mark: A photo of Mark kneeling on top of the Taal Volcano in the Philippines. It was a long hike. (Default)
Mark Smith ([staff profile] mark) wrote in [site community profile] dw_dev2013-03-04 01:08 pm
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A little organization and updates!

Hi all!

I've been doing some poking around and realized that I don't have a good overall state-of-the-DW-development. I have some vague ideas about what some people are working on and interested in, but I wanted to make those vague ideas become a bit less vague. :)

If you have a few minutes, I'd appreciate you taking the time to answer a couple of quick questions here!

  1. Are you actively working on a bug (or several) right now? Which ones?
  2. What are you interested in working on -- broadly or narrowly, what do you want to do? (Or are you just open for suggestions?)
  3. Is there anything explicitly blocking you from doing what you want? (Knowledge, someone has the bug claimed for a year, need a hand with something, etc.)
  4. Free form! Anything you want to say or ask. :)

I also want us to have another development focused chat like we did some months ago. I think the last one I did was well timed for US developers but bad for EU, so I'll go the other way this time. I'm thinking something like 8AM Pacific which is midnight for [personal profile] fu and 4PM UTC on a Sunday. Reasonable?

Thanks!

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mykindofgeek: A woodcut-style portrait of Ada Lovelace, based on the nineteenth century A. E. Chaton portrait. (Default)

[personal profile] mykindofgeek 2013-03-05 02:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Hi!

1. No, but I'd like to be. :) In November I followed all the step-by-step instructions for getting started, but I got lost at the 'pick a bug' phase. I don't know which bug to pick or how I would go about working on it once it has been chosen.

2. I'm not sure. I'd like to do something that would help me learn Perl or Javascript. Right now the only thing I have a really solid grasp of is HTML and CSS, but solving CSS issues doesn't really inspire me very much.

3. General newbie skittishness. Step-by-step instructions are easy enough, but right now I feel like I'm in a fog bank and I can't see an obvious way forward.

4. I'm in my first year of a two year IT certificate program. I feel like I am being taught intro level things over and over and over again and that there's a giant hurdle between intro level course work and real work and I don't know how to get myself over it. I feel like it's the difference between looking at a map vs. going for a walk.
denise: Image: Me, facing away from camera, on top of the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome (Default)

[staff profile] denise 2013-03-05 11:45 pm (UTC)(link)
the best way to find a bug is to hit up the all-unassigned bugzilla query and skim through for something that looks interesting!

we're kind of low on "bitesized" bugs at the moment, but i've gone on a quick skim and here are some bugs that might work for you:

http://bugs.dwscoalition.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2871
http://bugs.dwscoalition.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4739
http://bugs.dwscoalition.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4658 (if you're on a mac)
http://bugs.dwscoalition.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4304
http://bugs.dwscoalition.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4583
http://bugs.dwscoalition.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4328

there's also starting out with patching layout themes, which is a good way to get started on something that's very well-documented and getting used to the process of making changes, working with git, generating pull requests, etc. for that, look in bugzilla for "new themes" bugs.

for getting started with perl, there are free online resources, but the o'reilly book "learning perl" is probably one of the better ones. if you keep an eye out, o'reilly will run occasional discounts, and you can get it in ebook or print form.
mykindofgeek: A woodcut-style portrait of Ada Lovelace, based on the nineteenth century A. E. Chaton portrait. (Default)

[personal profile] mykindofgeek 2013-03-08 01:31 am (UTC)(link)
Thanks for narrowing it down for me! I'll pick something from your list of suggestions and hopefully get a start on it this weekend. :)
mark: A photo of Mark kneeling on top of the Taal Volcano in the Philippines. It was a long hike. (Default)

[staff profile] mark 2013-03-09 12:15 am (UTC)(link)
Hi -- welcome to Dreamwidth development! Pleased to meet you. :)

Denise has given lots of good advice and some suggestions about picking a bug, so I won't dabble too much on that. I will say that you're always welcome to ping us and ask for advice on a bug, or for suggestions. We're happy to point you in the right direction or talk your ear off about implementing things!

Perl and JS are very different languages with different focuses. If you want to do frontend development, JS will serve you better. For backend stuff, Perl. Since you know HTML and CSS, frontend might be a better match -- but it all depends on where you want to go with your skills. It's always good to have a variety and learn lots of things!

The way forward, generally:

1. Have your hack environment setup (sounds like you do)
2. Find a bug that is interesting and someone says is easy (there's a list below!)
3. Figure out where in the code this bug sits (you can search with 'grep' or you can look through files or you can ask) -- this is sometimes the hardest part, don't be afraid to ask for help!
4. Make a change to fix it
5. Test your change on your hack environment
6. If the bug is fixed, submit a pull request
7. Wait for a review!

The last step ... I believe we have the documentation on the wiki. Afuna/Denise, do you have a link handy?

Totally ask for help, though! Then help make sure the documentation is good. If something is lacking, edit it and submit some clarifications. It is very much appreciated and another great way of getting familiar with the process.

Whew -- there, I've rambled at you. Welcome again. :)
denise: Image: Me, facing away from camera, on top of the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome (Default)

[staff profile] denise 2013-03-09 04:35 am (UTC)(link)
do you mean the dev getting started?
momijizukamori: (dreamsheep | styles)

[personal profile] momijizukamori 2013-03-09 04:15 am (UTC)(link)
As one of the Styles People, I'm going to heartily second theme-patching. We have a little scripty thing to help with it, which I need to update, and which was actually my intro to Perl coding *g* ([personal profile] rb wrote the base, and then I added to it, and then Fu helped me iron out bugs, but it's not perfect yet). We have a lot of new themes that need patching, and not a lot of people to do it, because... well, okay, it's a little boring, and I think the only people other than me who know how to do it are either doing bigger bugs, or busy with life.
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