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I did it! https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=548763 Unfortunately it took quite a long time, the Mozilla process is quite confusing to a newcomer, even one with a lot of open source project experience. I definitely second the recommendation of finding a mentor.
Too bad we can't patch IE.
I wonder how much of his positive experience is due the fact that he decided to contribute to Servo instead of one of the "main" Mozilla projects (Gecko, SpiderMonkey, Firefox etc). Less hairy codebase, smaller community, github-based, and probably lot more suitable low-hanging fruits.
The worst part for me wasn't understanding the code (though following through some of the XPCOM stuff is tough), but working with Mercurial. I was tempted several times to abandon it and use a git mirror. Anyone that says patch queues are equivalent to git rebase is crazy.
[1] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1006656 [2] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=907310
In your post you mentionned that a goo way to start working with open-source project it to look for smaller scale projects to contribute on github. If been working hard to make it easier for people to find interesting/smaller projects on github by creating the /r/coolgithubprojects and the http://coolgithubprojects.com/ website lately. It's not perfect but anyone who's looking to contribute and find interesting will…
I think that good small projects can be plug-ins to bigger projects, or a library that someone use in a project.
In your post you mentionned that a goo way to start working with open-source project it to look for smaller scale projects to contribute on github. If been working hard to make it easier for people to find interesting/smaller projects on github by creating the /r/coolgithubprojects and the http://coolgithubprojects.com/ website lately. It's not perfect but anyone who's looking to contribute and find interesting will…
I wonder how much of his positive experience is due the fact that he decided to contribute to Servo instead of one of the "main" Mozilla projects (Gecko, SpiderMonkey, Firefox etc). Less hairy codebase, smaller community, github-based, and probably lot more suitable low-hanging fruits.
I got a couple patches through to Firefox proper. One was a fairly easy bugfix[1], but the other[2] took me lots and lots of iterations to get correct. The mentor was extremely patient, taking what I think was more time to explain to me how to do it right than it would have taken him/her to just do it themselves. The worst part for me wasn't understanding the code (though following through some of the XPCOM stuff is…
https://github.com/mozilla/gecko-dev
and you can just upload patches for review
...but can I patch the look and feel of the user interface, or are we not permitted to patch superficial things that affect "branding" and user experience? I liked Firefox 28, not Firefox 29 and up.
Given that people have written add-ons to do just that, there's no need to even make patches for it.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/classicthemer...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I got a couple patches through to Firefox proper. One was a fairly easy bugfix[1], but the other[2] took me lots and lots of iterations to get correct. The mentor was extremely patient, taking what I think was more time to explain to me how to do it right than it would have taken him/her to just do it themselves. The worst part for me wasn't understanding the code (though following through some of the XPCOM stuff is…
If you dont need to actually push the code to the reposity (which you wont for the first bunch of patches) it is totally fine to use git, the github mirror is at https://github.com/mozilla/gecko-dev and you can just upload patches for review
What's kind of skills for programming with Mozilla?
Basically, anything. Have a look at http://www.whatcanidoformozilla.org to have a glimpse on what you can do for the project.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
C++, Javascript, Python... or Rust ! :)
Or even C, which some parts are written in, although it doesn't look like they're particularly friendly to lots of people changing them (IIRC some of the parsing and lexing code is in C, correct me if I'm wrong).