[OH-Dev] Fwd: question in regard to working on open hatch projects

Fri Jan 4 00:04:43 UTC 2013

Hi Karen,

It's probably best to keep all email on list, as others could answer your
questions as well.  I've been getting my feet wet in open source for almost
a year now (on and off). There are tons of ways to get started. I will just
tell you my experience. First off, OpenHatch is only one project. The
OpenHatch.org website is a portal to other open source projects that
OpenHatch has no affiliation with. OpenHatch is here to introduce you to
other open source projects, which OpenHatch is also an open source project.
So if you find something through the OH website, you will have to go their
specific project website to find out about (developer) mail list(s),
getting started docs, IRC channel, etc.

I actually just read an, what I thought was a decent, article that might
help as well:
http://blog.smartbear.com/software-quality/bid/167051/14-Ways-to-Contribute-to-Open-Source-without-Being-a-Programming-Genius-or-a-Rock-Star

*What helped me the most* was joining a meetup group for the language I was
interested in. Boston has a very active python group
http://meetup.bostonpython.com/. I went to a meeting and was able to ask
questions face to face which helped me a lot and also just hear what others
are doing or working on. Once you are on an IRC or mail list you can then
ask for newbie bugs. OpenHatch lets you search by language. Also I know
that Google's Chromium and Chrome are open source C++ projects (I have not
contributed). I did download Chrome, built it, and ran it locally following
their docs out of curiosity. Once you do that you can try to replicate a
bug from their issue tracker, then try to fix it. (You can do this before
contacting anyone.)

You should find a project you want to contribute to based on your own
criteria: language(s) you know or want to learn, is their IRC active, do
they respond to email (subscribe to any of them and see what's going on).
And I found another 2012 article (but there are many more searching the
web) with more ideas
http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/03/ask-stack-how-can-i-find-a-good-open-source-project-to-join/.

There are no commitments, but as a courtesy you should let someone know you
are no longer working on something if you have been assigned something to
work on. They'll get the hint after awhile, but if you decide to go back at
least they'll know you are courteous/professional.

I will stop now, I hope this helps.
- jacquie

On Thu, Jan 3, 2013 at 5:13 PM, Karen West <karenwest15 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Since I have not yet heard a reply from Satya, I thought I would forward
> to the mailing
> list, to see if that helps.
>
> Thanks,
> Karen West
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Karen West <karenwest15 at gmail.com>
> Date: Thu, Jan 3, 2013 at 2:22 PM
> Subject: Re: [OH-Dev] question in regard to working on open hatch projects
> To: satyaakam goswami <satyaakam at gmail.com>
> Cc: Karen West <KarenWest15 at gmail.com>
>
>
> Thank you for the information on how the open hatch projects work Satya.
> I am job searching as I mentioned, so this is not a project on which I
> would be working outside my current job, but rather to keep old skills
> fresh and perhaps learn some new ones while job searching.
>
> I was wondering if you recommended that I inquire on the mailing list to
> whom would recommend a specific open hatch project based on your current
> skill set, or if you might know the answer.  Currently, I know C and Python
> best, and my C++ is a bit rusty.  Also, much of my experience was in
> embedded systems, but I'm not exclusive to that market, and have done some
> projects in other areas in high tech as well, but never for pay!
>
> Also, if a job ever came along, what are the commitments to these open
> hatch projects?  I've met people who work on them outside their main job,
> but I've never done that.  I also am currently signed up for some of those
> online courses while job searching, but someone mentioned that I should
> check out the open hatch projects to see what those are like.
>
> Thank you for your help.
> Karen West
>
>
> On Thu, Jan 3, 2013 at 6:50 AM, satyaakam goswami <satyaakam at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> So my question is as follows: In my role where I took bugs from a
>>> database and tried to fix one of them, we had access
>>> to all the firmware, and if it was associated with a specific
>>> application, the app code as well, along with documentation.
>>> We built the entire piece of code and tried to reproduce the problem
>>> (also on a specific embedded device), suggest a solution, and even
>>> test our recommendation, before putting that in the bug database.  It
>>> was unclear to me how this would work on open hatch, since it seemed
>>> to just list problems within a bug database, without any further
>>> information.
>>>
>>
>> All the bugs you see listed are coming from projects , so if you click on
>> bug link then you would find a link more about this project , click on that
>> link to know
>> from where the bug is coming , now this is the source of the buglist, you
>> can either subscribe to the developer list of that particular project and
>> start with setting up development environment
>> then start replicating the bug and then try fixing it by submitting a
>> patch . Almost all projects on there development project page/wiki  will
>> also have a link to the IRC channel where developers of
>> that project hang out , you can start communicating with the developers
>> when you get stuck .
>>
>> these are the pretty much starting  steps in trying to contributing for
>> any project in Open  source world . you can also try interacting with folks
>> on #openhatch on IRC too get guidance when in doubt .
>>
>> welcome to the wonderful world where there are no bosses and people to
>> tell you what needs to be done , yes its is a bit strange for people who
>> are used to corporate hierarchy but soon they realize the power of the
>> system.
>>
>> may the source be with you .
>>
>>
>> -Satya
>> fossevents.in
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Devel mailing list
> Devel at lists.openhatch.org
> http://lists.openhatch.org/mailman/listinfo/devel
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openhatch.org/pipermail/devel/attachments/20130103/d84b8eea/attachment.html>