Tips how to contribute beyond ideas, proposals, and mockups to Open Source in general and LibreOffice in particular

1. How to contribute to LibreOffice
as a non-developer
Dr. Heiko Tietze

2. LibreOffice is cool
● Open Source
Users have the freedom to run, copy, distribute,
study, change and improve our software
● No digital divide
Access at no cost; preservation of mother tongues;
no proprietary software and format lock-in
● Awesome community
Millions of users, volunteers working with passion
on various fields around the project

3. Contribute with l10n
● Register at the TDF Pootle server
● Add your language or help others
● Read the wiki for more information
● https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Language

4. ...in your mother tongue
●
, български, , , Català, čeština , Welsh/Cymraeg, Dansk, Deutsch, Ελληνικά, Esperanto, Español,
Eesti keel, , Suomi, Français, Gaeilge, Irish, Gàidhlig, Galego, , , Magyar, Italiano, 日本語
( Japanese), ქართული, 한국어 [韓國語] (Korean), , Lietuvių kalba, , Bahasa melayu, Malti,
Bokmål, Nederlands, Occitan, Polski, Português, Român, Русский, , Sidama, Slovenčina,
Slovenščina, српски, Svenska, Türkçe, Українська, Tiếng việt, 中文 (简体) (simplified Chinese), 中
文 (正體) (traditional Chinese)… and yours
●
https://www.libreoffice.org/community/nlc/
https://www.etsy.com/listing/197775428/babel-fish-cross-stitch-pattern

5. ...or with documentation
● Document functions, explain workflows,
and support users
● Join the team on the mailing list
● https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation

6. ...and of course UX!
● Submit bugs and file
enhancement requests
● Comment on tickets that
needsUXAdvice (or join the weekly meeting)
● Make a proposal for better
design/layout/workflow etc.
● https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Design

7. User-centered development
1. Identify the target users
2. Describe the use scenario
3. Define requirements
4. Bring all together in a nice
visual design
5. Have milestones at the development
6. Think ad-hoc about QA

8. The bazaar and the cathedral
● Open Source development works differently
bottom-up from the bazaar
● Release early, release often is
the opposite of “make it shiny”
● Many cooks spoil the broth
● So how to save the
endangered species usability?

9. Do it yourself!
● Set up the environment
sudo apt install git
git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/...
sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt build-dep libreoffice
cd libreoffice
./autogen.sh
make
● https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Development/BuildingOnLinux
J. Howard Miller: We Can Do It!,
National Museum of American History

10. Fixing galimatiases
● Sloppy terminology
breaks usability
● Accessibility depends
on text
● Guidelines are defined

11. Code pointers wanted!
● Find strings in the source code per
git grep <text>
● Or use the online platform OpenGrok...

13. Code pointers wanted!
● Find strings in the source code per
git grep <text>
● Use the online platform OpenGrok
● Change the text and submit per
git commit && ./logerrit submit master
● https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Development/gerrit

14. Menus and toolbars
● Main menu in module specific XML files,
e.g. sw/uiconfig/swriter/menubar/menubar.xml
● Toolbars are listed for modules/modes such as
sw/uiconfig/swriter/toolbar/standardbar.xml
● UNO commands are defined
somewhere else including
label, tooltips, accelerators,
etc.

15. And real code?
● tdf#117348 Contrast and
size of Impress grid affects
visibility and usefulness
● menubar.xml →
GridVisible →
IsGridVisible() (viewopt.hxx) →
bGridPainting (paintfrm.cxx) →
DrawPageViewGrid()
(svdpagv.cxx)

16. Summary
● Don’t be afraid of code.
● Hacking LibreOffice is fun.
● Read more at the design blog post [1] or the
various wiki pages [2]
[1] https://design.blog.documentfoundation.org/
[2] http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/