Getting Started in Open Source
How to make your first open source contribution
Created by Joshua Nelson with reveal.js
What is open source?
- Projects that are free to use?
What is open source?
- Projects that are free to use?
- Projects where anyone can read the source code
What is open source?
- Projects that are free to use?
- Projects where anyone can read the source code
- Projects that invite people to contribute
Why contribute to open source?
Why contribute to open source?
Cons
- Life is busy
- You have to talk to other people
- Reading
other people's code is hard
Why contribute to open source?
Pros
- Fix your own real-world problems
- Get better at working with others
- Learn to read and write code in a big project
Where do open source projects live?
Getting Started
- Find a project
- Pick an issue
- Get in contact
- Start working - and ask for help!
- Make a pull request (PR)
Finding a project
- Ideally, something you use every day
- Written in a language you're familiar with
- Maintainers that make it easy to contribute
Pick an issue
What to look for
- 'Good first issue' tag (or similar)
- Something that impacts you
- Good reproduction steps (or trivial to reproduce)
- Not already claimed
- Documentation counts too!
Get in contact
- GitHub issues isn't great for questions
- Look at the README for details
- Don't be afraid to reach out!
Start working
git clone https://github.com/user/project
- Build the project before making changes
- Look for the code to change
- Ask for help!
Make a PR
- Fork the project
- Push your changes
- Make a Pull Request
More resources
- https://yourfirstpr.github.io/