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Ask HN: What are some open source projects that a beginner can work on?

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Re: Ask HN: What are some open source projects that a beginner can work on?

#51

Post by ben_straub »

If you read something in Pro Git that could be better, or if you find a mistake, we're taking contributions at https://github.com/progit/progit2. The only requirement is that you agree to license your contribution under the CC BY-NC-SA license.

Re: Ask HN: What are some open source projects that a beginner can work on?

#52

Post by click170 »

joe_the_user wrote: post #48
mordocai wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, the idea is that if you start working on a project specifically because it is noobie friendly you are likely to burn out quick since you don't have that itch you are scratching. I think the parent is correct in that you should try to work on projects that scratch an itch. If it turns out it is a hard community to work with then fork it or move on to your next itch.

If it turns out it is a hard community to work with then fork it or move on to your next itch. Some people might unlimited energy to program and infinitely thick skin. I think a lot of people find putting energy into a project that rejects their efforts to be somewhat traumatic and something that can impel them to give up rather than bounding on to this next adventure. I agree that getting involved with a project tha…

I think this is a bit of a non issue. Wouldn't a bad community or developer become evident when you started looking around at how to help and contribute to the project?

Just recently I decided I was bored with my routine at home and wanted to challenge myself. So I set a task: pick a public repo that I don't already maintain (preferably that I use), find a bug I would like to see fixed (emphasis on would like to see the bug fixed), and to fix it.

I ended up choosing a program that I use but is written in a language I'm not familiar with. Regardless, I jumped right in.

First I looked around for any mailing lists or chat rooms where development discussion is carried out. I joined and asked how I can help, and was directed to the bug tracker and told to go nuts. I can see how this can be a daunting task, but I found the easiest way forward is to put those feelings of being overwhelmed aside and to just start. I cloned the repo and grepped for a tag I hoped would get me to the code I needed, luckily it was a good guess.

I spent the weekend reading the code for no less than three different projects and learning a lot about erlang, and by yesterday evening I had a patch created and a pull request submitted. And I feel fantastic for it and am looking forward to setting a similar challenge next weekend.

My point is that I think part of looking around the project and bug tracker should help you figure out what the attitude of the Dev team is like. I don't doubt there are sour devs our there but IMO they are few and far between, more likely is the unresponsive maintainer who lost interest in the project but still has the keys to the kingdom.

What's the worst case scenario? You create a patch and the project maintainer refuses to merge it? If he doesn't provide good reasons for not wanting to merge it, he looks bad. If he says your code quality needs improvement you can ask for specifics and learn some new tricks. If he says he just doesn't want that feature then leave your code up on github and see if other people start advocating for having your issue merged. This seems like a tempest in a teacup to me.

Re: Ask HN: What are some open source projects that a beginner can work on?

#53

Post by ksenzee »

I would look at the list of projects Google has accepted for Google Summer of Code (https://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/org/list/public/google/g...). They should all be mature enough to have established protocols for newcomers, and with luck they'll be friendly enough for you to feel welcome. (Drupal is on that list, and as a contributor I can certainly vouch for it in both those areas.)

Re: Ask HN: What are some open source projects that a beginner can work on?

#54

Post by greghendershott »

I sometimes put a `help-wanted` tag on GitHub issues I think are especially well-bounded items someone could contribute. It looks like other people use that tag, too: https://github.com/search?l=&p=2&q=state%3Aopen+label%3Ahelp...

You can further filter that by language, or other criteria.

Re: Ask HN: What are some open source projects that a beginner can work on?

#58

Post by beachstartup »

joe_the_user wrote: post #35
ridiculous_fish wrote: post #16

The answer is "all of them!" ESR wrote "Every good work of software starts by scratching a developer's personal itch." You'll be much more effective working on a program that you use and want to make better, compared to a beginner-friendly project that you have no interest in. Instead of looking externally for projects, look inwards. Think about the software you already use, and how it could be better: that stupid an…

This is seriously not true. I've had experiences of projects I tried to get involved because I liked the software but where the maintainer had zero interest in involving any new people. It's lovely that developers scratch itches and create cool software - there isn't anything that implies those same people want to work with other new people. I'm glad you had a good experience and maybe I was unlucky or whatever but I…

the simple solution is to email the maintainer and ask if they're accepting contributions before you start working on things.
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