Checklist for making a pull request

If you've completed some piece of code that you want to have merged into master, below is a checklist for what you should do on the branch containing the new code before making a pull request (or after making it, if you do any substantial overhaul to the code then you should redo these steps):

• Get the branch up to date, by merging in any recent changes from the master branch.
• A final check that you can build the code: "scons", "scons install"
• Make sure the unit tests still work: "scons tests". Ideally there should be some new unit tests for the new functionality, unless the work is completely covered by existing unit tests.
• Check the documentation for your code at the C++ and python level to make sure it's complete and up-to-date.
• Update CHANGELOG.md to mention your change.
• Make sure that the new code conforms to our code guidelines, for example no tabs (4 spaces), 100 character line width.
• If the change is sufficiently major, update the quick reference guide in doc/ref/ (the .tex file) and the PDF version in doc/ .
• Make sure you can still run all demos using python and config. The easiest way is: "cd examples", "./check_yaml", "./check_json".
• Make sure any new files have GPL at the top.
• Depending on the nature of the change, check whether updates to README and INSTALL are needed.
• If your update has changed the available options in config, then prepare an update to the config wiki page. However, this change should not be included until the new code is on master.
• Finally, on the GitHub site, go to "Code". Then click the green "Compare and Review" button. Your branch is probably in the "Example Comparisons" list, so click on it. If not, select it for the "compare" branch.
• Explain the major changes you are asking to be code reviewed. Often it is useful to open a second tab in your browser where you can look through the diff yourself to remind yourself of all the changes you have made.