintain our repository.
This means that:

	- The master branch is where tagged releases are made.  This branch
	  should always be a simple 'Git Pull' and fast-forward.  No patches
	  are directly applied to this branch instead they are merged from
	  topic branches.
	  You can easily see a summary of what has been merged using Git's
	  logging abilities.
		--first-parent for a list of merges
		--no-merges for a list of the commits

	- The next branch is also a branch the should fast-forward and be a
	  simple pull.  It contains the commits that are very likely to be
	  in the next tagged release.

	- When proposed updates are published by the community a new topic
	  topic branch is created from the tip of the current master branch
	  and the update is applied to that, then that branch is merged to
	  the pu branch for publishing.  The pu branch will not fast-forward.
	  It is based on the next branch and when proposed updates have had
	  a chance to get feed-back they may graduate to next for future
	  merging with master.

Enjoy, and don't forget to visit the irc channel!