6 suggestions for participating in open-source projects

 

Open-source projects are a good way to improve your abilities and do what you like. The practical experience of other projects can make you better meet your job requirements and provide you with more opportunities. The problem is that everyone does not know where to start. The following six simple tips show you how to start F/OSS (free and open source software ).

1. participate in projects behind open-source software you have used

Obviously, do not look for software projects that you have never used or understood. Based on the open-source software you have used, list an open-source project that you may participate in. Do not omit the possibility of participating in library files or module development-there are many benefits for participating in projects that specifically serve developers. Do you use an open-source framework and an open-source file conversion tool? Is it an open-source graphics library or an open-source building tool? If they need to eliminate bugs, optimize or add new features, you can first consider these f/OSS projects.

2. Do what you like

Find the project you are actually interested in and start to do something. If you pay special attention to the parser and so on, you do not have to start from the compiler, you can consider starting from parsing the configuration file code of the Web server or build tool.

3. Learning related tools

Almost every project uses different version control tools, bug tracking tools, and patching tools. There are also different encoding specifications, functional request methods, user troubleshooting issues, construction methods, and discussion methods during development.

Take some time to learn how to use these tools and how to use them. It is best not to ask how SVN works in the developer's email list, nor to submit error reports in user forums. Reading development documents and learning related development tools can save a lot of trouble and make your contribution more easily accepted.

4. Observe the community dynamics of the project

In addition to technical factors, it is also necessary to understand the community dynamics of the project. Who are the core maintainers of the project, how do they communicate with others? Who can speak on behalf of this project community? What do they say about the project? Some projects are famous for their openness and benefits to new members, while others are relatively authoritarian.

Spend some time "Lurking" in the developer's email list, IRC, and other places that developers often visit to feel the atmosphere of the project community. Community dynamics seem to be trivial, but they mean two opposite situations: making you a productive contributor or frustrated to leave the project.

One of the contributions I made to f/OSS for the first time is that the playlist of a player does not support all its functions on the command line, so I want to improve its format. I sent an e-mail to the developer's email list to ask those developers about the supported formats of the new playlist. Then, due to different opinions, it attracted a battle. When I checked the email list the next day, there were several hundred pieces of information in it-some people agreed with my proposal, and many people said that the current file format is good enough, let me be a "minor.

Here, I made a mistake not enough to understand community dynamics. If you have browsed the contribution record, you will know that the project, except for a few core contributors, generally does not adopt the ideas and opinions of others, especially those that have never done anything like I do with bugfix.

This leads to the most important suggestion I want to talk about-starting from an early age.

5. Start from an early age

Starting from scratch is to start from "small contribution" and "small project. After fixing some bugs and implementing some small functions, you can be very famous. You can also take a look at the basic code of the project. All of these can make it easier to approve your submitted patches. Participating in a small project can make you stay productive, because you will spend less time learning the existing basic code tool chain, closer to the core developers. In a small project maintained by only one person, submitting a bug fix is as simple as sending an e-mail to the maintainer that contains the bug to be fixed by diff.

6. Create your own project

There is also the easiest way to participate in open-source projects: build your own open-source projects. For example, a Firefox extension, WordPress plug-in, or an Emacs mode is a good idea to quickly start a project. You only need to make some improvements to obtain a large number of users.

Before you start your project, check out a number of existing projects to make sure you are not prepared to start a repetitive Project (re-invent the wheel ). You may be surprised by the fact that a large number of projects can become more practical with just a little attention.

That's all. Six simple suggestions for participating in open-source projects.

Address: http://grokcode.com/108/6-easy-ways-to-get-started-programming-open-source/

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Author: Gary Gao focuses on the internet, distributed, high concurrency, automation, and software teams