Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: How do I start contributing to open source projects?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 13 posts

Ask HN: How do I start contributing to open source projects?

#1

Post by pratiksaha »

How do I start contributing to open source projects? I have been pondering over this for quite some time and do not quite know how/where to begin. I have a fair coding experience in C/C++, python and perl but probably am too confused right now. How do I select a project to begin with? What if I commit to something but not able to deliver?

If you are already working on something interesting, please post the link/contact, I would be happy to join. I am looking for something with C/C++ or python code base

Thanks in advance, PS

Re: Ask HN: How do I start contributing to open source projects?

#2

Post by skruz »

Just start reading the source of projects you use and see how they work. When you see something wrong or need a new feature you create a fork on GitHub and work on that. You then create a pull request when it is ready! If you're unable to 'deliver', just don't create the pull request. Start small with tests or docs, then bugs and small improvements, then new features, then big refactors ;-)

Re: Ask HN: How do I start contributing to open source projects?

#4

Post by lsiebert »

Pick something you use regularly that's open source, and check out that. Something you have familiarity with is going to be a lot easier to contribute to, because you will notice bugs, or think up a feature. Like I added an option to a vim plugin I was using that was open source, and then sent a pull request because I thought someone else might like it, and it got accepted.

Another good thing to do is to write documentation for code before you contribute to it. Plenty of code lacks clear documentation, and having to read the code and understand it will help you contribute later.

Re: Ask HN: How do I start contributing to open source projects?

#5

Post by pratiksaha »

skruz wrote: post #2

Just start reading the source of projects you use and see how they work. When you see something wrong or need a new feature you create a fork on GitHub and work on that. You then create a pull request when it is ready! If you're unable to 'deliver', just don't create the pull request. Start small with tests or docs, then bugs and small improvements, then new features, then big refactors ;-)

Thanks, surely will try :-)

Re: Ask HN: How do I start contributing to open source projects?

#7

Post by pratiksaha »

lsiebert wrote: post #4

Pick something you use regularly that's open source, and check out that. Something you have familiarity with is going to be a lot easier to contribute to, because you will notice bugs, or think up a feature. Like I added an option to a vim plugin I was using that was open source, and then sent a pull request because I thought someone else might like it, and it got accepted. Another good thing to do is to write docume…

Thank you, that helps a lot

Re: Ask HN: How do I start contributing to open source projects?

#9

Post by phantom_oracle »

Repost (because this gets asked too often):

I defined this for someone else who had the same question a few days ago. There are 4 ways to contribute:

- bugs (find and report them)

- code (the part everyone wants to do)

- docs (the part that everyone should do, but has been given second-class status due to everyone thinking writing code is the only way to feel like you're contributing)

- tests (ever clicked on "button" and everything broke, well if someone wrote a test for the functionality there, it likely wouldn't have)

I urge you to start with the things the pure-coders hate, and that is well-defined, noob-friendly documentation.

You'll never be given the high status of "genius programmer living in basement, changing world", but your documentation and "dumbing that shit down" way of explaining things will sometimes make the project more successful and will carry more weight as far as bringing more users of the code-base.

Post reply on HN