This week I opened an issue in a classmate's repo to suggest adding a new option to their CLI project. Another classmate did the same for my project. I’m writing this to share the process and what I learned.
I created an issue and said I would add the new option myself. It took me some time to figure out where to change the code. I tried to follow the existing style and avoid breaking anything. Reading and tracing someone else’s project needs patience. While doing that, I noticed a few things I had not been doing correctly in my own code.
After I finished, I tested the new feature and opened a pull request, including my test results. Even though the code worked, I realized I was still missing some documentation. Besides writing code, adding clear comments and instructions is another skill I need to improve.
When I tried to contribute to another project, one of my classmates tried to help me, but at first we couldn’t get the same output as the main branch. I reviewed his changes and pointed out where the inconsistency might come from. He eventually fixed it and added a new feature while keeping the original behavior.
From these two experiences, I learned:
- Online collaboration is asynchronous, so I should leave clear messages with references.
- There is always room to improve—my project, my code, and my communication.
- If I add automated tests, both my classmates and I can save time, because differences in output would show up right away when code is pushed to GitHub.
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