Developer guide

🧑‍💻 Developer Guide

This tutorial explains how to develop a repository from the control-toolbox ecosystem, based on the template CTAppTemplate.jl.
We assume you have installed Julia and that your package is called MyAwesomePackage.jl.

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1️⃣ Clone the repository

1. Navigate to the folder where you want to store the repository, e.g.:

cd ~/dev

2. Copy the SSH or HTTPS URL from GitHub (see screenshot):

3. Clone the repository:

git clone the-url-you-have-copied

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2️⃣ Install VSCode

We recommend using Visual Studio Code to develop:

VSCode

1. Install the Julia extension.
2. Optional but recommended extensions:
   • GitHub Actions
   • GitHub Markdown Preview
   • Jupyter & Jupyter Notebook Renderers
   • Markdown Preview for GitHub Alerts

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3️⃣ Run unit tests

1. Open the folder of your package in VSCode:

2. Open a terminal in VSCode and start Julia's interactive session:

using Pkg
Pkg.activate(".")
Pkg.test()

Tip

To add unit tests, see the Unit Testing documentation.

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4️⃣ Build the documentation

1. Open a terminal in VSCode and start Julia's interactive session.
2. Run:

using Pkg
Pkg.activate("docs")
Pkg.develop(path=pwd()); include("docs/make.jl"); Pkg.rm("MyAwesomePackage")

[!NOTE] Explanation of the three commands:

• Pkg.develop(path=pwd()): Adds the package to docs/Project.toml so it can be used in docs/make.jl or markdown files.
• include("docs/make.jl"): Builds the documentation in docs/build. Open docs/build/index.html to view it.
• Pkg.rm("MyAwesomePackage"): Removes the package from docs/Project.toml after building.

Tip

Learn more about Documenter.jl for generating documentation from docstrings and markdown files.

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✅ Quick summary

Step	Action
Clone	git clone ...
Dev environment	Install VSCode + Julia extension
Unit tests	Pkg.activate("."); Pkg.test()
Build docs	Pkg.activate("docs"); Pkg.develop(...); include("docs/make.jl")

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📚 References:

• Contribution Guidelines
• Dev Setup
• Make a release