Becoming a developer

dumas · 2007-11-03 01:27:55

Hi, as the topic suggest, I am interested in contributing back to this terrific community. I found http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/How … _developer and http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?t=24503 in the resources, but although I found them indicative, I'm not sure if that gives me a direction in my turn to contribute. So what I thought is I'll post my situation here, and you guys can answer particularly to my situation or to the general audience, so others who wish to help can be have some more pointers.

I scrapped Windows to Ubuntu around a year ago, then changed to Arch for nearly 3 months. Needless to say it worked wonders and now I want to contribute. I programmed since year 8 in Visual Basic and C++ on and off, and I also wrote some very simple bash scripts. I plan to learn perl/python/ruby soon (any suggestions which one to learn?). A constraint I have is I'm doing physics in uni, so I would say I would spend 2-3 hr max a day in linux work. However, I will have 3 months of holiday in a few weeks, and I can at least spend more time then. Below is a list of my attributes:

Linux knowledge: past beginner, likes command line, knows very roughly Arch's architecture.
Programming: used to program in VB and C++; haven't program for some time, so a bit rusty but can pick back up after some practice.
Need for stability: reluctant to have be a tester, try out different stuff, etc. that might hang my laptop.
Language translation: I can write/read traditional Chinese perfectly, but don't really don't want to do translation. I don't even bother having chinese input installed.

So going job specific:

# Answer questions on the forum, IRC, and mailing lists.
# Fix the wiki, add new pages, clean up existing pages, and make sure the procedures are up-to-date.
Due to limited linux knowledge, can't contribute too much in forums and wikis.

# Join the Trusted Users to gain packaging experience to show your skills.
# Submit packages to AUR.
# Join one of the offshoot projects that may be incorporated into Arch mainstream someday, or start your own.
# Work on pacman, makepkg, initscripts, or other source code and submit patches to the bug tracker.
# Traverse the bug tracker and fix existing bugs.
These are the areas I am inclined to work in, but my skills are rusty at the moment. Can anyone give me some place to start or resources to learn from?

# Find and submit new bugs.
Gladly done.

# Submit translations.
Reluctant, but can help in Chinese translation

So this is basically my situation. Please feel free to put in any comment and suggestions. Thanks in advance.

Dusty · 2007-11-03 02:48:35

First point: This is an exceptionally well-written post. Your English skills would be invaluable in the wiki -- while you may not have much Linux knowledge, you can improve the readability of any existing English articles. The same applies to Chinese. The benefit to the community is obvious, but you also benefit because each wiki article you read and improve will allow you to gain a little more knowledge that you may find useful in the future (ie: helping with forum posts. :-))

Of the things you mentioned as being "interested in", I think the easiest is "Submit packages to AUR". You can read packaging requests on the AUR Requests forum and do packages for them. You'll learn by trying. If you do enough of that, its a pretty easy step up to being a TU.

If you want to improve pacman et al, your best bet is to start looking at the code. Anything you can't understand, look up a tutorial on google until you get there.

Make sure you're attempting to do something you want. Don't do things just for the sake of "returning something to the community" or "being recognized".

So basically, my opinion is figure out what you want to do and do it. If you "can't" do it because you don't have the skills, figure out what skills you need and how to obtain them. That's part of the process and its very rewarding. and satisfying. :-)

Dusty

iphitus · 2007-11-03 06:51:43

Anything that nags you with Arch/Linux? Bothers you, or you don't like how it works? Or you just want to know how it works? I always find that a good spot to start when you need something to do.

Along with the things Dusty suggested, I'm sure you can find something you'll enjoy doing -- just make sure you'll enjoy it.... like Dusty said!

James

tlaloc · 2007-11-03 10:33:19

Even if you don't like translations, you could try to teach Chinese to pacman. This is certainly not an easy task, but a good starter. You don't have to be a super-cool C-programmer for translations, and yet, it would require some brain-power on your own. Would bring you into contact with others, who work on similar problems. Have a look at the [pacman-dev] Mailing-List, check out the git-repo - and have fun!

dumas · 2007-11-04 07:06:19

Thanks for the reply, and especially Dusty, your reply is very encouraging.

I guess I'll subscribe to the mailing lists and check out the wikis, I'll probably start in a few weeks, after my exams.

Meanwhile, perhaps you guys can expand on how/where to help Arch for other people? Since Arch has a small and competent community, a comprehensive guideline would be helpful, especially when learning Linux is part of Arch's goals. Updating this article in the wiki might be helpful.

Apologies if these are already answered somewhere else, but if there were I can't find them except for the two links I gave.

AndyRTR · 2007-11-04 08:31:34

dumas wrote:

Language translation: I can write/read traditional Chinese perfectly, but don't really don't want to do translation. I don't even bother having chinese input installed...
# Find and submit new bugs.
Gladly done.
# Submit translations.
Reluctant, but can help in Chinese translation
So this is basically my situation. Please feel free to put in any comment and suggestions. Thanks in advance.

You are looking for tasks? Please have a look at http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/7225 - I cannot reproduce it due to lack of language knowlegde. Maybe you can help out here. I hope you have 64bit capable hardware.

-Andy

dumas · 2007-11-04 09:06:44

You are looking for tasks? Please have a look at http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/7225 - I cannot reproduce it due to lack of language knowlegde. Maybe you can help out here. I hope you have 64bit capable hardware.

Thanks for the reference, I don't have 64bit hardware at all. It looks more like a platform dependent problem than language problem though. I don't think I can help.

Has he tried scim? I used it before in Ubuntu and worked. Never tried gcin before.

Dusty · 2007-11-04 13:45:27

dumas wrote:

Meanwhile, perhaps you guys can expand on how/where to help Arch for other people?

The Newbie Corner forum is a good place to find "easy to answer" questions even if your own knowledge isn't that high. Personally from what I've read, I think you know more about Linux and Arch than you think. ;-)

Since Arch has a small and competent community, a comprehensive guideline would be helpful, especially when learning Linux is part of Arch's goals. Updating this article in the wiki might be helpful.

I'm not sure what you're asking, but do you mean something like the beginner's guide?

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginner%27s_Guide

There has been quite a bit of discussion of it and its always looking for improvement. :-)

Dusty

dumas · 2007-11-04 14:30:22

I actually mean some thing more like http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Mutualism_Arch. Due to the unexpected name it's not too easy to search. Perhaps merge or link it to http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/How … _developer?

I mean Arch is community based, with the community relatively non newbish and not afraid of learning/contributing, according to the Arch way. So I think it would make sense to at least polish up the wikis a bit so people who want to contribute can look it up and decide rather than spending half a day exploring places?

Arch Linux

#1 2007-11-03 01:27:55

Becoming a developer

#2 2007-11-03 02:48:35

Re: Becoming a developer

#3 2007-11-03 06:51:43

Re: Becoming a developer

#4 2007-11-03 10:33:19

Re: Becoming a developer

#5 2007-11-04 07:06:19

Re: Becoming a developer

#6 2007-11-04 08:31:34

Re: Becoming a developer

#7 2007-11-04 09:06:44

Re: Becoming a developer

#8 2007-11-04 13:45:27

Re: Becoming a developer

#9 2007-11-04 14:30:22

Re: Becoming a developer

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