Writing OTP Modules

This document is about how to write and release an Erlang/OTP module as a part of Erlang/OTP.

Contents:

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Deciding what to contribute
  • 2.1. Erlang/OTP and the OTP Team need your help
  • 2.2. What is considered as a contribution?
  • 2.3. How not to write Erlang/OTP modules
  • 2.4. Why writing Erlang/OTP modules then?
  • 2.5. A case study: rand module
• 3. Prototyping the modules
  • 3.1. Create an independent prototype repository
  • 3.2. Building your own testing environment for Erlang/OTP
  • 3.3. Setting up a project repository for your module
  • 3.4. Execution path on loading modules
  • 3.5. Write your own test code
• 4. Testing with Common Test
  • 4.1. Read OTP source first to learn Common Test cases
  • 4.2. Use groups for parallel and sequential tests
• 5. Adding type specifications with Dialyzer
  • 5.1. Type specifications are required in OTP modules
  • 5.2. Using Dialyzer
  • 5.3. Dialyzer on improper lists
• 6. Writing documentation for Erlang/OTP Releases
  • 6.1. Learning erl_docgen
  • 6.2. Example of rand module documentation
• 7. Effectively issueing pull requests on GitHub
  • 7.1. What is required in a pull request
  • 7.2. How to work together on GitHub with the OTP Team
  • 7.3. Rewriting a pull request
• 8. Communication with the OTP Team maintainers
  • 8.1. Message channels with the OTP Team maintainers
  • 8.2. Respect OTP Team working hours
• 9. Earning community support
  • 9.1. User community support is essential
  • 9.2. Things you can do for gaining community support
  • 9.3. Release all you’ve got
  • 9.4. Talk about your code
  • 9.5. Write a PoC and show what the problem is
• 10. Maintenance after the initial release
  • 10.1. Your responsiblity on adding a module to Erlang/OTP
  • 10.2. Move carefully for adding a new feature
• 11. Solving licensing issues of contributed code
  • 11.1. License of Erlang/OTP: Apache License 2.0
  • 11.2. Compatibility of Apache License 2.0 with other licenses
  • 11.3. Relicensing your code to Erlang/OTP
• 12. Reference

Indices and tables

• Index
• Module Index
• Search Page