I want to get involved with an open source project...

[dizzy1234]

... but I'm not sure (a) how to and (b) which one would be suitable for my talents.

I'm currently studying maths / comp-sci at uni and I've been thinking about getting involved with coding for an open source project. I'm interested in web technologies and I have plenty of experience with LAMP(HP) software as well as the front end stuff. I was leaning towards working on either Apache or PHP, although I don't know how much work gets done on those these days as they both strike me as very mature.

I am a little daunted by the prospect of getting involved with an established project with a massive code base with which I'll be playing catch up. Do large projects such as those mentioned above offer any sort of help for newcomers to their communities?

Any ideas or thoughts are appreciated.

[endersshadow]

... but I'm not sure (a) how to and (b) which one would be suitable for my talents.

I'm currently studying maths / comp-sci at uni and I've been thinking about getting involved with coding for an open source project. I'm interested in web technologies and I have plenty of experience with LAMP(HP) software as well as the front end stuff. I was leaning towards working on either Apache or PHP, although I don't know how much work gets done on those these days as they both strike me as very mature.

I am a little daunted by the prospect of getting involved with an established project with a massive code base with which I'll be playing catch up. Do large projects such as those mentioned above offer any sort of help for newcomers to their communities?

Any ideas or thoughts are appreciated.

OSS projects are always looking for more developers, you just need to know where to look. Hop onto Sourceforge's Help Wanted (https://sourceforge.net/people/) page and browse around for something that floats your boat. Or, you could do what I did and just create your own...heh...

[ssam]

the mailing lists and irc are usually good ways to introduce your self to the developers.

although apache is huge i think it is quite modular. maybe could start from the edge and work your way into the codebase. or it might be good to find a particular bug to fix or feature to add.

i think there is also plenty of work to be done within ubuntu. is there an application you would like to see in the universe? are there bugs in dapper you could fix? could you write some simple GUI frontends to help new linux users configure linux?

[az]

Aim high, eh? You are looking at contributing for the sake of contributing, but you do not have a clear idea of what you want to do.

Use the software and find something you want to do with it that has not been implemented and then find a way to implement it. Ask on the various project's mailing lists or irc as to how some more experienced people would tackle the problem and then hop to it.




[QUOTE=dizzy1234]...
I am a little daunted by the prospect of getting involved with an established project with a massive code base with which I'll be playing catch up. Do large projects such as those mentioned above offer any sort of help for newcomers to their communities?

Any ideas or thoughts are appreciated.

I doubt you will have to audit every single line of code in order to participate.

There are lots of useful ways to contribute, too. For example, if you invest a few weeks getting up to speed, only to realise that you no longer want to persue your original project, you can write a little documentation to help the next person who needs to catch up. Larger projects usually have documentation subprojects. Look in the CVS.

Also, you can do higher-level stuff, too. You can find some useful LAMP applications which may not be packaged for Debian or Ubuntu and package them. You can help out by maintaining some already-packaged software by helping out MOTU (masters of the universe - they maintain the universe repository and *always* need a helping hand).