Development Introduction

There are several ways to contribute to the development of ReactOS. The most often encountered problem is not knowing where to begin or what to do. If you are able to program or understand the technical information that is pertinent to this project, helping the development can be easy.

Test ReactOS

Localize bugs

As code is added, changed, or removed, it is possible for unintended results to occur. These unintended results are known as bugs. By localizing bugs, developers can identify what causes the bug and what it affects. There are a variety of methods to debug ReactOS while testing it. After identifying a bug, check if it is already known about by searching Bugzilla and add any additional information to the report. If you think that it is an unidentified bug, consider filing a bug report.

Fix bugs

Instead of looking for bugs, you can also try to fix a few that are already listed on Bugzilla. Fixing bugs requires a lot more skill than simply searching for them, and can be time consuming.

Write tests

Tests are used to check the functionality and correctness of APIs on ReactOS compared to Windows implementations. There are also some unit tests that you could help ReactOS pass, which can be found here.

Implement new things

Considering ReactOS is alpha quality software, there is a lot of missing functionality that Windows operating systems have. Before starting a project to implement something, find out if another person is working on the same thing. If you find that someone is already working on it, ask if any assistance is needed for what specifically is being worked on or a related project. Plenty of times a person will start to implement something and never finish before moving to something else. Make sure you stay committed to what you are going to implement, and do not be afraid to ask for assistance if you need help with something.

Documentation

There are some important points if you'd like to help document ReactOS:

1. Make sure the documentation doesn't exist yet (if it does, help improve it).
2. Respect clean room reverse engineering practices.
3. Add your knowledge to a place where the other developers can find it.

Places to find information

• MSDN - Your search should start here.
• External Documentation Links - Otherwise you should try to find something here.
• ReactOS Techwiki - Documentation provided or collected by ReactOS developers.