Giulio's Hacktoberfest 2022

Giulio "Joshi" — Mon, 07 Nov 2022 20:06:09 +0000

I did attempt Hacktoberfest back in 2021, but couldn't approach it until late October (I ended up not reaching the goal).

This year I was aware of the event and prepared my schedule: time to participate properly!

I know open source needs hands-on all year round, the issue with being employed is that the focusing effect of a single events help you dig some time for it, and deliver something.

My Hacktoberfest 2022 final score 😎

Selection policy

Picking up projects to contribute to was a bit tricker than expected,
even when a well-endowed Contribution Guide was available.

Sometimes my idea just didn't click right or I couldn't really approach an issue, proposal or anything relevant on my own.

I ended up following a set of guidelines on my side, split into most preferred ✅, interesting ⚖️ and least preferred ⚪.

✅ Software I could use
✅ Small or early stage projects
✅ Languages: Rust, PHP, *Bash*.
⚖️ Mature and/or famous software. Approaching them could be a double-edge sword, because maintainers probably already have a lot in their plate.
⚖️ Non-code contribution. Tech-writing is an interesting skills, and being able to roll out a readable documentation is an important asset: I do exercise every time I can. 😉
⚖️ Languages: TypeScript or *JavaScript*. My opinion is still maturing about this language, plus I need to improve in using both.
⚪ Translations. I just don't feel prepared enough to propose translations: I'm really unsure about a lot of things.
⚪ Languages: Java, Python. I really need motivation to use these tools outside working hours.

I was aware this could cut me off from some projects available, my bet was that boarding those could be very time consuming and lead me to fail.

What I ended contributing to

aarty

🦀 - Rust 1st PR 2° PR

This one I love using: an image to ASCII converter!

The author was advertising this project for contributions in Hacktoberfest Discord server.

A simple software, well done and usable, it got me the occasion to apply some well-known programming pattern: Inversion of Control.

Rss2Email

🦀 - Rust 1 PR 2 PR

Project name explains it all: give a list of RSS URLs, get an email with the list of articles.

For Antonios, the project owner, the code was as important as the reasoning behind technical decisions and choices.

To me it was important to have another point of view on the learning process and how to communicate in this kind of topic.

composer

🐘 - PHP 1 test PR

If it happened for you to work in PHP in the last ten years, you know Composer by name.

It was interesting to find the repository tagged for the event!

🤔 Oh, they just had help-wanted on test & coverage tasks?

I know writing test can be tiring, even small ones, yet this one was interesting to see how they used the Generators to feed test data.

❌ rust-av/ffv1

🦀 - Rust 1 failed PR

This one PR I failed 😢, after several attempts I stumbled in an upstream bug.

The upstream crate was in the rust-av project too, but I couldn't figure out a working fix.

I must admit I'm not skilled enough to contribute this crate.

I ended up closing my PR because the effect would have been breaking something.

tsparticles/404-templates

🟨 - HTML/JavaScript, 1 PR

After failing the previous contribution I was a bit down in the dumps.

I needed something to redeem myself.

With the month coming to a close and some PR pending, I decided to take advantage of the opportunity and work on an HTML+JS template, this project was for me!

The template gallery missed something seasonal and October-related, this made a good occasion to unfold some 👻 🕸 🕷️ 💀 Spooky Time !

I find amazing how many free resources we have nowadays

90% of my work was tuning out the particle library, pick a nice themed font and follow the issue guidelines

🔨 Nailed it! 👍

Conclusion

Phew! I ended writing a lot of stuff, and wanted to record the event for myself. (maybe I should have split the article?)

Could you read this far without me boring you? 😯 Wow, thanks!

I hope everybody experience was interesting and satisfying as mine was 🏆.

The door was ajar, so I stepped in...

Giulio "Joshi" — Sun, 09 Oct 2022 10:26:50 +0000

Hello world, fellow techies! 👋🏻

I believe I'm one of you, or at least my history tell me so.
The firs time I touched a programming language was probably '95, being able to just smash random words into BASIC.

That was when the curse started 😉
Took me some more years to learn something more industry-appealing, and land a job as PHP developer, back in 2005.

About me?

I'm the kind of guy that held his head down on the job, not really engaging with anyone besides colleagues, or some random acquaintances met during workshops/meetups.
My only advantage in that context was that I love reading, and could learn studying alone.

After some time you realize this way of working has limits, drains out your willingness to improve... and you need to find something better, like partners in learning outside your circle.

I do tend to separate work experience from the personal dedication to technology:
this was a costly decision, often resulting in having a lot of half backed things around, never ready to get published.

Maybe I'm being late to the party

This feeling about
"at this point I'm too afraid to start"
was blocking me from any active participation.
These reasons motivated me in changing my ways:

1⃣ ~ * I need to improve communication, writing and being interesting in general. Even in person meetings and meetups helps you there, mine is currently located there

firenze.dev - La community degli sviluppatori a Firenze

firenze.dev è la community degli sviluppatori a Firenze: organizziamo incontri ed eventi gratuiti per favorire l'apprendimento e il miglioramento continuo

firenze.dev

I know this means doing some more mistakes and have to deal with them, see if I'm really up to the task.

2⃣ ~ * Learning with people.

I took the programmer's path because I felt comfortable in having to face the challenge alone, at the same time I fear self-reasoning and echo chambers.
Rust and Linux communities helped me a lot, provided a fertile ground to meet friends, learn and get motivated.
3⃣ ~ * I stumbled upon this other article:

Yes, you should write that first post!

Jean-Michel Fayard 🇫🇷🇩🇪🇬🇧🇪🇸🇨🇴 ・ Mar 11 '20 ・ 3 min read

#firstpost #motivation #beginners #writing

It gave me the final push: My thanks to @jmfayard personally 🙇🏼.

Next Challenges

What could I write next?

I got a website to rebuild, its a small personal website with little information: I decided to ditch Wordpress for a static generated tool, that is Zola.
I'll probably try out to write an article about the experience.

I hope to get back here after a few years and be able to look that something happened and left some trace.

Thank you very much for staying with me to the end

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Drop a line, let me know how much I bore you 🤪

DEV Community: Giulio "Joshi"