Contributing to Theia

We welcome and encourage contributions to Theia, whether they are new features, bug fixes or tests. The Theia mailing list is the best place for all development related discussions. Please consider joining it. If you have an idea for how you'd like to contribute to Theia, please consider emailing the list first to voice your idea. We can help you fine-tune your idea and this will also help avoid duplicate work by somebody else who may be working on the same feature.

Style and Testing

We follow Google's C++ Style Guide and use git for version control. Contributions are reviewed via GitHub pull requests.

When contributing substantial new code or bug fixes, please add unit tests to ensure the usage of the code (or to prove the bug is fixed!).

Dual-language examples in the manual (Python / C++)

The site uses MkDocs Material content tabs so readers can switch between equivalent Python and C++ snippets. Install the doc dependencies from the repository root:

pip install -r docs/requirements.txt
# or: pip install ".[docs]"

Use tab titles and a four-space indent for the body under each tab (same pattern as Material’s content tabs):

PythonC++

import pytheia as pt
rec = pt.sfm.Reconstruction()

theia::sfm::Reconstruction reconstruction;

The theme is configured with content.tabs.link, so when several tab groups on a page use the same labels (e.g. Python / C++), the selected tab stays in sync while navigating that page.

CMake

We use CMake to generate makefiles for Theia to maximize the cross-platform usability. If you need to add a new library or a new file to Theia, you will likely need to add that file to the CMakeLists.txt in src/theia (along with a unit test!).

Developing for Theia

Much of the instructions that follow in this section were borrowed and modified from the Ceres Solver project.

1. Download and configure git.

   • Mac brew install git.
   • Linux sudo apt-get install git.
   • Windows. Download msysgit, which includes a minimal Cygwin install.

2. Sign up for a GitHub account. Accounts are free to register.

3. Clone the pyTheia repository:

   git clone https://github.com/urbste/pyTheiaSfM.git
   

4. Build Theia, following the instructions in chapter-building.

5. Open a pull request on GitHub against master.

Submitting a change

1. Fork the repository and create a feature branch from master.
2. Make your changes; include tests when adding behavior or fixing bugs.
3. Regenerate or update .pyi stubs if you change Python bindings (dev/generate_stubs.sh or a full wheel build).
4. Open a pull request with a clear description and test notes.
5. Address review feedback; rebase on master if needed before merge.