What's a Good First Open Source Project? [closed]

Question

I'm currently studying computer science and looking for a good way to practice and hone my programming skills. Contributing to an open source project seems like a natural way to do this to me. I currently know Java, Python, and some C, but wanted to open this up to any established language.

In particular, I'm looking for a project that's fairly active and has a lot of work for less experienced coders.

A better known project such as Firefox might have the advantage of being more recognizable on a resume, but perhaps one could have a larger impact on a smaller project. Any thoughts on this?

Thanks in advance =) -Matt

Answer 1

A popular one to start on if you know C is GNOME - www.gnome.org

Another great thing to do is look for projects that need help by checking out the Help Wanted listings at Sourceforge:

http://sourceforge.net/people/

The Python website also has a Volunteer Opportunities page:

http://wiki.python.org/moin/VolunteerOpportunities

A good way to contribute also is to look at the websites and mailing lists of open source software you use on a regular basis and ask if they need help, or just browse through their bug trackers to see what you can help with. This would probably be more interesting for you as you'll probably be able to make more meaningful contributions quicker with an existing knowledge of the software.

Good luck!

Answer 2

First, it has to be something that you are interested in and will enjoy working on. Otherwise it may become a chore or you may not contribute as much as you might otherwise.

Second, I'd make sure the project is active and has people working on it who you can learn from (by seeing what they've done and any changes they might make to your code once you check it in and they review it).

Finally, if you have any idea what you might want to do when you look for employment as a developer, then try to find something related to that area of programming, a tool that is used by developers in that field for example, as that will help you learn about the problem domain, as well as how to program, which help improve your cv/resume.