Why Computing Students Should Contribute to Open Source Software Projects • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Computing Students Should Contribute to Open Source Software Projects

#131

Post by gervwyk » Mon, Jun 28, 2021, 2:00 PM UTC

MeinBlutIstBlau wrote: post #115

How do you recommend a student contribute to an open source project when many people don't even accept pull requests on their basic github repos? I had a teacher that tried this and it backfired immensely. Basically every student wasn't able to get one so my instructor had to change it last minute and just make us do a coding project in a different language. Open source is not for new coders. Flat out. They are defin…

Sure, every PR will not get accepted, thats fine. It would be best if the instructor helped students curate which projects is good candidates, and motivate students not to choose only one. The advice in the article for how to choose projects is really good imo:

- Choose a project with several active contributors.

- Choose a relatively popular project (some GitHub stars).

- Avoid very popular projects.

- Verify that you can build and run the project on your computer setup.

- Ensure the project regularly accepts pull requests from outsiders.

- Try to contribute a trivial fix as a warm-up exercise.

- Look for project issues marked as "Good first issue".

Re: Why Computing Students Should Contribute to Open Source Software Projects

#132

Post by llbeansandrice » Mon, Jun 28, 2021, 2:04 PM UTC

tester34 wrote: post #28

DarkWiiPlayer wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I completely agree with both points. 1) No, universities shouldn't waste too much time preparing people for the job; they should prepare give people the more scientific types of skills that one doesn't really pick up on the job: Data structures, algorithms, paradigms like OOP and FP, etc. 2) Unleashing a horde of yet incompetent newbies on the open source world with a mission to contribute won't be helping FOSS; what…

but there's already significant amount of ds, algos, OOP in academia, also I don't see how those are "scientific types of skills" I do also wonder what people *precisely* mean when they talk about "data structures and algorithms" in context of academia You talk from perspective of competitive programming?

> mean when they talk about "data structures and algorithms" in context of academia

Have you taken a senior/graduate level DS&A class before? Part of it is about proving the correctness of the algorithms and making guarantees about the DSs. It's not about competitive programing or acing leetcode interviews at all.

In the class I took we didn't write hardly any actual code.

Re: Why Computing Students Should Contribute to Open Source Software Projects

#133

Post by IshKebab » Mon, Jun 28, 2021, 2:06 PM UTC

ramraj07 wrote: post #41

5350-uiop-1130 wrote: post #30

How can I leave this industry. I've been a web dev since graduating in 2007 and no longer have the desire to compete in an oversaturated, increasingly complex industry. If i have to work for someone else, I'd rather take the path of least resistance. Try to be on easy mode. That's just me. I lost my passion for all of it. We recently started hiring for a junior front end, and I had to review the test results. 95% of…

You can't leave this industry because frankly no other industry will coddle it's overpaid, dunning Kruger workforce like software. Go to a law firm or a plumbing gig and complain that their task management is literally the hell and see what happens. Of course unqualified people apply a lot, it's because the secret is out that a bunch of lazy people can get paid obscene amounts in this field! There's a flood of unqual…

Well said! This is the easiest most well paid job I've had by far. Also if you're bored of web dev just move to another programming area.

Re: Why Computing Students Should Contribute to Open Source Software Projects

#134

Post by ernopp » Mon, Jun 28, 2021, 2:09 PM UTC

pjc50 wrote: post #32

oytis wrote: post #8

> in the 21st century programming proficiency on its own is neither representative of the skills that the marketplace requires from computing graduates, nor does it offer the strong vocational qualifications it once did. Universities are not vocational education facilities though. Time a student has in university is better spent on getting deeper understanding of things that are hard to pick up in the workplace, and…

> Universities are not vocational education facilities though I see this argument a lot; universities would like to not be vocational education, but unavoidably they are. Certainly for all the older class of professional job: engineer, actuary, lawyer, doctor. For those you absolutely have to go to university to even begin your vocational training. Programming is different in that the degree is less of a hard require…

The French equivalent to Lambda school is https://www.42.fr/ which actually predates Lambda by 3 years and is operating at larger scale (29 campuses worldwide). It's also free unlike Lambda.

Re: Why Computing Students Should Contribute to Open Source Software Projects

#135

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Jun 28, 2021, 2:09 PM UTC

Ensorceled wrote: post #80

How would this work? How many project maintainers would sign on for this? "Hey, can you merge this PR? I'll fail if you don't review and merge this by tomorrow morning. I'm sorry I left it until the last minute but I had a bunch of work do to in another class and couldn't get to it until today." "Hey, I ran everything through flake and black and spent the past 72 hours getting my test coverage (and the coverage of th…

[deleted]

Re: Why Computing Students Should Contribute to Open Source Software Projects

#136

Post by easterncalculus » Mon, Jun 28, 2021, 2:12 PM UTC

aritmo wrote: post #68

piokoch wrote: post #10

I only hope it would not be some kind of common sentiment "you have to contribute to an open source project to earn better grade or get a job". It will end up as Huawei Linux kernel "contributions" - a lot of pointless commits that are only a pain for project maintainers and bring zero actual value.

Why disparage China when you have Hacktoberfest?

Huawei is just the latest example - and it really isn't an attack on China...

Re: Why Computing Students Should Contribute to Open Source Software Projects

#137

Post by EinsDueTresFour » Mon, Jun 28, 2021, 2:12 PM UTC

pjc50 wrote: post #32

oytis wrote: post #8

> in the 21st century programming proficiency on its own is neither representative of the skills that the marketplace requires from computing graduates, nor does it offer the strong vocational qualifications it once did. Universities are not vocational education facilities though. Time a student has in university is better spent on getting deeper understanding of things that are hard to pick up in the workplace, and…

> Universities are not vocational education facilities though I see this argument a lot; universities would like to not be vocational education, but unavoidably they are. Certainly for all the older class of professional job: engineer, actuary, lawyer, doctor. For those you absolutely have to go to university to even begin your vocational training. Programming is different in that the degree is less of a hard require…

Wouldn't Strive School (https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/strive-school) be one of the schools trying to implement the Lambda School model in Europe and the UK?

I don't know how famous/big they are, but I have already heard about it from more than one person, which makes me think that they are gaining traction.

Re: Why Computing Students Should Contribute to Open Source Software Projects

#138

Post by pjmlp » Mon, Jun 28, 2021, 2:15 PM UTC

undfg wrote: post #97

pjmlp wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I people that took their degrees at universidades and politecnicas.

Politécnicas are regular universities with a different name.

Quoting https://es.sawakinome.com/articles/university-education/diff... as I cannot be bothered to search it more than a few seconds.

" En breve:

Diferencia entre politécnico y universidad.

• Las universidades tienen un enfoque más amplio y enseñan materias con énfasis en impartir conocimientos básicos con muchos aspectos teóricos con un poco de trabajo de proyectos y tareas de laboratorio..

• Por otro lado, los politécnicos son más prácticos en su enfoque y toman cursos más pequeños que son específicos de la industria y no se enseñan en las universidades..

• Así que además de los títulos de ingeniería, hay una gran cantidad de otros cursos, diplomas y certificados que se ofrecen en estos politécnicos que son de menor duración y ayudan a los estudiantes a obtener empleos en industrias. "

For the english speaking crowd, https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=es&tl=en&u=https:/...

Re: Why Computing Students Should Contribute to Open Source Software Projects

#139

Post by pjmlp » Mon, Jun 28, 2021, 2:16 PM UTC

albuquerque wrote: post #116

pjmlp wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same applies in Portugal and Spain, actually I think most European countries follow similar models.

In Portugal ?

Yep, unless politécnicos and universidades now have turned into the same thing after Bologna.

Re: Why Computing Students Should Contribute to Open Source Software Projects

#140

Post by 6510 » Mon, Jun 28, 2021, 2:17 PM UTC

Imagine this: A name for a new type of application is coined that crudely described would work like this: a group of students pick a simple but very useful application and write it from scratch, it is to be maintained by them for the duration of their career and should be proudly listed on the resume. Some will be to busy with their career to contribute much while others will have time to expand the project.