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https://github.com/goatcorp/dips

Dalamud Improvement Proposals
https://github.com/goatcorp/dips

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Dalamud Improvement Proposals

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# Dalamud Improvement Proposals



[Dalamud DIPs]: #dalamud-dips



_with many thanks to the [Rust RFC process](https://github.com/rust-lang/rfcs),

which this is based off_



Many changes, including bug fixes and documentation improvements can be

implemented and reviewed via the normal GitHub pull request workflow.



Some changes though are "substantial", and we ask that these be put through a

bit of a design process and produce a consensus among the developer community.



The DIP process is intended to provide a consistent and controlled path for

new changes to enter the goatcorp ecosystem, so that all stakeholders can be

confident about the direction Dalamud et al are evolving in.



## Table of Contents



[table of contents]: #table-of-contents



- [Opening](#dalamud-dips)

- [Table of Contents]

- [When you need to follow this process]

- [Before creating a DIP]

- [What the process is]

- [The DIP life-cycle]

- [Reviewing DIPs]

- [Implementing a DIP]

- [DIP Postponement]

- [Help this is all too informal!]

- [Contributions]



## When you need to follow this process



[when you need to follow this process]: #when-you-need-to-follow-this-process



You need to follow this process if you intend to make "substantial" changes to

Dalamud, XIVLauncher, the surrounding infrastructure, or the DIP process itself.

What constitutes a "substantial" change is evolving based on community norms and

varies depending on what part of the ecosystem you are proposing to change, but

may include the following.



- Any semantic or syntactic change to Dalamud that is not a bugfix.

- Removing Dalamud features, including those that are feature-gated.

- Changes to the interface between the game and Dalamud.

- Additions to the `Dalamud` namespace.



Some changes do not require a DIP:



- Rephrasing, reorganizing, refactoring, or otherwise "changing shape does

  not change meaning".

- Additions that strictly improve objective, numerical quality criteria

  (warning removal, speedup, better platform coverage, more parallelism, trap

  more errors, etc.)



If you submit a pull request to implement a new feature without going through

the DIP process, it may be closed with a polite request to submit a DIP first.



## Before creating a DIP



[before creating a DIP]: #before-creating-a-dip



A hastily-proposed DIP can hurt its chances of acceptance. Low quality

proposals, proposals for previously-rejected features, or those that don't fit

into the near-term roadmap, may be quickly rejected, which can be demotivating

for the unprepared contributor. Laying some groundwork ahead of the DIP can

make the process smoother.



Although there is no single way to prepare for submitting a DIP, it is

generally a good idea to pursue feedback from other project developers

beforehand, to ascertain that the DIP may be desirable; having a consistent

impact on the project requires concerted effort toward consensus-building.



The most common preparation for writing and submitting a DIP is talking

the idea over on the [Goat Place Discord server](https://discord.gg/3NMcUV5).

You may file issues on this repo for discussion, but these are not actively

looked at by the teams.



As a rule of thumb, receiving encouraging feedback from long-standing project

developers, and particularly members of the relevant sub-team is a good

indication that the DIP is worth pursuing.



## What the process is



[what the process is]: #what-the-process-is



In short, to get a major change made for Dalamud, one must first get the DIP

merged into the DIP repository as a markdown file. At that point the DIP is

"active" and may be implemented with the goal of eventual inclusion into Dalamud.



- Fork the DIP repo.

- Copy `0000-template.md` to `text/0000-my-feature.md` (where "my-feature" is

  descriptive). Don't assign a DIP number yet; This is going to be the PR

  number and we'll rename the file accordingly if the DIP is accepted.

- Fill in the DIP. Put care into the details: DIPs that do not present

  convincing motivation, demonstrate lack of understanding of the design's

  impact, or are disingenuous about the drawbacks or alternatives tend to

  be poorly-received.

- Submit a pull request. As a pull request the DIP will receive design

  feedback from the larger community, and the author should be prepared to

  revise it in response.

- Now that your DIP has an open pull request, use the issue number of the PR

  to update your `0000-` prefix to that number.

- Each pull request will be labeled with the most relevant sub-team, which

  will lead to its being triaged by that team in a future meeting and assigned

  to a member of the subteam.

- Build consensus and integrate feedback. DIPs that have broad support are

  much more likely to make progress than those that don't receive any

  comments. Feel free to reach out to the DIP assignee in particular to get

  help identifying stakeholders and obstacles.

- The sub-team will discuss the DIP pull request, as much as possible in the

  comment thread of the pull request itself. Offline discussion will be

  summarized on the pull request comment thread.

- DIPs rarely go through this process unchanged, especially as alternatives

  and drawbacks are shown. You can make edits, big and small, to the DIP to

  clarify or change the design, but make changes as new commits to the pull

  request, and leave a comment on the pull request explaining your changes.

  Specifically, do not squash or rebase commits after they are visible on the

  pull request.

- Once discussion has settled and a rough consensus has been reached, the DIP

  will be merged by a member of the relevant subteam, and work can begin.



## The DIP life-cycle



[the dip life-cycle]: #the-dip-life-cycle



Once a DIP becomes "active" then authors may implement it and submit the

feature as a pull request to the relevant repo. Being "active" is not a rubber

stamp, and in particular still does not mean the feature will ultimately be

merged; it does mean that in principle all the major stakeholders have agreed

to the feature and are amenable to merging it.



Furthermore, the fact that a given DIP has been accepted and is "active"

implies nothing about what priority is assigned to its implementation, nor does

it imply anything about whether a developer has been assigned the task of

implementing the feature. While it is not _necessary_ that the author of the

DIP also write the implementation, it is by far the most effective way to see

a DIP through to completion: authors should not expect that other project

developers will take on responsibility for implementing their accepted feature.



Modifications to "active" DIPs can be done in follow-up pull requests. We

strive to write each DIP in a manner that it will reflect the final design of

the feature; but the nature of the process means that we cannot expect every

merged DIP to actually reflect what the end result will be at the time of the

next major release.



In general, once accepted, DIPs should not be substantially changed. Only very

minor changes should be submitted as amendments. More substantial changes

should be new DIPs, with a note added to the original DIP.



## Reviewing DIPs



[reviewing dips]: #reviewing-dips



A sub-team makes final decisions about DIPs after the benefits and drawbacks

are well understood. These decisions can be made at any time, but the sub-team

will regularly issue decisions. When a decision is made, the DIP pull request

will either be merged or closed. In either case, if the reasoning is not clear

from the discussion in thread, the sub-team will add a comment describing the

rationale for the decision.



## Implementing a DIP



[implementing a DIP]: #implementing-a-dip



Some accepted DIPs represent vital features that need to be implemented right

away. Other accepted DIPs can represent features that can wait until some

arbitrary developer feels like doing the work. Every accepted DIP has an

associated issue tracking its implementation in the relevant repository.



The author of a DIP is not obligated to implement it. Of course, the DIP

author (like any other developer) is welcome to post an implementation for

review after the DIP has been accepted.



If you are interested in working on the implementation for an "active" DIP, but

cannot determine if someone else is already working on it, feel free to ask

(e.g. by leaving a comment on the associated issue).



## DIP Postponement



[dip postponement]: #dip-postponement



Some DIP pull requests are tagged with the "postponed" label when they are

closed (as part of the rejection process). a DIP closed with "postponed" is

marked as such because we want neither to think about evaluating the proposal

nor about implementing the described feature until some time in the future, and

we believe that we can afford to wait until then to do so. Historically,

"postponed" was used to postpone features until after 1.0. Postponed pull

requests may be re-opened when the time is right. We don't have any formal

process for that, you should ask members of the relevant sub-team.



Usually a DIP pull request marked as "postponed" has already passed an

informal first round of evaluation, namely the round of "do we think we would

ever possibly consider making this change, as outlined in the DIP pull request,

or some semi-obvious variation of it." (When the answer to the latter question

is "no", then the appropriate response is to close the DIP, not postpone it.)



### Help this is all too informal!



[help this is all too informal!]: #help-this-is-all-too-informal



The process is intended to be as lightweight as reasonable for the present

circumstances. As usual, we are trying to let the process be driven by

consensus and community norms, not impose more structure than necessary.



### Contributions



[contributions]: #contributions



Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally

submitted for inclusion in the work by you shall be licensed as MIT without

any additional terms or conditions. Additionally, any contribution submitted

for inclusion in works affected by a DIP shall be licensed with the same

license as that of the target work (e.g. contributions made to Dalamud under

the aegis of a DIP will be licensed as AGPL, as Dalamud is AGPL at time of

writing.)