Leading up to (and during) the month of October, we want to help you discover open source projects to work on, and put your Hacktoberfest contributions to excellent use. Meet Johannes Schindelin, maintainer for Git for Windows.
Check out this page regularly for more interviews with contributors & maintainers
What can you tell us about your project?
Git for Windows is the Windows specific port of the Git project, the source code management system that many of you already know. Basically a medium to communicate between developers, a bit like a cellphone but for developers, because you can not transmit source code via cellphone, so you transmit using Git.
What contributions are you welcoming?
There's a lot of contributions we would welcome. Whether you write documentation or improve docs - if you see something that's not quite right, or something could be phrased better... Or you see a typo in an error message, that's quite easy to fix. If you wanted a new feature in Git or Git for Windows, this is your moment. The options are wide open!
What skills do people need to contribute?
If you want to write good documentation, or write a tutorial, a good level of the English language certainly would come in handy. Or if you want to add docs in a different language, you'd have to be fluent in that language. Other than that if you want to implement something in Git, C is something that you should know at least a little bit about. The hardest part is being careful about how you manage memory - but I'm here to help!
If you're familiar with JavaScript, you could probably read the code and imagine how to go from there, but again: I'm happy to help with the rest!
How do I get started?
You probably will want to start by looking at MyFirstContribution, this explains the workflow of the Git project - and Git for Windows is very close to Git, so just target that. Otherwise, if you want to target Git for Windows specifically, have a look at the repository, open a Pull Request, communicate via tickets or the mailing list if you want to start a new project and don't know quite where to start.
Some more links:
- A (subscribers-only) mailing list for contributors who seek more individual help with contributing. Newcomers are welcome to send requests for help without needing to subscribe: groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/git-mentoring
- This explains in a bit of detail how patches should be submitted, and what shape they’re expected in: git-scm.com/docs/SubmittingPatches
- The bridge to send GitHub Pull Requests as patch series to the Git mailing list: gitgitgadget.github.io/
- A searchable archive of the Git mailing list. This is most useful in order to get a feel for the community, how patches are received and reviewed, how much assistance to expect.
- For the technically-inclined, this gives a history-focused overview of the source code: git-scm.com/docs/user-manual#birdview-on-the-source-code
- A document targeting the Windows-based audience and includes some instructions for setting up a Linux environment: github.com/git-for-windows/git/blob/HEAD/CONTRIBUTING.md
- A free, open-source book including advanced details about Git. Chapter 10: Git Internals is particularly useful: git-scm.com/book/en/v2
- Information on how to communicate with community members. There is a helpful IRC channel for real-time feedback: git-scm.com/community
Join, October 2nd, for CONTRIBUTING.md - a virtual Hacktoberfest meetup, free and open for anyone who wants to join. Learn what Open Source projects are looking for contributions, which communities are looking for new members, and who is looking for advice from someone with your exact skill set. Check this page regularly for more interviews with contributors & maintainers which we'll release until the event.
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