Add Contributing file

[jbusche]

This is first draft of issue #55

This provides a CONTRIBUTING markdown file for new users to provide a guide on how to get involved and contribute to the project.

I'm using the caikit CONTRIBUTING.md document as a template, but changing items to properly fit the FMS instead of caikit convention.

Some things that might need tweaks:

• The new CODEOWNERS file might need different or additional people added
• Right now there are no template(s) on new issues, but that's something that could be added later.
• Development setup and unit testing will likely change soon due to issues Add unit tests #5 and Python package dependency management for building/development #56

[fabianlim]

This is more of acomment, but I feel squash merges should be better than regular merges. It results in a more linear commit history. The slight overhead is that the devs need to know how to rebase branches. But IMO this effort is worth it,.

[tedhtchang]

/lgtm This is a good starting point. We will add more content as we continue.

[jbusche]

This is more of acomment, but I feel squash merges should be better than regular merges. It results in a more linear commit history. The slight overhead is that the devs need to know how to rebase branches. But IMO this effort is worth it,.

Hi @fabianlim, Are you thinking about having me add squash information in the Developer section like this? https://github.com/sigstore/.github/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#squash-commits. Or is this a guideline to make sure the maintainers always choose the squash and merge option of when they merge a PR of multiple commits?

[fabianlim]

@jbusche im not sure. it depends on the process for merges. In github you can enforce who merges the PRs. if the repo owner or administrator only can merge the PRs, then as long that person squash merges, it will be fine. But if anybody can merge, then perhaps it should be in CONTRIBUTING.

I wonder if the administrators have any thoughts about this.

[jbusche]

@fabianlim, we've added some info that the maintainers will squash and merge as needed to help keep commits more concise. Thanks!

[Ssukriti]

Thank you! This is a good start and we will continue to add information on ADR and unit tests

[jbusche]

Great, thank you for the reviews @anhuong @Ssukriti @fabianlim!