contributing

[reston5]

what would be a good starting program, point for someone who wants to learn programming and eventually lead to contributing to projects, and making software

[Kadrus]

Do you have any programming skills?Or you want to learn programming?

[reston5]

I have messed around with python and pygame for about 3 or 4 months thats about the extent

[Can+~]

Ok, take a usual problem, and try to develop a solution of it on python (as you said, you were learning), that way you will grow on the language.

Once you make it, you bring it here, and we check your mistakes.

An idea:
-I've noticed that most people are backing things up, so make an application that grabs every file on a folder (specified by the user) and copy it somewhere.

If you need more ideas:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=679718

And finally, if you develop your skills enough, you could join any open source project, check launchpad, etc.

[Kadrus]

So you have a good knowledge of the language..keep learning...learn graphical programming...other than pygame...wxpython for example..develop your skills..and try writing a simple program that is useful for you..and then start a project of your own...
EDIT:
I recommend seeing this tutorial http://wiki.wxpython.org/AnotherTutorial
it's really good..and teaches you how to develop good programs with wxpython...
some of the examples in there..is how to write a text editor,calculator,spreadsheet,calendar,ftp client..
so it can really help you develop your programming skills...and help you write your own program..
good luck(^_^)

[fela]

i like gedit as a source code editor

[pmasiar]

You need at least couple more months of experience - you need to solve much more problems. pythonchallenge.com is fun way to learn Python - by solving puzzles. See also wiki in my sig for training tasks - and maybe take a look at GameBaker :-)