Add a CONTRIBUTING.md to the repo

[Plecra]

I considered making this a PR before realising I don't really have a clue what the project expects from contributors

What problem does this solve or what need does it fill?

This gives us a way to introduce contributors to the project and guide them through setup. It will also hopefully reduce the need to answer questions about this process

Describe the alternative(s) you've considered?

Instructions could instead be added to the website, which could be more intuitive for first-time contributors. I doubt this would be worth the maintenance burden

Sections it might include

• Links to good first issue and help wanted, which could also be more actively given to issues
• Instructions for setting up the development environment
  • In particular, anything platform specific (like the VS 2019 requirement I stumbled into)
  • If possible, it'd be great to also list workarounds for compiling with only the stable toolchain (cargo test --workspace with no setup)
• Stress the role of contributors in the Code of Conduct
• Describe how new feature ideas should be brought to the project (Would it be best to create a demo PR? discuss in an issue? the Discord?)

[cart]

I think I'd like the content to live in The Bevy Book. We actually already have a "contributing" section here:
https://bevyengine.org/learn/book/contributing

However I do think its currently a bit sparse and would benefit from the ideas that you listed above. I also think it makes sense to have a more prominent link to the Contributing chapter of the book, either in README.md or CONTRIBUTING.md (my preference is README.md to keep the root directly clean).

Links to good first issue and help wanted, which could also be more actively given to issues

yup very good call

Instructions for setting up the development environment

I don't want to duplicate instructions. We should link to the Getting Started chapter, which has instructions on environment setup

Stress the role of contributors in the Code of Conduct

another good call 😄

Describe how new feature ideas should be brought to the project (Would it be best to create a demo PR? discuss in an issue? the Discord?)

Yeah theres currently not much clarity here. probably something along the lines of:

• Encounter a bug? Search the github issue tracker to see if there is already an issue for it. If you can't find one, create a new bug report here
• Want a new feature? Search the github issue tracker to see if there is already an issue for it. If you can't find one, create a new feature request here
• Have a question? Ask it on our Github Discussions page or on the Bevy Discord
• Have an idea you want to discuss? Create a new topic on our Github Discussions page

[Plecra]

All sounds great, just want to add that there are some unique environment requirements for actually compiling the bevy repo. I only know of the VS 2019 requirement for glsl, but I'd expect more to crop up over time.

A section in https://bevyengine.org/learn/book/contributing/code/ would do the trick here, and it can start with a link to the getting started chapter too

[cart]

Just want to add that there are some unique environment requirements for actually compiling the bevy repo. I only know of the VS 2019 requirement for glsl, but I'd expect more to crop up over time.

We already have that kind of guide for linux dependencies, which we link to from the getting started chapter. I think we should add a new windows_dependencies.md file, then make the Windows bullet item in the Setup section of the guide link to that.

[joshuajbouw]

Actually had written up one last week when I had some time from scratch to be a bit more direct instead of copying and pasting something from somewhere. Feel free to use it to get ideas. I put in as much as I could think of at the time.

https://github.com/joshuajbouw/bevy_tilemap/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md

[alice-i-cecile]

On a related note, a user on Reddit has asked for a basic overview of the architecture to help get them started, perhaps stored in an ARCHITECTURE.md file. I think this is a solid idea, and makes sense to include a basic overview in the same PR that closes this.

Something like rust-analyzer's ARCHITECTURE.md document really. After reading that I felt way more comfortable navigating the code base to make contributions. And their dev docs on debugging, common workflows etc is fantastic. This is a lot though so I'm not like saying I expect this from Bevy immediately, especially as the API will be changing so fast so something less detailed would probably make more sense

[MinerSebas]

The creation of an ARCHITECTURE.md was also once brought up in the Discord: https://discord.com/channels/691052431525675048/745355529777315850/807725149217357834

[alice-i-cecile]

Fixed by #2040.