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I'm currently studying computer science and looking for a good way to practice and hone my programming skills. Contributing to an open source project seems like a natural way to do this to me. I currently know Java, Python, and some C, but wanted to open this up to any established language.
In particular, I'm looking for a project that's fairly active and has a lot of work for less experienced coders.
A better known project such as Firefox might have the advantage of being more recognizable on a resume, but perhaps one could have a larger impact on a smaller project. Any thoughts on this?
Thanks in advance =) -Matt
A popular one to start on if you know C is GNOME - www.gnome.org
Another great thing to do is look for projects that need help by checking out the Help Wanted listings at Sourceforge:
http://sourceforge.net/people/
The Python website also has a Volunteer Opportunities page:
http://wiki.python.org/moin/VolunteerOpportunities
A good way to contribute also is to look at the websites and mailing lists of open source software you use on a regular basis and ask if they need help, or just browse through their bug trackers to see what you can help with. This would probably be more interesting for you as you'll probably be able to make more meaningful contributions quicker with an existing knowledge of the software.
Good luck!
First, it has to be something that you are interested in and will enjoy working on. Otherwise it may become a chore or you may not contribute as much as you might otherwise.
Second, I'd make sure the project is active and has people working on it who you can learn from (by seeing what they've done and any changes they might make to your code once you check it in and they review it).
Finally, if you have any idea what you might want to do when you look for employment as a developer, then try to find something related to that area of programming, a tool that is used by developers in that field for example, as that will help you learn about the problem domain, as well as how to program, which help improve your cv/resume.
Whichever sounds fun to do, that's a rule of thumb for side projects for me. I'd suggest you start your own by the way, this is always more exciting and can teach you "get the things done" skill.
I prefer contributing to an open-source project already actove. Depending on what you want you will find games, databases..anything you's think about surely needs your contribution.
My really first contribution was to a game that used opengl ...space stariods i think, it was more like an optimization, or bug fix, i dont really remember.
I've done a plugin for GAIM (now known as Pidgin).. but never get to publish it as it changed name and api structure. It should have display the currently played song in the status-bar..with lots of configure options. Never finished it though.
Another thing was a 'echo' plugin for XMMS, but i found some bugs, it crashed easily and random (during development phase) ..and it was no longer maintained in the moment i've started developing, so left it in the dark also:) This one i liked a lot.. lots of cool and weird sound effects.
They were all cool as they all used different structures, and already established rules for coding, and commenting. Lots of thing to learn like this instead of starting my own project which wouldn't change my programming skills in any way:)
jHeidi is a program I like to use, but which is a bit buggy and could do with some development. It's written in Java.
There's a clear roadmap: It's following the more advanced development of its sister project HeidiSQL.
Related
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Besides practice(practice and more practice) reading books and forums, analyzing others people code is a must in order to have a career in this field.
The problem is that I'm a student(feels like always on learning stage) but sometimes i can't solve the problems by my own. I was thinking that on public open source repositories might be the answer I'm looking for.
My question is how can i find the answer to some of my problems in open source projects/community? Do you have any tips to share for me?
ty
A few things for learning problem solving skills related to software developement (once you've found a project that you are interested in that is also written in a language you feel comfortable with) are:
Sign up to the mailing list
Lurk about on the project's IRC
channel (assuming they have one)
Read through bug repots (the open
ones to try solve them, and the
closed ones to see how others solved
them).
and of course discuss discuss discuss, if you think you have a basic grasp of the problem at hand but need clarification on some issues don't be afraid to ask your peers.
Hope this was of at least some help,
Welcome to the open source world and good luck!
Analyzing others people code is a must... I'm a student... public open source repositories might be the answer?
The problem with open source is that the quality varies too much.
(There's lots of my own code sitting in public open-source repositories that I wouldn't want anyone to try to see, let alone learn from.
And yet some of my code, the code I have lavished time and attention on, is very good—or so my peers tell me.)
So you don't want to pick an open-source project and learn from J. Random Hacker. You want to learn from the best hackers.
Here are some strategies:
If you're a student, you have acccess to teachers. One or two of them may have an idea about software. Ask them what is worth reading—what you will learn from.
Look at conferences and journals that publish about software: SIGPLAN, SIGSOFT, USENIX, Software—Practice & Experience, Journal of Functional Programming. Read about systems that look interesting to you. Write to the authors and ask them if they recommend you try to learn from their code. Listen carefully to what they say; most of the best hackers know they can do better. If you extract a grudging admission, with a bunch of caveats, that maybe there is something to learn there, you've found the right person.
If you're learning C, a lot of the old Bell Labs stuff is really worth looking at (and a lot isn't). I admire the work of Jon Bentley, Brian Kernighan, and Rob Pike, among many others. You can download and read the source of the original awk, or Pike's interpreter for Newsqueak.
Popularity does not correlate with suitability for learning. The GNU tools are very popular, but almost anyone who has seen both will tell you that you will learn more from the Bell Labs versions. And Linux is very popular, but people I trust who work in the field tell me that if you want to learn about operating systems, you should study BSD. I myself work in the field of compilers and can tell you that if you want to write a compiler in C, the model to emulate is the little-known lcc, not the wildly popular gcc.
Finally, I highly recommend the work of Richard Bird, Hans Boehm, Ralf Hinze, and Phong Vo (two Haskell programmers and two C/C++ programmers).
What I've found useful over the years, is to validate your code, go through coding conventions and best practices for various languages. Open Standards are the inevitable part of Open Source Software. In order to maintain a successful OSS project, it has to have some common ground in the community, so for instance:
if doing some (X)HTML and CSS, always do it by the W3C standards. Passing validation will in itself improve your skills greatly. Use tableless markup (see Benefits of tableless design);
if doing some PHP, go through PEAR coding standards which is the de facto standard for all OSS PHP projects;
if doing some Flash Platform coding in Flex/ActionScript, see Flex SDK coding conventions and best practices;
if doing some Java, see Code Conventions for the Java™ Programming Language.
Lastly, but not less importantly, research Object oriented programming and various architectures used for software development, e.g. the MVC pattern.
... analyzing others people code is a must in order to have a career in this field.
I wouldn't say that is correct. Certainly it is not a must. Reading other people's code doesn't usually explain why they chose to solve a problem a certain way, and what alternatives they considered and then dismissed. Besides, it is not uncommon to find open source code that is badly designed and/or badly implemented.
The problem is that ... but sometimes i can't solve the problems by my own.
Ah. Well the solution to that is to practice, practice, practice, and not be afraid to make mistakes. Be self-critical, but don't let this stop you from "having a go". The more you do your own problem solving, the easier it will become.
Ask, ask, ask, ask if you come across a particular problem or solution that you don't understand. Make a good-faith effort to solve the problem or to understand a solution, share your thought process, and ask. SO is an excellent place for that, which you undoubtedly have already discovered. Good luck!
As other said, ask to the mailing list of the project, anyway some of open source developers are not willing to help (unfortunately) for this sort of things.
In this situation I search answers by myself: pick up a terminal and use grep.
Guess naming of classes/functions that involves your problem you will find the way toward the module where the interesting bits are written.
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I've been attempting to learn programming (in C#) for a few years now. The problem I've had is that I'd know what I want to do (or what I want the program to do), but no idea on how to actually implement it. So I often wonder what it is I'm lacking. Is the mindset of a programmer somehow different, and I've yet to condition myself to that type of thinking, or do I just need to know more about syntax and what they do?
Of course, it's compounded by the fact that I have no means of taking classes at the moment.
So is trial and error the way to being a better programmer, or are there essential pieces that I presently lack?
Also, my goal is to eventually get into the Gaming Industry, and I don't know if that affects anything at this point.
By far the best way to improve your skills is to practice, practice, practice, and then practice some more. Just like an athlete gets better and hones his skills and natural abilities, the more you code the better you will get. Your best resources are going to be books and the internet--blogs, articles, websites such as SO are incredible sources of information. Google is your friend, learn how to use it effectively.
Find a problem you want to solve, and then find two or three ways to solve it. Being able to approach a problem from different angles can be an invaluable skill.
I would also recommend finding an open source project you can participate in. There are plenty of 'em out there.
Yeah, it's pretty much trial and error.
Or more accurately, research, trial, error, cry, fix, error, research, success!
Anything I want to do (that is new) I typically find by doing various searches, or I accidentally learn by participating in forums like this, and then am lucky enough to remember when it becomes neccessary.
Just dedicate yourself to research and trying "various things", and then you'll become better at it. You just need to accept that it will be difficult at first, and that that is quite acceptable and appropriate.
You'll get the hang of it. As long as you're motivated, you'll achieve what you wish.
I think the most valuable thing at this point is seeing working code in action. Get your hands on lots of working sample apps with full source that interest you. Look at the source, figure out what does what, and start to modify it!
Then try to write your own apps using similar constructs, and you'll find it much easier.
I like silky's second sentence. I agree. Just hang in there.
Find a project (small project) that you want to do, and then learn how to do it. Any project...like build a calculator or something. If you have a goal in mind, it makes it a lot easier...and it will make it easier to people to help you when you post questions so they can have a frame of reference.
Lots of google searches...and stackoverflow searches ;)
One other way that can get you started is to look at standard examples (and I'm sure you can find lots of those for C#) try and run them, understand what they do, and then start modifying them and play around.
Get your questions from such tinkering answered by reseaching the net etc.
Increase complexity and you'd be on your way in a while.
Search around for an C# Open Source project that interests you. Most projects will take any help you can give. This will allow you to practice your skills in a controlled environment.
You do have means to take courses at the moment. There are entire courses, complete with free textbooks, available online. And that's just one quick example.
I recommend you work your way through a couple of coding and design books while learning the syntax of a language or 2. Code Complete is a great place to start. As far as what you should start programming, aim for simple things that will solve a problem you have. While picking up a language I have done things like write a program that will auto-organize my media library, kick off processes based on things I tweet from my cell phone, quickly add shortcuts to my favorite launcher app, or organize and archive all of my saved school work at the end of a semester. Also, look at a LOT of other people's code. It's can be hard to code better until you've looked at better code.
With this approach you'll build your abstract skills like design and upfront preparation, practical skills like file access and network communication, and general programmer toolbox items like regular expressions and reflection.
Another interesting thing to try is Code Kata. How do you become a great musician or learn to ski or speak a foreign language? Practice. Practice. Practice.
Google for Bruce Eckel's "Thinking in ..." books, they're free and very good
Take a look at functional programming languages - This will broaden your mind and therefore change (and probably enhance) the way you look at code and problems.
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I have recently started working on some open source project which I found relevant to my interests.
During this initiation period I came across some terminologies/stuff that I am not acquainted with, like configure, tool chain, binutils, etc. which I agree depends upon the type of project you are working on.
Now my question is, are there some bare requirements a developer should know before starting to work on the project?
Any help/reference will be greatly appreciated.
EDIT:
I have seen the GNU configure and build system in most of the projects I have seen.
If someone bothers about it "The GNU configure and build system" is a good place to start.
If it's a pre-existing one, you'll need to read their development docs (if any), learn how to use their version control system, and have the requisite tools for building the code and running it.
If you have all that, and the knowledge of the code/language, then you just need enthusiasm and some spare time :)
I wouldn't define them as bare requirements in the sense that it appears you are looking for. If you're a programmer you already have (hopefully!) the self-learning and problem solving characteristics that probably led you to be a programmer at first.
You'll never really know 'everything', and will likely learn something new everywhere you go. Heck, I got my current job never even hearing the words "Model-View-Controller", but picked up the concept in no time.
Your examples, toolchain and binutils, are not complex concepts and a simple wiki article should suffice.
I'd suggest downloading all the source code and making sure you can build it yourself as a first step.
Try and make sure you are familiar with the overall design and documentation before attempting to make any changes to ensure you don't inadvertently break anything on your first change!
The terminologies being used will probably depend on the technologies being used, for example an open source project written in C++ and running on Linux, will likely be very different to a C#/.NET application build to run on Windows.
It depends on how much involvement you will get into. If you just want to contribute with a feature, just get the tools to build the project, an editor to change the file and enough doc reading to find injection point for your feature. If you can find someone to help you getting started it will be fairly easy.
If you are to be committed to the project I recommend learning build tools, project history and aims. Also how the current authors try to solve the problems, their perspective on the project will help.
I would say being able to understand all of the architecture, tools and technology for whatever project you're working on is a must.
However, you then tried to make this a generic question that applied to any open source project. You kind of answered that for yourself didn't you?
which I agree depends upon the type of
project you are working on
I would think that depends entirely upon the project. Most well set up software projects will specify:
What language(s) they're written in
What developer environments (if any) they're set up for
What tools you need to build/compile/run the project
Test data with which to test the software
What are you working on? Are you sure they don't provide any of this information?
It depends on what you qualify as "work" on the project.
Most of the answers here suggest that you're coding (and your question hinted in that direction), but there are things that you can do to contribute to projects -- like testing and documentation -- that can be done without knowledge of how the program's written.
Now, for the coding aspect of it -- if it's a smaller project, I'd try to figure out what the other contributor's motivation and grand plans/goals for the project are. As with any team, coming in and trying to take things in a completely different direction than the others are planning, even if you have good intentions, can cause all sorts of problems.
(and then there's the technical advice that everyone else said ... source control, build system, project architecture, toolkits used, etc.)
It depends, as you say, on the project.
You'll have to know how to work in the language, you'll have to be familiar with the source code control system they use (usually subversion). You'll have to be able to build (usually Ant, often Maven).
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I've always worked in small companies, mostly doing small websites, and they all sucked in project management.
That means I have no experience whatsoever (even though I learned a little bit studying on my own) about the best practices and tools when developing a project.
Currently I'm unemployed to finish college and I decided to take a small PHP project mostly to learn both the language and project management.
It's just an idea I had for a website, I don't need to get money from it and it is not big, so I'm not concerned with deadlines or business plan, or a main goal. The main goal is to learn the technical stuff.
The only thing I'm caring about is doing it right, you know, the best practices in PHP, server setup, security, the tools for the job.
I'm not asking for a complete rundown on any points, just things like
Remember to always sanitize user input
Use this tool to manage version
Remember to set this apache option
Here's a good link on how to organize your files
Things like these will be already of great help!
Thanks
Non language specific:
Devise an error handling strategy early. What will you do when error conditions occur, will you log errors, how? where? What information will you log? Will you throw exceptions, return error codes?
Assume that your website is succesful, people start using it, then it breaks how quickly can you figure out what went wrong? Consider your whole error strategy from that perspective, not just from what happens while you developing and you're in control.
Some things that helped me a lot (in no particular order)
Version control (SVN in my case)
issue-tracker/wiki (e.g. Trac)
if you are writing markup: some kind of tidy
... and a validator
if you are writing code: a lint tool for your specific language
TODO-list app (for small TODOs)
a cheap VPS host to test things (I also use mine to host SVN and Trac)
There's a good question already answered about bug tracking and version control for single developers.
As for PHP style, I usually like to follow the Zend Framework guidelines. For deployment advice, you might want to head over to ServerFault.
Here's some answers to the project management / best practices side of your question:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/601759/what-professional-standards-do-you-maintain-in-a-side-pet-project
Start off by choosing a framework you're comfortable with. I would recommend Code Igniter, CakePHP or Zend Framework. It will help(force) you with a basic organization of your code and files. All these frameworks has dedicated forums with passionate developers.
From the project management angle I would recommend you to set goals and milestones. It will help you get things done even though you're learning. Set target of that you should accomplish for this month, this week and today. Small and easy targets like "create signup form" or "set homepage set". It feel so good checking those off. There is a lot of tools to use for this, like Backpack or Basecamp (free versions) or Things (mac application).
Be sure to use PHP5 and not copy ugly PHP4 code.
For project management software, check out DotProject (http://www.dotproject.net/).
About PMS (Project Management Software), you can take a look at
[http://www.axosoft.com][1].
This compagny edits OnTime, a very nice PMS.
Moreover, this software is TOTALLY free for a single user !
This software provides full support of SCRUM development method, for me one of the best !
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I know how to find open source projects. I know how to find them. What I don't know how to do is ask for a list of things to do. Every dev mailing list I have been on has been full of actual developers. I never see any newer programmers present. Most open source projects do not seem new programmer friendly at all.
How would someone who isn't a very experienced programmer ask for things to do, while not seeming annoying or troublesome.
What are your opinions on newer programmers helping out?
**
Does anyone who has a project going have room for a beginner-ish.
I know intermediate C/C++/
The short answer - Start by becoming an active user of the project. It will make it easier.
The long answer -
The problem isn't that open source projects don't want help - most would be happy to have all of the help they can get. The problem is that most people who decide to help stick around just long enough to take some time away from the development team, then "flake out" and never show up again.
I have been very active in a couple of open source projects in the past, and we ran into this all of the time. It was very easy to get people to want to help, but very hard to get them to actually put the effort required into the project in order to be useful. I personally spent many, many hours trying to help out new prospective developers, and nearly always ended up just watching them disappear.
The team will be much more responsive if you can prove that you're serious - and it usually takes more than just showing up in a chat room, forum, or on a mailing list.
First off, I'd start by finding the right project. It's easy to find open source projects, but more difficult to find the one that's the right fit for you.
This is the difficult, or the easy part, depending on your point of view. I'd recommend starting with a project that you are familiar with - and hopefully one you've used. If you find one you're interested in, try using the software in its current state before you even think about trying to join the development team. If you are a user of the software, it's more likely that you'll be interested in contributing over time.
Using the project will do two things -
One, it will familiarize you with how they are thinking about the project. This will often make it easier to understand the design of the code, but most importantly, help you understand the goals of the current team.
Second, it's also often easier to get the ear of a dev. if you have specific questions to ask. I personally am always very responsive to a specific, directed, intelligent question. This helps build a relationship with the current development team.
Once you've become familiar with the team and the project itself, and have some idea of what's there, try to fix one or two of the bugs. This is an easy way to show that you can be productive and useful, and will be received fairly well.
At that point, the team will probably be much more receptive to helping you find good, longer term goals and tasks on which to focus. I've had a couple of people who approached our projects more along these lines, and we've all been very happy to help them try to figure out how to fit in and mesh with the team as whole.
That's the goal - you don't want to just be a contributor in the long run, you'll want to be part of the team. That's when you start feeling ownership over the project, and when it really gets fun.
It depends on what projects you're getting into, but often a look at bug trackers will help (few devs will turn down a patch to a reported bug). If you run Linux, Gnome Love is a collection of "easy to fix" bugs that should be perfect for a beginner getting his/her feet wet. My advice would be to pick a smaller / simpler project, as the codebase is easier to get oriented to.
I haven't rode the train of a particular project, but I'd imagine you have to prove yourself to the dev team.
For instance, take a while to familiarize yourself with the code base. Look at bug reports and see if you can track down some bugs.
Once you wrap your head around things, you can submit bug fixes, or implementation of some features. Maybe write some documents to help new comers wrap their head around the code base. Basically, do anything that demonstrates that you know what you're doing.