I just made my very first PR to a non-DEV open-source repo. I noticed a typo in the README of @liyasthomas's Postwoman project so I submitted a PR...
For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse
The value of functional code is always nebulous. With every line of code, you introduce the possibility for unexpected behavior, technical debt, and all sorts of problematic stuff. Even improving the code through strict refactoring means someone understands the code less because it changed since they last saw it.
Typos are 100% vertical gains. There's no questioning whether fixing a typo makes a project better (unless it's a code typo where some other untested code was relying on that typo, then we have a problem π).
I may have done something else before but the first open source PR I can remember was updating content on the Reactjs site. Just changing some facts which had gone stale. At the time the site was also hosted in the same repo as React the language, so I felt very proud to be a part of that contribution history.
I even felt proud making some changes to Rails that I never even opened a PR for (because I got lazy), but the fact that I'd had an opinion on low-level code and felt like the change was worthwhile was a pretty fulfilling moment in and of itself.
My first PR was DEV-inspired, but not DEV-specific:
This app functions, but does not pass the starting HTML test. The provided test requires an item list like:
My template is generating the following:
I initially attempted to strip the whitespace in the test but it still doesn't quite alleviate the discrepancy between my output and the test's, though I believe they are functionally equivalent. I couldn't figure out how to omit the newline, I'll re-submit if I do or anyone has a tip.
What struck me most was how normal it felt to do. My New-Year's resolution for 2019 was to open a PR and have it merged, and I'd been building it up in my head as this massive undertaking. Some sort of huge leap forward in terms of my knowledge and career.
It was nothing of the sort. I just wrote some code that did the thing and submitted it, much like I do every single day to my own profile. Dave accepted it within a day, and life moved on. I am proud that code I've produced has escaped the confines of my own GH page, but what struck me most was how blasΓ© the whole experience was. It completely stripped the aura of insurmountability from the process, and I went on to make a few more trivial PRs later that week. It's just not that big a deal, after all.
Well to tell you the truth, the floor is the part of the house that all of the walls extend upward from, to the ceiling, from which the lights hang, and you can't flip a light switch or hang pictures until you have a wall...
What were you saying about the insignificance of your contribution?
I felt like a superhero! Also felt like with imposter syndrome. π
I joined Github on 2011, however I created this PR to solve an annoying issue at work. I was used to create designs using the defunct Fireworks, using all kind of color blended colors instead of solid colors. Therefore, I read the implementation of some of those blending colors operations in other project and consolidate in a PR.
Ah, I felt proud to have contributed something useful not only for me, but for others.
Here's the PR:
Hi Alexis,
If it is not out of the LESS project scope, you may feel free to add these 9 blending modes.
I also created the test cases, and it works like a clock.
My first PR was to the omniauth project because it wasnβt working for Instagram and I needed it for the project I was working on.
Hi,
I've made one tiny update to the Foursquare strategy in oa-oauth. Without requiring the two files at the top, like in the Twitter strategy, trying to complete the OAuth dance with Foursquare in a Sinatra app was failing for me.
Let me know if there is anything else I can do.
Thanks!
Phil
The PR wasnβt merged sadly, but the issue did get fixed. I felt pretty good about being able to find and fix an issue that would not only help me but others too. I think thatβs some of the beauty of more casual open source work, everyone can have an impact and it doesnβt take working full time on open source to make a difference, just fixing or building a feature that you need and that will help others too.
(Oh wow, that was 9 years ago! Iβm getting old!)
If you talk about accepted Pull Requests, I am really proud of github.com/DefinitelyTyped/Definit..., and learnt a lot about code styles... -- even though I eventually use a different library, instead.
Every TypeScript dev should try to contribute to DefinitelyTyped at least once.
Fortunately, I also found that, for non-monorepo, I don't have to wait for PR to be accepted. I can always
npm i <FORKED_GIT_URL.git>. There seems to be an equivalent in Python's PIP as well.Otherwise, I really recommend everyone should create one themselves,
BTW, you can search via github.com/pulls.
Even after being a Dev for a long time it was intimidating to submit a PR to any open source project as it felt like someone else's code and not so used to process, and most times forked the repo, make changes and keep it to myself.
Then found a GitHub repo called firstcontributions where it is okay to make mistakes and tried few PRs and got acquainted. This is a good start for anyone like me waiting to try how it works and then make the actual contribution.
The most proud moment was when I submitted my PR to umbraco and the team gave me a contributor badge.
Its so cool, because these first contributions may seem small to us, but are necessary for the open source ecosystem!
It feels incredible, adding value to even established projects, with simple improvements that others havenβt gotten to.
My first PR was updating some wording in the Gatsby tutorials.
I felt incredibly nervous for the ~ 1 day it took for someone to review and merge, then immediately afterwards felt incredible! I could do anything!
It really opened my eyes to the potential and power of Open Source!
During the whole process I felt pretty nervous (impostor syndrome FTW), from the moment I opened the issue, to the moment I opened the actual PR. My first one was an actual dev related one with a code fix, and I've written about it here
How I started contributing to opensource by opening my first pull request
NicolΓ² Rebughini γ» Aug 14 '19 γ» 4 min read
I was nervous.
I had heard some vague stories about gatekeepers and negative interactions, so I did not know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised when my pull request was merged AND a maintainer followed up with a friendly welcome and some guidance on squashing commits if I were to submit in the future.
Well Peter,
I felt about the same as you. Actually, no. I recall feeling that I had saved the world from firey dragons, trials and tribulations, armageddon, and that what I had just accomplished would play, in some small part, in the quest to end world hunger.
You wanna know something funny? Even today, many years later, even if it's only a typo, or a refactoring, or a simple PR to cleanup some messy bits - I still feel that same exhilaration ;)
You go girl! It is the little things that make all the difference in the world, and the Universe does not exist independent of the thought of the participant :)
I'm actually not sure how I felt. At the start I actually felt a lot of the stuff happening in development was pure magic. Since the first real project I worked on was actually an open source project I present you this mash of php, html and css:
github.com/Mil0dV/co2ok-plugin-woo...
My First PR was to the DEV repo. Just adding the anchor link for the comments section to the comment button on the cards.
What type of PR is this? (check all applicable)
Description
Jumps user straight to comments section when they click on comments icon.
Related Tickets & Documents
Mobile & Desktop Screenshots/Recordings (if there are UI changes)
Added to documentation?
[optional] What gif best describes this PR or how it makes you feel?
I was definitely excited! I think that specific change has been written over since then, but still, it was cool to have it happen. Damn, and it was just over a year ago too!
My first PRs felt great! I haven't reached the point where an accepted PR fails to bring me some satisfaction. However, I quickly encountered maintainers who have very specific desires, but will not engage you in discussion before you put in your time - but will answer questions you had written ahead of time after you've written, tested, and submitted the PR (requiring a avoidable rewrite).
When the human elements go well, contributing is satisfying. Soft skills can be harder than their name suggets.
My first, and so far only, PR for open source:
github.com/csparpa/fluentcheck/pull/6
I felt a combination of:
1) Triumphant
2) Thankful
I really appreciated the support of the maintainer, without whom I wouldn't of been able to get it done! Thanks Claudio Sparpaglione (github.com/csparpa)
I rewrote some of the Python PEP8 document on code comments to make it clearer and less contradictory.
Rewriting the canonical style guide for my first programming language within a few months of my coding journey felt like quite the feather in my cap. Also disturbing that noob me can change things like that - if I can make changes, how influential can that style guide be!?!
I felt really proud of myself. At first, I was nervous. I'm not sure if the author would merge the PR that I created so I kept checking it. I was so happy when I got the email notification about the merge.
That PR was a small fix but it gave me the big boost I needed to be more active in the community and contributing more π
My first PR is about using the Guzzle client to replace the cURL extension.
I'm nervous because these commits are very huge.
And I'm also afraid that the maintainer didn't care about this.
Finally, the PR has been merged and I'm encouraged from then on :-).
I loved it. From that moment, I knew I wanted to work for an open source company.
It felt amazing! Mine was a bit more complex, and it was merged about a week later!
Guys, this is my very first input into open-source projects, and I'm very excited I finally managed to develop a new tiny functionality in one of my favourite products!
The Pomodoro Timer was incomplete, and breaks were measured manually (or mentally)
Added the "Pomodoro Break" Option, with a very similar functionality that the original "Pomodoro" has.
If activated both options (Pomodoro and Pomodoro Break), and set the due times for each task, e.g. 25min for Pomodoros, and 5min for breaks (as methodology suggest), once initiated a task, and meet the 25 minutes, automatically another task named "Pomodoro Break" starts, and finishes (and more importantly, alerts) after 5 minutes, so we get a hint to get back to work.
Currently only developed the option for Library and OSX Client.
Guess who will look for another typo
Pretty much of my PRs were documentation fixes, so I didn't feel much doing them, haha.
on top of the world ! i evolved from just being a 'consumer' to being a 'contributor' ! the world needs 'contributors' !
youtube.com/watch?v=4t4YiXWPBpo