.. _community:

******************************************************************************
Community
******************************************************************************

PDAL's community interacts through `Mailing List`_, `GitHub`_, `Gitter`_ and
`IRC`_.  Please feel welcome to ask questions and participate in all of the
venues.  The `Mailing List`_ communication channel is for general questions,
development discussion, and feedback. The `GitHub`_ communication channel is
for development activities, bug reports, and testing. The `IRC`_ and `Gitter`_
channels are for real-time chat activities such as meetings and interactive
debugging sessions.

Mailing List
..............................................................................

Developers and users of PDAL participate on the PDAL mailing list. It is OK to
ask questions about how to use PDAL, how to integrate PDAL into your own software,
and report issues that you might have.

http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/pdal

.. note::

    Please remember that an email to the PDAL list is going to 100s of
    individuals. Do your diligence the best you can on your question before
    asking, but don't be afraid to ask. We won't bite. Promise.

GitHub
..............................................................................

Visit http://github.com/PDAL/PDAL to file issues you might be having with the
software. GitHub is also where you can obtain a current development version of the
software in the `git`_ revision control system. The PDAL project is eager to
take contributions in all forms, and we welcome those who are willing to roll
up their sleeves and start filing tickets, pushing code, generating builds, and
answering questions.


.. seealso::

    :ref:`development_index` provides more information on how the PDAL software
    development activities operate.

Gitter
..............................................................................

Some PDAL developers are active on `Gitter`_ and you can use that mechanism
for asking questions and interacting with the developers in a mode that is
similar to `IRC`_. Gitter uses your `GitHub`_ credentials for access, so
you will need an account to get started.

.. _`Gitter`: https://gitter.im/PDAL/PDAL

IRC
..............................................................................

You can find some PDAL developers on IRC on #pdal at `Freenode`_. This mechanism
is usually reserved for active meetings and other outreach with the community.
The `Mailing List`_ and `GitHub`_ avenues are going to be more productive
communication channels in most situations.


.. _`git`: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git_(software)
.. _`Freenode`: http://freenode.net
