How do I start contributing to GNOME?

Question

How do I start contributing to GNOME? I can program in C++ and Python, but have never touched C. I am not familiar with GTK even.

To be honest, I have no idea how GNOME works. All I have is a deep desire to somehow contribute to it.

Where do you recommend do I start? Any tutorial, mailing list or anything. I am ready to do the hard work, I just need a direction.

PS: I could have googled for the problem, but nothing beats the experience I have seen since Google returns SO for most of the questions.

Answer 1

1. Visit Join GNOME.
2. Figure out what you want to do for them
3. If it's development, then:
   1. learn C and GTK
   2. checkout the source code
   3. browse through the bug-tracker to find a reasonably sized task and ask for help of more senior committers to tell you what is at your level
   4. fix it and submit a patch
   5. wait for roses and glory
4. But maybe you can help with other things, as mentioned on Join GNOME
   1. Translations
   2. Design / Artworks
   3. Technical Documentation (review, proofreading)

Best of luck and thank you for trying to contribute.

Answer 2

Be sure to check out GNOME Love as well. It's a site aimed at getting people started with GNOME.

Answer 3

start simple program with below manual.

The GTK+ tutorial

GTK+ 2 Reference Manual

GTK+ 3 Reference Manual

show your program here: http://www.gtkforums.com/ (Project Showcase)

Answer 4

You may find it handy and useful by creating new extensions for Gnome shell. There are a lot of extensions on https://extensions.gnome.org/. It requires JavaScript programming. It will also give you insights of how things work in Gnome.