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Contributing to GA-Optimized Decision Trees

Thank you for your interest in contributing to GA-Optimized Decision Trees! This document provides guidelines and instructions for contributing to this project.

🚀 Quick Start

Development Environment Setup

  1. Fork the repository
git clone https://github.com/your-username/ga-optimized-trees.git
cd ga-optimized-trees
  1. Set up development environment
# Create virtual environment
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate

# Install development dependencies
pip install -e ".[dev]"
pip install -r requirements.txt
  1. Verify setup
pytest tests/unit/test_basic.py -v

📋 Contribution Workflow

1. Issue First

  • Check existing issues before creating new ones
  • For bugs: include steps to reproduce, expected vs actual behavior
  • For features: describe use case and proposed implementation
  • Use appropriate labels (bug, enhancement, documentation, etc.)

2. Branch Naming

Use descriptive branch names:

feature/add-new-mutation-operator
bugfix/fix-crossover-error
docs/update-contributing-guide

3. Development Process

# Create feature branch
git checkout -b feature/your-feature-name

# Make changes and test
pytest tests/ -v --cov=src/ga_trees

# Format code
black src/ tests/ scripts/
flake8 src/ tests/

# Commit changes
git add .
git commit -m "feat: add new mutation operator for tree pruning"

4. Pull Request Process

  1. Update documentation if needed
  2. Add tests for new functionality
  3. Ensure all tests pass
  4. Update README.md if introducing new features
  5. Create PR with clear description and references to issues

🧪 Testing

Running Tests

# Run all tests
pytest tests/ -v

# Run specific test category
pytest tests/unit/ -v
pytest tests/integration/ -v

# Run with coverage
pytest tests/ -v --cov=src/ga_trees --cov-report=html

# Run specific test file
pytest tests/unit/test_genotype.py -v

Writing Tests

  • Follow AAA pattern (Arrange-Act-Assert)
  • Use descriptive test names
  • Include both positive and negative test cases

Example:

def test_tree_crossover_creates_valid_offspring():
    # Arrange
    parent1 = create_sample_tree()
    parent2 = create_sample_tree()

    # Act
    child1, child2 = crossover(parent1, parent2)

    # Assert
    assert child1.is_valid()
    assert child2.is_valid()
    assert child1.depth <= MAX_DEPTH

📝 Code Style

Python Style Guide

We follow PEP 8 with these specific rules:

Imports (grouped and sorted):

# Standard library
import os
import sys
from typing import List, Dict

# Third-party
import numpy as np
import pandas as pd

# Local
from src.ga_trees.genotype.tree import TreeGenotype

Naming Conventions:

  • Classes: CamelCase (DecisionTreeGenotype)
  • Functions/Methods: snake_case (calculate_fitness)
  • Variables: snake_case (population_size)
  • Constants: UPPER_SNAKE_CASE (MAX_DEPTH)

Documentation

  • Use Google-style docstrings for public functions/classes
  • Include type hints for all function parameters and returns

Example:

def evaluate_tree(tree: TreeGenotype, X: np.ndarray, y: np.ndarray) -> float:
    """Evaluate tree performance on dataset.

    Args:
        tree: Tree genotype to evaluate
        X: Feature matrix of shape (n_samples, n_features)
        y: Target vector of shape (n_samples,)

    Returns:
        Accuracy score between 0 and 1

    Raises:
        ValueError: If tree is invalid or data shapes don't match
    """
    # Implementation...

🐛 Bug Reports

When reporting bugs, please include:

  1. Environment:
python -c "import sys; print(sys.version)"
pip list | grep -E "(ga-trees|numpy|scikit-learn)"

  1. Steps to Reproduce

  2. Expected vs Actual Behavior

  3. Error Logs (if any)

💡 Feature Requests

For feature requests, please describe:

  1. Use Case: What problem does this solve?
  2. Proposed Solution: How should it work?
  3. Alternatives Considered: Other approaches you've considered
  4. Additional Context: Any other relevant information

🎯 Focus Areas for Contributions

High Priority

  • Performance optimizations
  • Additional genetic operators
  • New interpretability metrics
  • Enhanced visualization tools
  • Additional dataset support

Medium Priority

  • Extended baseline comparisons
  • Advanced hyperparameter optimization
  • Additional statistical tests
  • Documentation improvements

Experimental

  • Novel tree representations
  • Alternative multi-objective algorithms
  • Hybrid approaches with other ML techniques

🤝 Community

Discussion Channels

📄 License

By contributing, you agree that your contributions will be licensed under the project's MIT License.

🙏 Acknowledgments

Special thanks to all our contributors! Your efforts make this project better for everyone.