Overview
========

Open Babel is developed using open, community-oriented development made possible by an active community  -- developers, testers, writers, implementers and most of all users. No matter which 'er' you happen to be, or how much time you can provide, you can make valuable contributions.

Not sure where to start? This section aims to give you some ideas.

Provide input
-------------

You can help us by:

* helping to answer questions on our `mailing list`_
* suggesting new features_
* suggesting needed `file formats`_
* reporting bugs_

Spread the word
---------------

If you find Open Babel useful, there's a chance that others will also. You can help us by:

* promoting and citing Open Babel in talks and publications
* writing blog posts about Open Babel
* helping with documentation and our website
* building your own software on Open Babel

.. _feature:
.. _features: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=428743&group_id=40728&func=browse
.. _mailing list: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/openbabel-discuss
.. _bugs: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=428740&group_id=40728&func=browse
.. _file formats: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=447448&group_id=40728&func=browse

To get started, just send an email to our `mailing list`_.

Code a storm
------------

As an open source project, Open Babel has a very open development process. This means that many contributors  have helped with the project with a variety of help -- some for long periods of time, and some with small, single changes. All types of assistance has been valuable to the growth of the project over the years. 

New developers are always very welcome to OpenBabel so if you're interested, just send an email to the developer list (`join here <http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/openbabel-devel>`_) about what you would like to work on, or else we can come up with some ideas for areas where you could contribute. Here are some possibilites:

* Implement the latest algorithms described in the literature
* Add a new file format (see :ref:`add-file-format`)
* Perform 'software archaeology' (see :ref:`software-archaeology`)
* Fix some bugs_
* Add a requested feature_
* Add support for additional datatypes_
* Implement a feature from our roadmap

.. _datatypes: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=451585&group_id=40728&func=browse


