DEV Community

Discussion on: Learn by contributing to Open Source

Collapse
 
sameerchandra profile image
Sameer Chandra Nimushakavi

I always wanted to contribute to open source but I never found a really good starting point. Whenever I tried to go through the issues of a project, I was always overwhelmed by the code that was written. This always threw me off.

Collapse
 
subbramanil profile image
Subbu Lakshmanan • Edited

I agree with you. It happened to me as well. Sometimes the architecture/design of the code is so much that you will be overwhelmed by it. Until last HactoberFest, I have never contributed to any open source repositories for a similar reason. Responding to a thread in one of the Dev.to's post helped me to find a repository that was simple enough for me to contribute.

I would say not to be discouraged as it's only natural to be overwhelmed initially. My initial goal was not to commit to contributing to the code, but to see if I can run the app locally from my machine on a test device and play around with it. Then eventually, I started poking around, making changes, and see how it works. If I pleased by the effort, then I think about forking the repository and contribute. I have done this with almost like 20+ android apps/libraries.

Now, based on the repositories that I have viewed, Github started showing the list of repositories that helped me to find one where I can contribute. I would say it's all about finding a starting point, and after that, it will become easy.

Good Luck!!