Re: [gnome-love] newbie

[Luis Menina <liberforce fr st>]

Welcome Florian :-)

I changed a bit the GnomeLove page of the wiki for that purpose:
read those instructions to have some propositions about where to start.
http://live.gnome.org/GnomeLove#head-232c77e5a2e879cdf207655ade56c90144d2d4dc

I think that the GnomeGoals projet fits well it this "I want to learn 
how to do" approach: http://live.gnome.org/GnomeGoals
Doing the same task for several project will help you to have easily 
work done. It's also good if you want to contribute on an irregular basis.

If you want to get more deeply involved, then picking up a bug marked 
with the "gnome-love" keyword will do the trick. Try to as on the 
project's mailing list if it is worth the trouble, an if a patch for 
this has good chance to be applied (some projects still suck at patch 
reviewing).

In every case, the mailing lists and IRC are good places to get some 
support and hints. Your mentoring idea is quite interesting, and is 
actually being used for the google summer of code: 
http://live.gnome.org/SummerOfCode2006 , but maybe this could be 
extended to a kind of "Gnome Padawan" program ;-)

By the way, the places to get started are these:
http://live.gnome.org/GnomeLove
http://live.gnome.org/GnomeGoals

Cheers,

Luis Menina

Florian Rivoal a écrit :
> Hi all gnome lovers,
>
> I have been enjoying the world of free software, and gnome in
> particular, for a couple of years now.
>
> I work as a software developper for a large japanese electronics
> company, but the stuff I work on is only moderately exciting, doesn't
> help me learn much, and besides, it is not GNU / linux related.
>
> I like coding, I like free software, and I like gnome. So why didn't I
> already contribute tones of things? Well, I am kind of stuck at
> boot-strap stage.
>
> "look for something to fix in bugzilla, and sumbit a patch when you're
> done" seems to be the recommanded way to get started, But I don't really
> feel like it. It sounds like a reasonable way to get involved in gnome
> for someone who is already proficient with GTK and all the other gnome
> libs and tools, but it makes kind of a huge first step when you're not.
> And I am not. Of course, I'll have to learn all this sooner or later,
> but I'd prefer to learn while doing, instead of learning before doing.
>
> So what I'd like to find is a team or a hacker in the following
> situation:
> * has some stuff that while non urgent, will have to be be done / fixed
> sooner or later
> * kinds of lack the time to take care of it properly
> * enjoys transmitting knowledge and giving advices
>
> I'd be very glad to find such a "mentor", who would tell me something
> like: "So we're working on *****, and here is basicaly how it works:
> [...]. But the **** module would need some love to get to the point
> where it can do ****. I suggest you try to *** using ***. And get back
> to me if there's something you're not sure about. I'll point you to the
> proper doc, or explain if there is no such doc."
>
> I'd really prefer to get started this way, rather than chosing a random
> library, learning to use it, and then seeing if can find a bug somewhere
> where I could use my new knowledge.
>
> So that's what I am looking for on the human side of things. On the
> technical side, I am reasonably confortable in C, C++ and java, but I do
> not particularly feel like writing in java. It seems there is not much
> java in gnomeland anyway, so that's probably not an issue. An
> opportunity to learn C# or ruby would be nice too, but I guess I'd
> better stick with the languages I know, at least at first.
>
> Which part of the gnome world would I like to work on? well, hum,
> everything. from gimp to beagle, from metacity to gaim, from eog to
> gnome-vfs to evolution, I care for pretty much everything in the gnome
> world. But since everything is probably a bit too much, I think i'll
> settle for anything instead :)
>
> On a side note, I can speak french (as I am French), and Japanese to
> some degree, so If that's you're favorite language, it's fine with me.
>
> So, is there anyone wanting an apprentice? I'll promise I'll be nice.
> I'll even make you some coffee. Of course, I'll have to drink it myself,
> since evolution does not support attaching cups of coffee to emails, but
> I'll send you pictures of the cup if you want.
>
> Cheers,
>
>                         Florian Rivoal
>
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