extended CONTRIBUTING.md

Documented dev environment and coding standards.

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -1,20 +1,17 @@
 
-Contributing to the Project
-===========================
+# Contributing to the Project
 
 We welcome contributions in the form of bug reports, feature requests,
 and pull requests (PRs). This document describes how you can
 contribute.
 
-Bug Reports and Feature Requests
---------------------------------
+## Bug Reports and Feature Requests
 
 Please submit bug reports and feature requests as GitHub issues. This
 helps us to keep track of them and discuss potential solutions or
 enhancements.
 
-LLM Benchmark Results
----------------------
+## LLM Benchmark Results
 
 Contributions of
 [LLM benchmark results](https://aider.chat/docs/leaderboards/)
@@ -26,8 +23,7 @@ Submit results by opening a PR with edits to the
 [benchmark results data files](https://github.com/paul-gauthier/aider/blob/main/_data/).
 
 
-Pull Requests
--------------
+## Pull Requests
 
 We appreciate your pull requests. For small changes, feel free to
 submit a PR directly. If you are considering a large or significant
@@ -35,11 +31,211 @@ change, please discuss it in a GitHub issue before submitting the
 PR. This will save both you and the maintainers time, and it helps to
 ensure that your contributions can be integrated smoothly.
 
-Licensing
----------
+## Licensing
 
 By contributing to this project, you agree that your contributions
 will be licensed under the Apache License 2.0. Additionally, you
 understand and agree that contributions may be subject to a different
 license, should the project maintainers decide to change the licensing
 terms.
+
+
+## Setting up a Development Environment
+
+### Clone the Repository
+
+```
+git clone https://github.com/paul-gauthier/aider.git
+cd aider
+```
+
+### Create a Virtual Environment
+
+It is recommended to create a virtual environment outside of the repository to keep your development environment isolated.
+
+#### Using `venv` (Python 3.9 and later)
+
+```
+python -m venv /path/to/venv
+```
+
+#### Using `virtualenv` (for older Python versions)
+
+```
+pip install virtualenv
+virtualenv /path/to/venv
+```
+
+### Activate the Virtual Environment
+
+#### On Windows
+
+```
+/path/to/venv/Scripts/activate
+```
+
+#### On Unix or macOS
+
+```
+source /path/to/venv/bin/activate
+```
+
+### Install the Project Dependencies
+
+```
+pip install -r requirements.txt
+```
+
+If you want to contribute to the project or run tests, install the development dependencies:
+
+```
+pip install -r requirements-dev.txt
+```
+
+If you want to use the HuggingFace embedding models, install the additional requirements:
+
+```
+pip install -r requirements-hf-embed.txt
+```
+
+### Install the Project in Editable Mode
+
+This step allows you to make changes to the source code and have them take effect immediately without reinstalling the package.
+
+```
+pip install -e .
+```
+
+### Install Pre-commit Hooks (Optional)
+
+The project uses pre-commit hooks for code formatting and linting. If you want to install and use these hooks, run:
+
+```
+pre-commit install
+```
+
+This will automatically run the pre-commit hooks when you commit changes to the repository.
+
+Now you should have a fully functional development environment for the Aider project. You can start making changes, running tests, and contributing to the project.
+
+### Running Tests
+
+To run the project's tests, use the following command:
+
+```
+python -m unittest discover -s aider/tests
+```
+
+### Building the Docker Image
+
+The project includes a `Dockerfile` for building a Docker image. You can build the image by running:
+
+```
+docker build -t aider -f docker/Dockerfile .
+```
+
+### Building the Documentation
+
+The project's documentation is built using Jekyll and hosted on GitHub Pages. To build the documentation locally, follow these steps:
+
+1. Install Ruby and Bundler (if not already installed).
+2. Navigate to the `aider/website` directory.
+3. Install the required gems:
+   ```
+   bundle install
+   ```
+4. Build the documentation:
+   ```
+   bundle exec jekyll build
+   ```
+
+The built documentation will be available in the `aider/website/_site` directory.
+
+## Coding Standards
+
+### Python Compatibility
+
+Aider supports Python versions 3.9, 3.10, 3.11, and 3.12. When contributing code, ensure compatibility with these supported Python versions.
+
+### Code Style
+
+The project follows the [PEP 8](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/) style guide for Python code, with a maximum line length of 100 characters. Additionally, the project uses [isort](https://pycqa.github.io/isort/) and [Black](https://black.readthedocs.io/en/stable/) for sorting imports and code formatting, respectively. Please install the pre-commit hooks to automatically format your code before committing changes.
+
+### No Type Hints
+
+The project does not use type hints.
+
+### Testing
+
+The project uses [pytest](https://docs.pytest.org/en/latest/) for running unit tests. The test files are located in the `aider/tests` directory and follow the naming convention `test_*.py`.
+
+#### Running Tests
+
+To run the entire test suite, use the following command from the project root directory:
+
+```
+pytest
+```
+
+You can also run specific test files or test cases by providing the file path or test name:
+
+```
+pytest aider/tests/test_coder.py
+pytest aider/tests/test_coder.py::TestCoder::test_specific_case
+```
+
+#### Continuous Integration
+
+The project uses GitHub Actions for continuous integration. The testing workflows are defined in the following files:
+
+- `.github/workflows/ubuntu-tests.yml`: Runs tests on Ubuntu for Python versions 3.9 through 3.12.
+- `.github/workflows/windows-tests.yml`: Runs that on Windows
+
+These workflows are triggered on push and pull request events to the `main` branch, ignoring changes to the `aider/website/**` and `README.md` files.
+
+#### Docker Build and Test
+
+The `.github/workflows/docker-build-test.yml` workflow is used to build a Docker image for the project on every push or pull request event to the `main` branch. It checks out the code, sets up Docker, logs in to DockerHub, and then builds the Docker image without pushing it to the registry.
+
+#### Writing Tests
+
+When contributing new features or making changes to existing code, ensure that you write appropriate tests to maintain code coverage. Follow the existing patterns and naming conventions used in the `aider/tests` directory.
+
+If you need to mock or create test data, consider adding it to the test files or creating separate fixtures or utility functions within the `aider/tests` directory.
+
+#### Test Requirements
+
+The project uses `pytest` as the testing framework, which is installed as a development dependency. To install the development dependencies, run the following command:
+
+```
+pip install -r requirements-dev.txt
+```
+
+### Dependencies
+
+When introducing new dependencies, make sure to add them to the appropriate `requirements.in` file (e.g., `requirements.in` for main dependencies, `requirements-dev.in` for development dependencies). Then, run the following command to update the corresponding `requirements.txt` file:
+
+```
+./scripts/pip-compile.sh
+```
+
+You can also pass one argument to `pip-compile.sh`, which will flow through to `pip-compile`. For example:
+
+```
+./scripts/pip-compile.sh --upgrade
+```
+
+### Pre-commit Hooks
+
+The project uses [pre-commit](https://pre-commit.com/) hooks to automatically format code, lint, and run other checks before committing changes. After cloning the repository, run the following command to set up the pre-commit hooks:
+
+```
+pre-commit install
+```
+
+pre-commit will then run automatically on each `git commit` command. You can use the following command line to run pre-commit manually:
+
+```
+pre-commit run --all-files
+```
+```