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 # Walkthrough: a typical contribution
+
+There are _a lot_ of ways to contribute to the rust compiler, including fixing
+bugs, improving performance, helping design features, providing feedback on
+existing features, etc. This chapter does not claim to scratch the surface.
+Instead, it walks through the design and implementation of a new feature. Not
+all of the steps and processes described here are needed for every
+contribution, and I will try to point those out as they arise.
+
+In general, if you are interested in making a contribution and aren't sure
+where to start, please feel free to ask!
+
+## Overview
+
+The feature I will discuss in this chapter is the `?` Kleene operator for
+macros. Basically, we want to be able to write something like this:
+
+```rust,ignore
+macro_rules! foo {
+    ($arg:ident $(, $optional_arg:ident)?) => {
+        println!("{}", $arg);
+
+        $(
+            println!("{}", $optional_arg);
+        )?
+    }
+}
+
+fn main() {
+    let x = 0;
+    foo!(x); // ok! prints "0"
+    foo!(x, x); // ok! prints "0 0"
+}
+```
+
+So basically, the `$(pat)?` matcher in the macro means "this pattern can occur
+0 or 1 times", similar to other regex syntaxes.
+
+There were a number of steps to go from an idea to stable rust feature. Here is
+a quick list.  We will go through each of these in order below. As I mentioned
+before, not all of these are needed for every type of contribution.
+
+- **Idea discussion/Pre-RFC**  A Pre-RFC is an early draft or design discussion
+  of a feature. This stage is intended to flesh out the design space a bit and
+  get a grasp on the different merits and problems with an idea. It's a great
+  way to get early feedback on your idea before presenting it the wider
+  audience. You can find the original discussion [here][prerfc].
+- **RFC**  This is when you formally present your idea to the community for
+  consideration. You can find the RFC [here][rfc].
+- **Implementation** Implement your idea unstabley in the compiler. You can
+  find the original implementation [here][impl1].
+- **Possibly iterate/refine** As the community gets experience with your
+  feature on the nightly compiler and in `libstd`, there may be additional
+  feedback about design choice that might be adjusted. This particular feature
+  went [through][impl2] a [number][impl3] of [iterations][impl4].
+- **Stabilization** When your feature has baked enough, a rust team member may
+  [propose to stabilize it][merge]. If there is consensus, this is done.
+- **Relax** Your feature is now a stable rust feature!
+
+[prerfc]: https://internals.rust-lang.org/t/pre-rfc-at-most-one-repetition-macro-patterns/6557
+[rfc]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rfcs/pull/2298
+[impl1]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/47752
+[impl2]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/49719
+[impl3]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/51336
+[impl4]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/51587
+[merge]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/48075#issuecomment-433177613
+
+## Pre-RFC and RFC
+
+> NOTE: In general, if you are not proposing a _new_ feature or substantial
+> change to rust or the ecosystem, you don't need to follow the RFC process.
+> Instead, you can just jump to [implementation](#impl).
+>
+> You can find the official guidelines for when to open an RFC [here][rfcwhen].
+
+[rfcwhen]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rfcs#when-you-need-to-follow-this-process
+
+An RFC is a document that describes the feature or change you are proposing in
+detail. Anyone can write an RFC; the process is the same for everyone,
+including rust team members.
+
+To open an RFC, open a PR on the
+[rust-lang/rfcs](https://github.com/rust-lang/rfcs) repo on GitHub. You can
+find detailed instructions in the
+[README](https://github.com/rust-lang/rfcs#what-the-process-is).
+
+Before opening an RFC, you should do the research to "flesh out" your idea.
+Hastily-proposed RFCs tend not to be accepted. You should generally have a good
+description of the motivation, impact, disadvantages, and potential
+interactions with other features.
+
+If that sounds like a lot of work, it's because it is. But no fear! Even if
+you're not a compiler hacker, you can get great feedback by doing a _pre-RFC_.
+This is an _informal_ discussion of the idea. The best place to do this is
+internals.rust-lang.org. Your post doesn't have to follow any particular
+structure.  It doesn't even need to be a cohesive idea. Generally, you will get
+tons of feedback that you can integrate back to produce a good RFC.
+
+(Another pro-tip: try searching the RFCs repo and internals for prior related
+ideas. A lot of times an idea has already been considered and was either
+rejected or postponed to be tried again later. This can save you and everybody
+else some time)
+
+In the case of our example, a participant in the pre-RFC thread pointed out a
+syntax ambiguity and a potential resolution. Also, the overall feedback seemed
+positive. In this case, the discussion converged pretty quickly, but for some
+ideas, a lot more discussion can happen (e.g. see [this RFC][nonascii] which
+received a whopping 684 comments!). If that happens, don't be discouraged; it
+means the community is interested in your idea, but it perhaps needs some
+adjustments.
+
+[nonascii]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rfcs/pull/2457
+
+The RFC for our `?` macro feature did receive some discussion on the RFC thread
+too.  As with most RFCs, there were a few questions that we couldn't answer by
+discussion: we needed experience using the feature to decide. Such questions
+are listed in the "Unresolved Questions" section of the RFC. Also, over the
+course of the RFC discussion, you will probably want to update the RFC document
+itself to reflect the course of the discussion (e.g. new alternatives or prior
+work may be added or you may decide to change parts of the proposal itself).
+
+In the end, when the discussion seems to reach a consensus and die down a bit,
+a rust team member may propose to move to FCP with one of three possible dispositions.
+This means that they want the other members of the appropriate teams to review
+and comment on the RFC. More discussion may ensue, which may result in more changes
+or unresolved questions being added. At some point, when everyone is
+satisfied, the RFC enters the "final comment period" (FCP), which is the last
+chance for people to bring up objections. When the FCP is over, the disposition is
+adopted. Here are the three possible dispositions:
+
+- _Merge_: accept the feature. Here is the proposal to merge for our [`?` macro
+  feature][rfcmerge].
+- _Close_: this feature in its current form is not a good fit for rust. Don't
+  be discouraged if this happens to your RFC, and don't take it personally.
+  This is not a reflection on you, but rather a community decision that rust
+  will go a different direction.
+- _Postpone_: there is interest in going this direction but not at the moment.
+  This happens most often because the appropriate rust team doesn't have the
+  bandwidth to shepherd the feature through the process to stabilization. Often
+  this is the case when the feature doesn't fit into the team's roadmap.
+  Postponed ideas may be revisited later.
+
+[rfcmerge]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rfcs/pull/2298#issuecomment-360582667
+
+When an RFC is merged, the PR is merged into the RFCs repo. A new _tracking
+issue_ is created in the [rust-lang/rust] repo to track progress on the feature
+and discuss unresolved questions, implementation progress and blockers, etc.
+Here is the tracking issue on for our [`?` macro feature][tracking].
+
+[tracking]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/48075
+
+<a name="impl"></a>
+
+## Implementation
+
+To make a change to the compiler, open a PR against the [rust-lang/rust] repo.
+
+[rust-lang/rust]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust
+
+Depending on the feature/change/bug fix/improvement, implementation may be
+relatively-straightforward or it may be a major undertaking. You can always ask
+for help or mentorship from more experienced compiler devs.  Also, you don't
+have to be the one to implement your feature; but keep in mind that if you
+don't it might be a while before someone else does.
+
+For the `?` macro feature, I needed to go understand the relevant parts of
+macro expansion in the compiler. Personally, I find that [improving the
+comments][comments] in the code is a helpful way of making sure I understand
+it, but you don't have to do that if you don't want to.
+
+[comments]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/47732
+
+I then [implemented][impl1] the original feature, as described in the RFC. When
+a new feature is implemented, it goes behind a _feature gate_, which means that
+you have to use `#![feature(my_feature_name)]` to use the feature. The feature
+gate is removed when the feature is stabilized.
+
+**Most bug fixes and improvements** don't require a feature gate. You can just
+make your changes/improvements.
+
+When you open a PR on the [rust-lang/rust], a bot will assign your PR to a
+review. If there is a particular rust team member you are working with, you can
+request that reviewer by leaving a comment on the thread with `r?
+@reviewer-github-id` (e.g. `r? @eddyb`). If you don't know who to request,
+don't request anyone; the bot will assign someone automatically.
+
+The reviewer may request changes before they approve your PR. Feel free to ask
+questions or discuss things you don't understand or disagree with. However,
+recognize that the PR won't be merged unless someone on the rust team approves
+it.
+
+When your review approves the PR, it will go into a queue for yet another bot
+called `@bors`.  `@bors` manages the CI build/merge queue. When your PR reaches
+the head of the `@bors` queue, `@bors` will test out the merge by running all
+tests against your PR on Travis CI. This takes about 2 hours as of this
+writing.  If all tests pass, the PR is merged and becomes part of the next
+nightly compiler!
+
+There are a couple of things that may happen for some PRs during the review process
+
+- If the change is substantial enough, the reviewer may request an FCP on
+  the PR. This gives all members of the appropriate team a chance to review the
+  changes.
+- If the change may cause breakage, the reviewer may request a [crater] run.
+  This compiles the compiler with your changes and then attempts to compile all
+  crates on crates.io with your modified compiler. This is a great smoke test
+  to check if you introduced a change to compiler behavior that affects a large
+  portion of the ecosystem.
+- If the diff of your PR is large or the reviewer is busy, your PR may have
+  some merge conflicts with other PRs that happen to get merged first. You
+  should fix these merge conflicts using the normal git procedures.
+
+[crater]: ./tests/intro.html#crater
+
+If you are not doing a new feature or something like that (e.g. if you are
+fixing a bug), then that's it! Thanks for your contribution :)
+
+## Refining your implementation
+
+As people get experience with your new feature on nightly, slight changes may
+be proposed and unresolved questions may become resolved. Updates/changes go
+through the same process for implementing any other changes, as described
+above (i.e. submit a PR, go through review, wait for `@bors`, etc).
+
+Some changes may be major enough to require an FCP and some review by rust team
+members.
+
+For the `?` macro feature, we went through a few different iterations after the
+original implementation: [1][impl2], [2][impl3], [3][impl4].
+
+Along the way, we decided that `?` should not take a separator, which was
+previously an unresolved question listed in the RFC. We also changed the
+disambiguation strategy: we decided to remove the ability to use `?` as a
+separator token for other repetition operators (e.g. `+` or `*`). However,
+since this was a breaking change, we decided to do it over an edition boundary.
+Thus, the new feature can be enabled only in edition 2018. These deviations
+from the original RFC required [another
+FCP](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/51934).
+
+## Stabilization
+
+Finally, after the feature had baked for a while on nightly, a language team member
+[moved to stabilize it][stabilizefcp].
+
+[stabilizefcp]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/48075#issuecomment-433177613
+
+A _stabilization report_ needs to be written that includes
+
+- brief description of the behavior and any deviations from the RFC
+- which edition(s) are affected and how
+- links to a few tests to show the interesting aspects
+
+The stabilization report for our feature is [here][stabrep].
+
+[stabrep]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/48075#issuecomment-433243048
+
+After this, [a PR is made][stab] to remove the feature gate, enabling the feature by
+default (on the 2018 edition). A note is added to the [Release notes][relnotes]
+about the feature.
+
+[stab]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/56245
+
+TODO: currently, we have a [forge article][feature-stab] about stabilization, but
+we really ought to move that to the guide (in fact, we probably should have a whole
+chapter about feature gates and stabilization).
+
+[feature-stab]: https://forge.rust-lang.org/stabilization-guide.html
+
+[relnotes]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/master/RELEASES.md