Home of CUhackit

Before you work each day

$ git pull

Working in branches

Work should be done in a branch off of master. To check current branch:

$ git branch

To switch to another branch:

$ git checkout <branch_name>

Branch naming

For consistency, use branch names: <your_name>_dev_branch This will help track changes and with consistency.

Branch cleanup

After a branch is merged to master/any other branch, it should be deleted. Any new work should be done on a new branch off of master. This is to avoid problems with branches getting out of alignment, along with not having dozens of defunct branches on the project.

Installation

You only need to build the css, then push to gh-pages!

$ npm install
$ npm build

Testing changes on the site

In order to test changes to the website, a test server such as http-server should be used. Running the following command in the directory where the index.html is will start a localhost server which can be used to show the current state of the website.

http-server -p 8000

If http-server is not installed, it should be able to download it using:

npm install http-server -g

Test often to verify your changes as you go. Avoid pushing broken code.

CURRENT PRIMARY GOALS

We need to aim to provide a better README so that it is possible for any future team members to inherit the website and be immediately at home or to have the tools to find necessary information. Additionally, READMEs do not have to be a one-time deal. If you write for a new section of the website, write a README for that section. This can help keep this README streamlined while making relevant information for a particular part of the website more easily accessible.

TO THIS END

Descriptive Comments

All code must be meticulously and descriptively commented. We've all heard it from our teachers, but we must strive to exemplify good commenting practices. Comments should not be:

int foo = 4; // Set variable foo to four

However, a brief message of the usage for the variable would be a good use of text:

//  number of loops for bar_loop
int bar = 4;

Comment As You Go

Commenting is both a lost art and a process. Comment as you code or it will become backed up and will never be completed.

Function Header Comments

Each function should have a header of the style:

/*
  A function to check the validity of some detail
  
  Return: boolean, the validity of the given condition
  Param1: integer, the number of letters to find
  Param2: string, a string to test for validity 
*/
function myFunction(letter_num, run_string)
{
  // Do function stuff
  return true;
}

While Javascript doesn't have strict variable types, it can be useful to other programmers in the project to know what to expect from your function, both as inputs, and on output.

Descriptive Names

Names should be enough to approximate the use of a variable. It is not a replacement for comments, but should allow the comments to add more clarity to the variable's use.

To continue from:

//  number of loops for bar_loop
int bar = 4;

If bar controls a loop, a better name may be:

// Controls loops to set display of foo
int num_bar_loops = 4;

CUHackers/cuhackit_2019