Things I wish I had known as a new contributor

[mpdude]

... to save my own and my fellow reviewers' time. It's not about the codebase itself, but the conventions and processes around it.

• Which branch to base a PR on? Revamp the contributor guide  #473

  • Rather obvious for bug fix vs. feature addition
  • But what about...
    • Docblock fixups
    • Psalm/type hint improvements
    • Small refactorings like method extractions?

• How to deal with all the checks and tools? Document how to deal with checks #481

  • How to have CS issues fixed automatically
  • How to run psalm, phpcbf, phpcs, ...
  • What to do when "Codecov" complains about coverage?

• Dealing with Psalm errors Document how to deal with checks #481

  • When to update the baseline file, what to add, what to remove?
  • When to add exceptions to psalm.xml? When to use @psalm-suppress?

• Rebase and squash your commits periodically?

  • ORM maintainers are not going to do squash-merges, right?

• Write good commit messages for single commits vs. keeping the PR initial comment up-to-date?

• When and how to add deprecations? Document how to contribute deprecations #482

  • How to add deprecations, technically (does an @deprecated annotation suffice, do I need code triggering a notice, ...)
  • Only add deprecations in upcoming feature release branches, right?
  • Where/when/how to provide the code that shall be effective on the next major version?

• How and when to maintain the UPGRADING.md file

• Getting PRs reviewed Document how to get your PR reviewed. #484

  • Do checks have to be all green before people will have a look at my code?
  • When shall I use "draft" PRs and what (not) to expect from them?
  • How can I indicate that I need early guidance and/or basic approval, before putting too much effort into detailed clean-ups?

This is not to blame anyone for not providing the necessary instructions and documentation, at least not in places where I would have to stumble across. Rather I am trying to document my observations as long as they are fresh and clear, hoping that the list can serve as starting pointers for future improvements.

👇 Anything missing on the list? Feel free to add your observations.

[greg0ire]

It's going to be hard for us to agree on everything, so I will create several PRs instead of a big one.
Transferring the issue since it isn't ORM-specific.

[SenseException]

@mpdude Is this issue covered for now and can be closed?

[mpdude]

Not all of it yet :-)