Contributing

We welcome contributions to the TACO Format project! This page provides guidelines for contributing to the project.

Getting Started

Fork the repository on GitLab

Clone your fork:

git clone https://gitlab.com/YOUR_USERNAME/taco.git
cd taco

Create a development environment:

# Install development dependencies
pip install -e ".[dev]"

Create a branch for your feature:
```
git checkout -b feature-name
```
Make your changes and add tests

Run the tests to ensure everything works:

# Run Rust tests
cargo test

# Run Python tests
pytest

Submit a merge request on GitLab

Development Guidelines

Code Style

Rust code should follow Rust style conventions and pass cargo clippy checks
Python code should follow PEP 8 guidelines
Documentation should be written in reStructuredText

Adding Features

Start with tests: Write tests that define how your feature should work
Implement the feature: Make it work!
Document it: Add documentation for your feature
Update examples: If applicable, add examples using your feature

Adding Documentation

Documentation is written in reStructuredText and built with Sphinx:

Add or update documentation in the docs/ directory
Build the documentation to test your changes:
```
cd docs
make html
```
Open _build/html/index.html in your browser to view the result

Running Benchmarks

Performance is important to TACO Format. You can run benchmarks to ensure your changes don’t negatively impact performance:

cd docs
python format_comparison.py --atoms 1000 --frames 100 --output benchmark_results

This will produce benchmark results comparing TACO with other formats.

Continuous Integration

Our GitLab CI pipeline runs tests and checks for each merge request. It:

Runs tests on multiple platforms
Checks code style with clippy
Ensures documentation builds correctly
Runs security audits with cargo audit

Release Process

Update version numbers in: - Cargo.toml - pyproject.toml - Documentation
Update the changelog (CHANGELOG.md)
Create a tag for the new version
Push to GitLab to trigger the release pipeline

The release pipeline will: 1. Run all tests 2. Build documentation 3. Publish to crates.io and PyPI (these are manual steps in the pipeline)