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Why Computing Students Should Contribute to Open Source Software Projects

cacm.acm.org

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

#21

Post by siva7 »

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 of course nowadays also vocational education facilities (with a strong track on research). I'm always flabbergasted where this misconception about higher education as some form of romantic ivory tower comes from.

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

#23

Post by DarkWiiPlayer »

tehbeard wrote: post #16
chalst wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The CACM Viewpoint proposal doesn't mean that students have to work on the kind of open source projects that businesses will assign developer labour to. The open source projects can be chosen to complement the educational aims of the course.

This just sounds like hacktoberfest blended with eternal September...

Except hacktoberfest was for some merch; this puts peoples degrees on the line, so they will be much more motivated to find something to "fix".

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

#24

Post by tester34 »

xf1cf wrote: post #4

What ever happened to exploring computing through just building small, cool, things? Maybe I'm old now, but this trope has been parroted here and elsewhere as a panacea. Need a job? Contribute to open source for the CV experience. Need something to do? Contribute to open source. I could see this as maybe something for a small software engineering course to do. maybe. I think in those cases it might even be better to…

I do share this sentiment, the beauty of computers was that you could build "anything" you wanted and maybe even make living of it

Nowadays it seems to be perceived as a yet another way to highly paid jobs

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

#25

Post by Ekaros »

siva7 wrote: post #21
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 of course nowadays also vocational education facilities (with a strong track on research). I'm always flabbergasted where this misconception about higher education as some form of romantic ivory tower comes from.

I don't really see why they shouldn't be understood as both. Specially in fields like CS, engineering, law, medicine and economics and so on. There is need for highly skilled and educated people in industry even for regular roles. On other hand there is also need for scientist and researches. Both roles are somewhat different, but I dont' see now reason why they couldn't be trained at same facilities.

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

#26

Post by DarkWiiPlayer »

Sending out a horde of half-competent people with hammers in search of a nail with their degree on the line will lead to many screws being hammered in.

I can see the appeal of this idea, but what it's ultimately doing is optimising for spam.

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

#27

Post by Tade0 »

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…

> In my (probably unpopular) opinion, it's better to start contributing to open source projects after having some experience with real projects at work, not the other way round.

Or don't start by contributing code. There's a lot of work to do in areas like bug triage, reproducing issues or creating setups which do that.

I used to be part of a commercial, but open-source project. Unfortunately we didn't have the resources to scrutinise every pull request that arrived and I think few projects do.

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

#28

Post by tester34 »

DarkWiiPlayer wrote: post #20
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…

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?

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

#29

Post by asamant »

On similar lines I had a course on software architecture [0] during my Master's in which students had to choose a sufficiently complex open source project and analyze it from an architectural perspective, summarizing their findings in the form of chapters to be compiled in a book [1] inspired by [2]. We were also highly encouraged to raise PRs though it wasn't compulsory. Most student groups did end up raising PRs and getting them merged, albeit most were understandably minor ones given the short timeline (~2.5 months for the entire course).

Personally I can say it was a really good experience and it certainly made me look at open source development (and programming in general) from a more nuanced perspective - and I suppose it would definitely be a good idea to introduce such courses when students are sufficiently prepared for them, in the more advanced stages of their study programmes.

[0] - "IN4315 Software Architecture" (https://se.ewi.tudelft.nl/delftswa/) [1] - "DESOSA 2019" (https://se.ewi.tudelft.nl/desosa2019/) [2] - "AOSA" (http://aosabook.org/en/index.html)

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

#30

Post by 5350-uiop-1130 »

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 the applicants are unable to perform the most basic tasks.

I blame this on all the bootcamps and learn to code courses. There is a flood of unqualified people in this field and it's just tiring for me to imagine the future. One where my experience has zero value and I have to keep proving myself over again. Who needs it.

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