Mozilla Internship Reflections | Hacker News Reader

Mozilla Internship Reflections

coreyford.name

28 pointsvodkq11 comments

What's the best way to approach Mozilla about getting involved in a project? I'm an undergrad that's interested in getting some more experience contributing to projects, but not necessarily looking for a full-time internship. I spend time on their IRC, but only #rust.

The Mozilla community is very accepting of new volunteer contributors. Ask how you can help!

For Rust specifically, I found this: https://github.com/mozilla/rust/wiki/Note-guide-for-new-cont...

You don't need to ask permission to get involved. _Everything_ is open source, just write a patch. [0] There's also more ways to contribute than just writing code. [1] Check out some more of our IRC channels. [2] Just don't be afraid to get started, everyone was a noob at some point. The rust team does a great job as marking bugs beginner or easy in their issue tracker.

Also, you're handle made me do a double take! [3]

[0] http://www.whatcanidoformozilla.org/

[1] http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/contribute/

[2] https://wiki.mozilla.org/IRC

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jwz

I thought about working for Mozilla, too.

Is this the normal process? First doing some OSS stuff for them and then applying for a job?

They sound like a good company, but they probably only employ the best...

I work at Mozilla. Having contributed to a FOSS project is not a requirement, although it's a big bonus – note that any FOSS project is taken into consideration, not just Mozilla stuff.

Now, if you want to come and do some FOSS with us, you're welcome :) http://client00.chat.mibbit.com/?server=irc.mozilla.org&chan...)

Ah, I read some of your stuff in the bugtracker/project directory(?)

I found the whole thing interesting, but a bit intimidating, because I never did FOSS stuff, code reviews etc. are all new to me.

But it's probably a good thing for improving skills.

Thank you for the link. :)

If you're looking to do something rusty, feel free to ask in #rust, someone will (hopefully) be able to point you at a bug or two.

I like MV more than SF office. I did the same thing: there is a constant pressure that I can't always bother people because people might say "it's on the wiki". It's still a hard decision to make.

More Mozilla intern blog posts should come... let's bomb HN.

> Documentation is often not the best way to understand code.

I hope they teach that in college now. As much code as possible should be self-documenting. It can be short and/or efficient (one-liners ok), but it should be clear to someone with experience, so have good method names, variable names, decent formatting, organization, etc.

It took me about 8 years of professional coding experience before I truly appreciated this, so hammering it in in college is key.

I guess the point that I was really trying to make was that reading the code and documentation can only get you so far, and doesn't help nearly as much with the bigger-picture "why" questions. (The code I worked on, in addition to being well documented, was also IMO pretty well organized and clear.)

The line that has always stuck with me is that code should aptly explain how and comments should aptly explain why.

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