

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

A recent comment to me suggested women should get more into opensource: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=9086552<p>I actually don&#x27;t know much code. It&#x27;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.<p>I will suggest two possible framings for this question:<p>1) You can answer it as a generic request for tips for anyone.<p>2) You can answer it as a specific request for little ol&#x27; me and my rather pathetic level of coding skill.<p>Thanks.
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privong
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...](http://opensource.com/life/14/1/get-involved-
open-source-2014)

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

------
jnazario
if you're a student, consider GSoC: [https://www.google-
melange.com/gsoc/homepage/google/gsoc2015](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.

------
DAddYE
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](http://stackoverflow.com)
or IRC channels.

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

~~~
Mz
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.

~~~
A_COMPUTER
>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.

~~~
Mz
Thanks.

