I'm looking to start contributing to some Open Source projects but there are so many that it's daunting to choose one. My interests are compilers and HPC and my preferred languages are C/C++, OCaml, and Fortran. But I'm open to hearing about any projects. Thanks, guys!
Ask HN: Recommended Open Source Projects for a CS Junior?
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Re: Ask HN: Recommended Open Source Projects for a CS Junior?
#2In my experience, the trick is finding the sweet spot between something you use every day and your abilities. I don't contribute to Ubuntu, because I have very little understanding of what's going on there. I do contribute to my lab's software Nengo and other libraries I use, because I understand the code layout and where I can contribute. Consequently, maybe it's a good idea to make a decision matrix based on these criteria?
Re: Ask HN: Recommended Open Source Projects for a CS Junior?
#3Most people will say that the motivation to work on a problem should come from you being really excited about the problem domain. Play around with someone else's code, trying to do something interesting to you that's just barely on the edge of what the provided code can do. Then, when you realize you just need that one feature to do something awesome, you can write it yourself. Don't contribute to open source because you feel like you should, contribute to open source because you want the project to have the features you're contributing.
Re: Ask HN: Recommended Open Source Projects for a CS Junior?
#4In my experience, the trick is finding the sweet spot between something you use every day and your abilities. I don't contribute to Ubuntu, because I have very little understanding of what's going on there. I do contribute to my lab's software Nengo and other libraries I use, because I understand the code layout and where I can contribute. Consequently, maybe it's a good idea to make a decision matrix based on these…
Yeah, this I think is the most important. You can't just pick up some OSS project and start working away, it's usually a lot easier if you've been a consumer of the project before. I've contributed a lot to several big JS projects (Webpack, Grunt, npm) because they were missing things which I needed and it turned out to be easy enough to just add them.
Re: Ask HN: Recommended Open Source Projects for a CS Junior?
#5I recommend the awesome for beginners list.
https://github.com/MunGell/awesome-for-beginners
It's a bunch of beginner welcoming open source projects with a supportive team to help you initiate in the open source world.
Re: Ask HN: Recommended Open Source Projects for a CS Junior?
#6I've heard that https://up-for-grabs.net/#/ is a good place to look to find projects that have issues that are beginner friendly.
Re: Ask HN: Recommended Open Source Projects for a CS Junior?
#7Pick something that you use in a language that you're familiar with. Look for github/jira issues tagged something like: 'good-first-issue', or just interesting issues in general.
Honestly you will learn a lot just setting up a project and getting the tests to pass if you haven't done that before.
Re: Ask HN: Recommended Open Source Projects for a CS Junior?
#8I recommend the awesome for beginners list. https://github.com/MunGell/awesome-for-beginners It's a bunch of beginner welcoming open source projects with a supportive team to help you initiate in the open source world.
Fantastic resource.
Re: Ask HN: Recommended Open Source Projects for a CS Junior?
#9Probably not the answer you were looking for, but one of the best ways is to simply just _make_ something of your own. At the very least it's good practice, and you just might make something people find useful if you've found an 'unscratched itch'.
Even failing that, your codebase can be an educational tool for others. rosettacode.org is a pretty solid example of this--any addition to the wiki is going to save someone's bacon at some point.
But to be more specific for a moment: I see you have a functional-ish language listed (Ocaml) and you've also mentioned compilers--If you're looking for low level stuff with a hint of FP, diving into Rust might be interest you. I'd suggest looking at Redox OS--it's a monster, but plenty of the big scary parts are modularized away. Might be interesting.
Re: Ask HN: Recommended Open Source Projects for a CS Junior?
#10Probably not the answer you were looking for, but one of the best ways is to simply just _make_ something of your own. At the very least it's good practice, and you just might make something people find useful if you've found an 'unscratched itch'. Even failing that, your codebase can be an educational tool for others. rosettacode.org is a pretty solid example of this--any addition to the wiki is going to save someon…
I wish I had worked on other people's codebases earlier. Its a bit daunting when starting out but the art of understanding a codebase is invaluable and you'll learn how others use a language in interesting different ways