@c -*- texinfo -*-

@c Copyright (C) 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 Moreno Marzolla
@c
@c This file is part of the queueing toolbox, a Queueing Networks
@c analysis package for GNU Octave.
@c
@c The queueing toolbox is free software; you can redistribute it
@c and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
@c as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of
@c the License, or (at your option) any later version.
@c
@c The queueing toolbox is distributed in the hope that it will be
@c useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty
@c of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
@c GNU General Public License for more details.
@c
@c You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
@c along with the queueing toolbox; see the file COPYING.  If not, see
@c <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

@node Contributing Guidelines
@appendix Contributing Guidelines

Contributions and bug reports are @emph{always} welcome. If you want
to contribute to the @code{queueing} package, here are some
guidelines:

@itemize

@item If you are contributing a new function, please embed proper
documentation within the function itself. The documentation must be in
@code{texinfo} format, so that it can be extracted and formatted into
the printable manual. See the existing functions of the
@code{queueing} package for the documentation style.

@item Make sure that each new function 
properly checks the validity of its input parameters. For example,
each function accepting vectors should check whether the dimensions
match.

@item Provide bibliographic references for each new algorithm you 
contribute. If your implementation differs in some way from the
reference you give, please describe how and why your implementation
differs. Add references to the @file{doc/references.txi} file.

@item Include test and demo blocks with your code.
Test blocks are particularly important, since most algorithms tend to
be quite tricky to implement correctly. If appropriate, test blocks
should also verify that the function fails on incorrect input
parameters.

@end itemize

Send your contribution to Moreno Marzolla
(@email{marzolla@@cs.unibo.it}). If you are just a user of this
package and find it useful, let me know by dropping me a line. Thanks.