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I know there is no clear answer to this question. I still wonder to know whether Reading open source code can improve myself rapidly? how and why?
ps：I keep reading open source code every day for months.
Well, many of the bigger open source projects are collaborations between many people: Thus you do have a chance of finding a project written by good developers, and therefore improve your own coding style. Of course, it all depends if you actually memorise the stuff you read or not - But I guess you wouldn't really read that much code if you didn't.
In my opinion, you can learn the following from well-written projects:
Coding conventions
Solutions to common problems (Of course, this depends heavily on the "type" of the project)
How to document code properly - If multiple people work on something, and the project is well-written, it probably also has a good documentation.
Of course, all of this is opinion-based, so you need to see for yourself.
Possible answers (this is highly subjective)
Because working with someone else's code is more difficult than working with my own code. It forces me to adapt to some else's thinking ("If all I have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail")
Because open-source code is often not written under a deadline, by people who enjoy what they are working at, and can provide high-quality real-world examples
Because open-source code tends to have less of an agenda to push vendor XYZ's proprietary pet technology
Because the world might become a slighly better place, if people wouldn't code for the CPU as their main audience, but a human reader :)
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I've recently attempted to start learning the C programming language, this question isn't specific to that one language though, or any language for that matter. I've found that I regret asking for information/best practices as early in the learning process as I have, simply because I'm receiving too much information.
As an example, I asked a question related to arrays in C:
Is defining the length of an array with a macro "excellent practice"?
What I found was, I received the answer I was looking for; but, I also received a slew of other information, that, as a beginner was absolutely over my head. I then regretted asking in the first place because I found myself worrying about things that I probably shouldn't know/care about at this stage in the learning process.
I guess what I'm asking is: do you think worrying about best practices and language caveats when I'm a beginner will be harmful to me, or is it encouraged? I find myself getting lost reading questions under the 'c' tag, of which I was trying to use to improve my knowledge, but now I'm bogged down and not making any real progress because of all the little details in comments/answers etc.
It's certainly not a bad thing, per se, as learning of advanced matters ahead of time can really help you along the road. This isn't even confined to computer science; I, for example, find myself in this position all the time when cooking a new dish or studying relatively advanced mathematics. Of course, if all the little details and super-technical stuff are stressing you out, by all means, take a step back and breathe, try and focus on the task at hand. You can always return to the more advanced topics later!
On the specific question of learning the standard practices and caveats of a given language, I personally recommend it. First of all, doing so can keep you from developing bad habits. Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of a given language are rather important, and can influence you later on. If you have one or two things you really hate about C, you can try another language in the future that addresses those issues. The sooner you acquaint yourself with such matters the sooner you can make a decision.
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I am a college student keen to improve my Programming skills. I have two pathways to follow:
Contributing to OpenSource Projects
Solving puzzles at codechef.com
Which one should I follow?
A good programmer is one who cares about his or her ACE - Accuracy, Clarity, Effectiveness.
A good programmer cares about the Accuracy of code. The easy part is coding the "happy path" because this is always in the forefront of our minds when we design and write the code. But what about potential the exception paths that exist when presented with unexpected input and edge case behaviours of the chosen implementation provided? Care is shown by taking the time to think through all the code paths, investing time in testing, submitting the code for peer review, and having the willingness to accept other's suggestions and make changes when appropriate.
A good programmer cares about the Clarity of code. Whether the code is well structured, expressive, adheres to the Open-Closed Principle, the Single Responsibility Principle, the executing machine doesn't care one bit. But, these are all very important to the next programmer, or yourself, who has to read and understand your code at a later date in order to fix bugs, modify behaviours, or add features.
A good programmer cares about the Effectiveness of code. Does it satisfy all the constraints imposed on it? Not only performance and space constraints, but also aspects that make it acceptable to the end user, the demands on the development and testing timelines by your clients, boss, family. Professional software development is not a precise circumscribed task, like "calculate the determinant of an NxN matrix". It has many constraints and demands, and good programmers are mindful of all of these, and will do their best to manage the them, especially when there is not enough time to satisfy all constraints completely.
So! To answer your immediate question, Open Source or codechef, I'd say that being involved in an Open Source project provides much greater opportunities to practice being a good software developer. So go choose an Open Source project that you care about, and ACE it!
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Can I make a difference at an open source project?
I haven't gotten a degree or anything but I am really interested in computer science and I have most of the fundamentals down.
Is there a project I can make a difference at? If not, any sites where I can further my knowledge and review the fundamentals (advanced concepts as well) of computer programming?
Scour around GitHub for projects, there are plenty that could use some help.
At the very least, write tests for untested code and submit them back. Even the littlest of contributions are appreciated.
Newcomers to an active Open Source project often feel like they are walking into a busy kitchen. A lot of different things going on and you feel like you are just in the way.
But often its not the case.
I can't point you to a specific project since i do not know your skillset or what you want to focus on.
Getting into an Open Source project can take time, its mostly based on the size of the project but usually its trying to see what is needed.
What i recommend is the same most people do, find a project that inspires you to make it better (even though its good to begin with), since that will make you want to stick around during the harder times.
Absolutely. Writing documentation and unit tests is good advice, but I'd suggest instead you find something you're particularly interested in, perhaps a piece of open source software you already use, and add a feature that you yourself want to use. It'll be more difficult, but it'll actually keep your interest and get you real world experience. Worst case your patch won't be accepted, but if it's a decent project they'll tell you why and what you need to do to make it acceptable.
Or, pick a small problem you want to see solved, and write an open source solution for it. The key is actually be interested in the problem you're solving.
Open source software is not magically high quality code; in fact it's not unusual to find sloppy code and practices. Don't be intimidated, jump in and give it a try. My first piece of open source still has a few users over 10 years later, but the code quality makes me cringe everytime I look at it.
You can visit Sourceforge.net and look for projects that need help.
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I always have found the open source space interesting but have never actually participated in any projects. I recently had what I thought was a great a idea that was different from other projects I had seen in the area (in case it matters it was a .NET DI framework).
My question is if I have a funky idea should I join an existing project and share my ideas or create a competing project with exactly what I want. There are a few projects in the space the are similar to what I was thinking but they don't quite capture the same ideals.
Is extra competition frown upon in the open source space?
Competition is as important as collaboration in open source. Assuming the licenses are compatible, features and ideas can be cross-pollenating. Everybody wins.
the short answer to this is another question: do you want to contribute to a discussion, or do things your way?
You may want to consider writing it your own way and turning that process into an article that you could submit to CodeProject. Then if there seems to be interest in the article, add it to SourceForge. I've seen a lot of tools and widgets get a quick audience and coding help that way. One that I use often is XPTable, which started as a CodeProject article and eventually became an open source project on SourceForge.
BTW, you'll know if its a hit, because you'll start to get lots of requests for improvement, or people even submitting their own fixes and enhancements to your article.
Thank you for your time. I have decided to contribute directly for the project in some areas they were hurting. By doing so I can help the project and learn from the masters.
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What open source projects would you recommend as a good place for a starting open source developer? Factors that I think would be important are some obvious ones like well written code and a community that is helpful to newbies. But it might be nice if the code base is such that I can start hacking some small problems without really understanding the details of how everything works.
I'd prefer something that can be developed on Linux using C/C++/Java/Python/Scala.
Trying to pick a project like that will never work because it's not something you're passionate about. What's an open source project that you use daily or enjoy using? Go work with that one.
It really depends on what your interests are as to what project to dive into.
Rationale for a larger project (e.g. Firefox, OpenOffice, etc) is that it has many developers, a well established code base, and many small tasks/bugs to be worked out.
Rationale for a smaller project is that you will become more intimate with the code and application. You will likely get to know other developers on the team and understand the overall concept better. Additionally, your additions to the project may be more noticeable.
sourceforge has a list of projects seeking a new developer. Therer are several for your requested programming languages:
http://sourceforge.net/people/?category_id=1
Apart from developers they have more help requests:
http://sourceforge.net/people/
Pick one you use and like already.