Ask HN: How do people get started in open source? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How do people get started in open source?

4 pointsMz7 comments

A recent comment to me suggested women should get more into opensource: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9086552

I actually don't know much code. It's been a long standing goal of mine to learn to code. I know a little HTML and a little CSS and I have been gathering together a list of resources to learn Python, but I have been getting nowhere.

I will suggest two possible framings for this question:

1) You can answer it as a generic request for tips for anyone.

2) You can answer it as a specific request for little ol' me and my rather pathetic level of coding skill.

Thanks.

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Many people will note that you don't need to be able to code to get involved with open source, but contributing code is obviously also a good thing. Helping with documentation, bug reports (submitting, helping track down, solving), or ancillary work are good ways to get involved beyond coding.

Opensource.com has some suggestions: http://opensource.com/life/14/1/get-involved-open-source-201...

GNU also has a page with ways people can help: https://gnu.org/help/help.html

if you're a student, consider GSoC: https://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/homepage/google/gsoc2015 there you can find existing OSS projects with specific needs outlined, although folks are always in the mood for new ideas, too, if you articulate them well.

if you're not a student, simply look at existing OSS projects that you like and know and look at their outstanding features or needs, or even better identify something like documentation that needs help. documentation requires that you understand the code and the system, and how to present that to the user, but is a bit lower barrier than producing that code. it's a great entry into OSS as you learn to code. submit some changes to the documentation - e.g. a github pull request - and that's a great thing to see. always better than "hey your docs are weak" or "may i work on the docs?" just do it, make some proposals, and begin working with people.

website changes are also nice - e.g. HTML cleanups, CSS cleanups, or even site features. same model, submit changes to the code repository.

hope this helps.

Hi,

When I started I followed this:

- Find something that you want to build, something real with a purpose

This is important because having a goal: a real one, will make you more enthusiast and less likely to give up.

My first real projects were two: a rapidshare and a web radio. Consider that it was around 90's and I'm 31yo. I succeeded in both but the most important thing was that in order to build these "products" I had to learn a lot: html, css, js, flash (yep at the time was a thing), php and c.

- Find someone or resources that will help you to go through your learning process.

Having a mentor or more than one is important. Is not easy to find one, I know, but probably when you start over the time you'll find someone that you admire and want to be as good as him/her. A mentor will save you a lot of time because can point you in the right learning resources. I wasted ton of my time simply because I wasn't good at picking the right resource/tutorial/guide/book.

Now there are plenty of resources i.e. Github. You can find a project that you might like and try to "reproduce" it yourself. If you have questions you can ask the author or post on http://stackoverflow.com or IRC channels.

Then there are online course (never took one) or good books i.e.: https://pragprog.com or http://www.oreilly.com

- Be updated and engaged

This helps to keep your enthusiasm up, following someone on twitter, github or whatever can keep you updated on "cool things" but you have to be smart enough (here a mentor can help) to filter what is going to disappear and what's not.

- Ask, ask, ask.

Never be afraid to ask even the things that you might think are dumb or stupid. You'll be surprised in how many people will try to help you or how many are have the same question.

I can't speak for you, but one cool thing about internet and opensource is that you might choose to be "mz" and not have a "face" and so a gender. I can't speak for others but me and all people I know (male) are not sexist and I guess there are many more around, I'm pretty sure that you might be surprised about that.

I actually have a Github account. I have just not been active on it. I don't understand Github.

I know a programmer who is willing to take me seriously. He is writing a project in Python and he would like me to be a developer on it. I have begun putting together a list of resources to learn Python. But I haven't gotten anywhere yet, in part because life has gotten in the way, in part because I don't really know where to begin.

I do have a personal project I want to work on and I have started a paper to outline it. (There is a term for that, but it escapes me currently.) The project that my programmer friend is writing is potentially useful for my eventual goals (re my own project). I have developed a short list of people who might be willing to beta test my thing, if I can ever get it written. I'm just having a really hard time with figuring out where to start in a way that gets me meaningful traction on writing it.

For me, hiding my gender seems to be a non-starter. In spite of my lack of success, people sometimes recognize me from elsewhere. Further, I was a full-time mom for a lot of years. It's hard to open my mouth and not inadvertently identify my gender. Plus, I don't think that serves me well in the long run. I don't care to try to invest a lot of time in building connections only to find those connections fail me should they finally learn who I "really" am. Further, I don't think it helps women in general for me to try to hide my gender. Comments on HN in the past have indicated that some women here actively hide or downplay their gender. I think that makes the appearance that it is almost entirely men worse than the actual reality. I don't think that helps the situation.

Thank you for replying.

>I'm just having a really hard time with figuring out where to start in a way that gets me meaningful traction on writing it.

You just need to start. You need to plow through and make something. You will make mistakes and your code will suck, you will throw that thing away. But the next thing you make will be better. Repeat.

You sound like me when I started. I would get paralyzed from choices on how to architect or implement something. It wasn't until I just finally picked one did I learn what the tradeoffs were, what was just plain a bad idea, etc. I absorbed the experience and the next thing was easier.

Another thing. I can tell you like to talk. You can talk about a project, think about the project, muse about what it would feel like to be done with the project, as a substitute for doing work on the project. Don't let yourself fall into that trap.

Thanks.

> I actually have a Github account. I have just not been active on it. I don't understand Github.

If you truly want to dive into the open source you have to master the tools. Start from here: https://guides.github.com

> I know a programmer who is willing to take me seriously. He is writing a project in Python and he would like me to be a developer on it. I have begun putting together a list of resources to learn Python. But I haven't gotten anywhere yet, in part because life has gotten in the way, in part because I don't really know where to begin.

That's must be a suggestion of the mentor. I would say that if you're aiming to the web before the language you have to master the basics: html, css, js.

> I do have a personal project I want to work on and I have started a paper to outline it. (There is a term for that, but it escapes me currently.) The project that my programmer friend is writing is potentially useful for my eventual goals (re my own project). I have developed a short list of people who might be willing to beta test my thing, if I can ever get it written. I'm just having a really hard time with figuring out where to start in a way that gets me meaningful traction on writing it.

Don't think too much, just do it. Lot of my friends spend months if not an entire year to write, brainstorm etc... you have to learn how to do things first. Probably 80% of what you're thinking now will be totally different once you'll be a programmer. You'll see solutions, problems and better ways to do things.

> For me, hiding my gender seems to be a non-starter. In spite of my lack of success, people sometimes recognize me from elsewhere. Further, I was a full-time mom for a lot of years. It's hard to open my mouth and not inadvertently identify my gender. Plus, I don't think that serves me well in the long run. I don't care to try to invest a lot of time in building connections only to find those connections fail me should they finally learn who I "really" am. Further, I don't think it helps women in general for me to try to hide my gender. Comments on HN in the past have indicated that some women here actively hide or downplay their gender. I think that makes the appearance that it is almost entirely men worse than the actual reality. I don't think that helps the situation.

That's your choice and I admire it. Just be aware of one thing. In the opensource or generally in coding is like "art" so you might be face things like:

http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/57643...

Don't take it personal, we are humans and so imperfect.

Anyway, if you need more advices/help google my nickname and drop me an email. Glad to help where I can.

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