Subject: Developers' notes
From: Thomas Roessler <roessler@guug.de>
Date: Thu,  8 Oct 1998 14:29:48 +0200

Required tools
--------------

If you are planning to hack on mutt, please subscribe to the
mutt-dev mailinglist (mutt-dev@mutt.org, contact
majordomo@mutt.org).  Announcements about recent development
versions go to that mailing list, as go technical discussions and
patches.

You'll need several GNU development utilities for working on mutt:

- automake

- autoconf

- autoheader

- The i18n stuff requires GNU gettext.  See intl/VERSION for the
  version we are currently relying on.  Please note that using
  gettext-0.10 will most probably not work - get the latest test
  release from alpha.gnu.org, it's the recommended version of
  gettext anyway.

- GNU make may be needed for the dependency tricks



Style Guide
-----------

- global functions should have the prefix "mutt_".  All
  other functions should be declared "static".

- avoid global vars where possible.  If one is required,
  try to contain it to a single source file and declare it
  "static".  Global vars should have the first letter of
  each word capitilized, and no underscores should be used
  (e.g., MailGid, LastFolder, MailDir).

- re-use code as much as possible.  There are a lot of
  "library" functions. One of the biggest causes of bloat
  in ELM and PINE is the tremendous duplication of code...
  Help keep Mutt small!

- when adding new options, make the old behaviour the
  default.  Please include the new option and it's default
  setting with the global Muttrc file.

- try to keep mutt as portable as possible.
$Id$