The latest articles on DEV Community by Daniel Rowe (@danrowe). https://dev.to/danrowe https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F479459%2F3541599e-c3b8-419c-bf39-80d92263ebce.jpeg https://dev.to/danrowe en Daniel Rowe Mon, 09 Nov 2020 22:30:23 +0000 https://dev.to/danrowe/a-student-s-perspective-on-hacktoberfest-4jgo https://dev.to/danrowe/a-student-s-perspective-on-hacktoberfest-4jgo <h3> Hello there! </h3> <p>I'm a senior computer science student new to the DEV community. Since the beginning of 2020, I've been realizing how much more I need to learn after college. I joined this community to find resources and articles that expand my knowledge about different technologies and become more involved in the developer community. I saw Hacktoberfest as a great opportunity to put my name out in the community and experience large scale projects. </p> <h3> Background </h3> <p>I've always been interested in computers and started programming with JavaScript on Codecademy in 2011. Since then, I've always seen programming as a limitless medium that allows me to dream of outlandish ideas and actually be able to implement them. I spend a lot of my time programming academically but I find myself unable to stop programming outside of school. If I'm not programming I enjoy researching new technologies and discovering more about this amazing industry.</p> <p>Since I only made one open-source contribution before Hacktoberfest, I was still very much a beginner. However, I found there was plenty of helpful resources and documentation available that made me confident to contribute to larger projects. </p> <h3> Contributions </h3> <p>Although my schedule is fairly packed with my studies, I made some small contributions. I found using the #first-timers-only tag on GitHub useful for finding introductory issues that I could manage. </p> <p>I made some documentation contributions to <a href="https://github.com/layer5io/meshery/pull/1760">Meshery</a>. </p> <p>Then I wanted to do some work on my personal website that is very barebones at the moment. I opened <a href="https://github.com/DanRowe1/drowe-dev">my repository</a> up to the public and began creating issues. I was originally making the issues with the expectation that I would be the only one fulfilling them. However, I was very surprised to find community members found my issues and made pull requests to fulfill them. </p> <h3> Reflections </h3> <p>Overall, I love this event. My eyes have been opened to the power of the open-source community and I would gladly participate again. I was astounded by the speed at which my issues were found and fulfilled on GitHub. I created an issue then went to make a sandwich and when I returned someone had completed it. Next year I would like to create a blank repository that starts with an idea at the beginning of HacktoberFest and see what the community can create together in just a month.</p> hacktoberfest