Getting Involved

The KVIrc project is open to contributions in many ways. You can get involved in different tasks that require various degrees of development skill (from "almost none" to "guru").

Contributing code

The main task is obviously code writing. The development of the KVIrc core and external modules requires a reasonable knowledge of C++.
The KVIrc GUI uses the Qt library (and eventually KDE) thus some knowledge of these libraries might be needed too. There are many areas of interest in the source tree: networking, cryptography, data compression, language parsers...
Every level of contribution is precious: from two-line patches to core feature implementation and maintenance.

Contributing artwork

The "V" in KVIrc stands for "Visual". Graphics help the users in navigating the program interface and recognizing quickly the many functions the program provides. We need icons, dialog images, splash-screens, logos, a mascot character... A nice idea would be to implement a complete theme of graphics...

Contributing documentation

Documentation is as important as the program itself.
Many KVIrc features are invisible to the average user just because they're not mentioned in any publicly available document.
Contributing documentation means: collecting FAQs and putting them in a readable and searchable form, writing documents about specific features, writing tutorials.
A well-written "introduction to KVIrc for beginners" is needed (this could be a sort of introduction to IRC too).

Translating KVIrc messages

KVIrc is a text-based application: the interface strings need to be translated to as many languages as possible. You only need the knowledge of a non-English language: the translation scheme is gettext based and requires very little knowledge about coding.

Translating documentation

The most basic parts of the documentation should be translated to non-English languages so that everyone can understand fully the "core" features of KVIrc.
This requires yet less coding knowledge than translating messages.

Site management/development

The web site needs to be extended and maintained.
For this task you need knowledge of php, xhtml, css and some ideas :)


FTP and WWW mirrors are always welcome: we're actually missing mirrors outside Europe.
The WWW site is written in php and updated via Git thus the mirroring machine must have a php-capable web server and a Git client installed.
The FTP archive is around 1.2GB; partial mirroring schemes can be also arranged.
The detailed instructions for setting up a WWW or FTP mirror are available here.

Public relations

We need people that talk about KVIrc, write articles, descriptions, reviews, look for contributors...

Who to contact

Once you decide that you want to contribute in some way you can mail your proposal to Pragma.
Another place where you can announce your availability/proposal is the #KVIrc IRC channel on IRCNet, on Azzurra or #KVIrc on FreeNode (formerly known as OpenProjects network).