Contributing

Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/peilingjiang/b5/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

​

Ways to Contribute

• Report bugs and issues
• Suggest new features and improvements
• Improve documentation
• Fix bugs and implement features
• Create and share example projects
• Improve UI/UX design
• Add new blocks and functionality
• Write tests

​

Getting Started

​

Reporting Issues

​

From the Editor

​

From GitHub

​

What to Include

• Clear description of the problem or suggestion
• Steps to reproduce (for bugs)
• Expected behavior vs actual behavior
• Screenshots or recordings if applicable
• Browser and OS information
• Error messages from the browser console

​

Making Changes

​

Workflow

# Fork the repository on GitHub, then clone your fork
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/b5.git
cd b5
bun run setup

# Create a new branch for your feature or fix
git checkout -b feature/your-feature-name
# or
git checkout -b fix/issue-description

git add .
git commit -m "Description of your changes"

git push origin feature/your-feature-name

​

Code Style

1. simple-git-hooks triggers on commit
2. lint-staged runs on staged files
3. Prettier formats *.{js,jsx,ts,tsx,json,md,html,css} files

bun run format

​

Pull Request Guidelines

• Title: Clear and descriptive (e.g., “Add log block for inline logging”, “Fix wire rendering bug”)
• Description: Explain what changes you made and why
• Reference issues: Link related issues (e.g., “Fixes #123”)
• Screenshots: Include before/after screenshots for UI changes
• Testing: Describe how you tested your changes

​

Development Best Practices

​

Testing Your Changes

1. Run the development server:
   bun start
   
2. Test in the browser:
   • Test on localhost:3000
   • Try different scenarios and edge cases
   • Test with various example files
3. Run tests (if available):
   bun test
   
4. Test the production build:
   bun run build
   

​

Working with Submodules

# Navigate to submodule
cd src/b5.js

# Make changes and commit
git checkout -b your-branch
# ... make changes ...
git commit -m "Your changes"
git push

# Return to main project
cd ../..

# Update submodule reference in main project
git add src/b5.js
git commit -m "Update b5.js submodule"

​

Project Roadmap

​

b5 Core

• Cover most original p5.js functionalities
  • Bring videos, images, sounds into the canvas
  • log block for inline logging (instead of console)
• b5Iterate object for streaming multiple data through one wire
• Error system with type checking and visual feedback
• Output shape objects from drawing blocks
• Custom object creation system
• Integration with more libraries
• Posenet library workflow

​

Interface

• User preferences
• Quick start guide
• File and section sharing
• Quick preview embed for websites
• Multi-language support
• Multi-block selection and operations
• Undo/redo (Cmd/Ctrl + Z)
• Copy/paste (Cmd/Ctrl + C/V)
• Open viewer in separate tab
• Accessibility improvements

​

Sharing Example Projects

1. Save your project: Cmd/Ctrl + S to download as JSON
2. Create an issue or discussion with:
   • Description of your project
   • Screenshot or recording
   • The JSON file
3. Your project may be added to the example files in the editor!

​

Getting Help

​

Questions and Discussions

• GitHub Discussions: Ask questions, share ideas, get feedback
• GitHub Issues: For bug reports and feature requests
• Editor feedback link: Top left corner of the editor

​

Code Review

• Maintainers will review your code
• They may request changes or ask questions
• Be responsive to feedback
• Don’t take criticism personally - it’s about improving the code!

​

Recognition

• All contributors are acknowledged in the project
• Significant contributions may be highlighted
• Building a collaborative and inclusive community

​

No Contribution is Too Small

• Fixing typos in documentation
• Improving error messages
• Adding code comments
• Reporting bugs
• Suggesting improvements

​

Academic Citations

Peiling Jiang. 2023. Positional Control in Node-Based Programming. In Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ‘23), April 23–28, 2023, Hamburg, Germany. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 7 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3544549.3585878

@inproceedings{jiang2023node,
  author = {Jiang, Peiling},
  title = {Positional Control in Node-Based Programming},
  year = {2023},
  isbn = {9781450394222},
  publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
  address = {New York, NY, USA},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3544549.3585878},
  doi = {10.1145/3544549.3585878},
  booktitle = {Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems},
  articleno = {231},
  numpages = {7},
  keywords = {Creative coding, Authoring environment, Visual programming},
  location = {Hamburg, Germany},
  series = {CHI EA '23}
}

​

Thank You!