Newcomers

So you are interested in contributing to this hopefully great program? You are invited to do so. Since there are some common patterns for potential new developers, this page should guide you through the first steps.

• First, have a look at the wiki; you do not need to memorize it, but have a deep glance to get an idea what this all is about, just to avoid the most frequent FAQs. If you like what you see, you can register at the developer mailing list, https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wavepacket-ng-devel

• Then, you should try to get the program (or rather library) compiled. This can be troublesome for non-Unix systems due to the tensor library that we use extensively. This tended to be a major first hurdle. There is a guide on how to use a virtual machine to simplify this step, so it is hopefully not that much of a problem any more.

  • If you get stuck at this step, drop me a mail. Even though WavePacket is currently alpha and not completely easy to use, this should not happen.
  • The installation should finish with you being able to run all tests (default target), which should all be green.
  • After installation ("sudo make install"), you can try to compile one of the demos on your own using the wp-build.sh script. See the Readme for details on how to do that.

• As a next step, we will arrange a chat. The goal of this first chat is two-fold. First, I can answer questions that you may have and ask some myself. Second, we will try to get you started with some administrative stuff and a first bit of work.

  • Do not be discouraged if your initial work package is small. Initially, you need to get to know the code, the actual work to do is just to not loose focus.
  • Do not be discouraged if we discuss a lot of details initially. Becoming a proper team needs a lot of talking until we have a common language, common "coding rules" and such.

• When you are done with some work package, you tell me, and I review the changes. Typically, we will then have another chat to continue.

  • Do not be discouraged if I "trash" (heavily modify) your first few code snipplets. Especially with test-driven development it usually takes a few commits before this becomes second nature.

• After that, things should become more routine. Note that we usually first discuss the work to be done in a chat or by email, depending on the complexity, then you code, then I review. In the long run, I would not mind at all having my work reviewed as well.

If you want to read up on the maths or refresh your knowledge, one of the best books out there is David Tannor's book "Introduction to Quantum Mechanics: A time-dependent perspective". The first 11 chapters contain most of the maths that are needed for numerical solutions of the time-dependent Schroedinger equation.