Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2001 17:15:27 -0600 From: Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> To: Damien Tougas <damien@carroll.com> Cc: Brad Knowles <brad.knowles@skynet.be>, Dag-Erling Smorgrav <des@ofug.org>, Tyler K McGeorge <treznor@sunflower.com>, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Looking for Yoda Message-ID: <15020.1807.762080.742959@guru.mired.org> In-Reply-To: <20010311175629.A368@sprig.tougas.net> References: <20010310230724.A292@sprig.tougas.net> <000601c0a9f9$31b88120$103b7c18@palisor.yi.org> <xzp1ys4v3iv.fsf@flood.ping.uio.no> <v04220805b6d1796cec93@[194.78.241.123]> <20010311175629.A368@sprig.tougas.net>
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Damien Tougas <damien@carroll.com> types: > Again, I agree with you. I have thought of this before; what am I to > do, e-mail Greg Lehey, and tell him that I want to learn C, and that I > think cutting my teeth on Vinum would be a good start? Basically, yes. Vinum is listed on the projects page, which is referenced as a way to contribute to freebsd. Presumably, they need help. Possibly not the kind you can offer, though. > I think that it would be rather inappropriate. Attitude is everything. If your attitude is that you are somehow owed a place on the project, that's inappropriate. If you ask if there is something you can do, that's perfectly appropriate. The text you chose is somewhere between those two positions. Of course, there *are* projects that don't have as steep a learning curve as vinum. You're more likely to find a place on those. > I thought (and thus the reason for my original post) that it would > be better to post the question to a mailing list and see what pops > up. I would rather someone respond to me and say, 'Hey, we could use > a junior guy here on stuff we are working on, would you like to join > in?', instead of me trying to pry myself into something where I > might be unwelcome. Trying to pry yourself is certainly unwelcome. Offering to help shouldn't be. Asking for suggestion on the -chat list is certainly a good idea. > Now this is something what I would be interested in. I mean, there has > to be lots of stuff that is easy, a little more mundane for an > experienced FreeBSD programmer, but perfect for someone who was just > starting out. For example, I would be perfectly happy writing > makefiles, tweaking/writing a man page, or adding a tiny new > feature/switch to an existing utility. Some of this is stuff you can just *do*. For instance, if you notice that some question is showing up on -questions frequently but there isn't a FAQ entry, write one. For man pages, if you notice a command or file doesn't have a man page - just write one. For the latter you need to have a copy of -current running, but you can dual boot -stable and -current. They can even share swap, ports and /usr/local, though the last takes some work. > I think that working on the easy portions of more complicated stuff > would also be a very valuable learning experience. Of course, in order > to be able to do that sort of stuff, one has to pretty much hook up > with an existing developer and get these small things assigned and > done quickly as they come up. This type of relationship would > obviously not work that well for everyone, but that's ok, I wouldn't > want to work with someone who thinks I am just a burden. Well, the things on the projects page should have project coordinators listed. That's the person who would assign you small things, and the one you should contact. <mike -- Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/ Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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