CONTRIBUTING.md

Contributing to Penguins vs Dogs

Thank you for your interest in contributing to this project! We appreciate your time and effort. To ensure a smooth and productive experience for everyone, please follow these guidelines when contributing.

Coding Style and Standards

• ES6 Classes: We use ES6 classes throughout the project. Make sure you are familiar with class syntax and concepts like inheritance, constructors, and methods.
• Explicit Class Fields: While working with JavaScript always explicitly declare class fields using the class field declarations syntax. Avoid using the constructor to define properties.
• JSDoc Comments: Document your code using JSDoc comments. This helps with understanding the purpose and usage of classes, methods, and properties. Refer to the example below for the expected style. Clearly define types for properties and function parameters within JSDoc comments.

Example: Person Class

JavaScript (see docs):

class Person {
    /** @type {string} */ name;
    /** @type {number} */ age;
    /** @type {string} */ #social_security_number; // private

    /**
     * Creates a new Person instance.
     * @param {string} name The person's name.
     * @param {number} age The person's age.
     */
    constructor(name, age) {
        this.name = name;
        this.age = age;
        // ...
    }

    /**
     * Returns a greeting message from the person.
     * @returns {string} The greeting message.
     */
    greet() {
        return `Hello, my name is ${this.name} and I am ${this.age} years old.`;
    }
}

TypeScript (see docs):

class Person {
    public name: string;
    age: string; // 'public' may be omitted as it is default
    private social_security_number: string; // private

    /**
     * Creates a new Person instance.
     */
    constructor(name: string, age: string) {
        this.name = name;
        this.age = age;
    }

    /**
     * Returns a greeting message from the person.
     */
    greet() { // return type may be omitted as it it is automatically deduced
        return `Hello, my name is ${this.name} and I am ${this.age} years old.`;
    }
}

Contribution Workflow

1. Fork the repository: Create your own fork of the project repository.
2. Create a new branch: Branch off from the master branch for your feature or bug fix.
3. Make your changes: Implement your code following the coding style and standards mentioned above.
4. Test your changes: Ensure your code works as expected and doesn't introduce new issues.
5. Commit your changes: Write clear and concise commit messages that describe your changes.
6. Push to your fork: Push your changes to your forked repository.
7. Create a pull request: Submit a pull request containing a detailed description of your work to the master branch of the original repository.

Additional Notes

• We encourage you to discuss your proposed changes through issues before starting work.
• Be sure to follow the project's code of conduct.
• We appreciate your contributions and will review your pull requests as soon as possible.

Thank you for your contributions!