Hi,
On 10/17/2010 12:43 PM, maverick gugu wrote:
Hi,
I've been always wanting to do this. Though my coding skills are not very
up to the mark, I wish to contribute to some open source project by coding
for it. Can you please guide me into which project can i start with. In the
process I hope i do understand the source control management systems which
are there for each n every project.
Besides the other suggestions you have received, I personally feel a more
practical and easier path to contribution is to become a bug-zapper ! ie: Pick
any random application you use everyday (or you can just aim high and pick the
linux kernel itself) and then visit the project's bug tracker. Almost all open
source software has bugs or feature requests that are being ignored only because
the developers either do not have enough tuits [1] or the bugs aren't critical
enough. Pick one or more of those and fix them.
Note that this approach is most useful if you do /not/ already have a project
idea of your own that you would like to work on or are not already motivated
enough to contribute to one specific application that you use and care about. If
you do, just go ahead and do that (ie: scratch your own itch).
The reason I recommend the bug fixing approach is because:
a. You can make a very practical and useful contribution to a meaningful
project. (as opposed to a random small project off sourceforge.net that you
choose to contribute as a developer; where although you might learn and improve
your coding skills at a faster rate (/if/ you are committed enough), you might
not get the satisfaction of contributing to a 'real' project).
b. The time and effort involved between wanting to start contributing and
actually contributing is much smaller.
c. You get to work with a much larger and more active set of people than when
for instance working on yet another mp3 player/text
editor/game/calander/terminal ...etc. This means that you are more likely to
receive better help, suggestions and feedback.
d. The project developers would appreciate your help immensely.
hth,
cheers,
- steve
[1] Tuit: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/round_tuit
--
random spiel: http://lonetwin.net/
what i'm stumbling into: http://lonetwin.stumbleupon.com/
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