I am a programmer(Student). How can i help the Linux community as a Programmer?

Hey everyone,

This is my very first post!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ok, I need your help. I have a good knowledge on how to use C, C++, Java, Ruby and Python. How can i contribute to the Linux Community as a Programmer.
I have been using the Ubuntu 9.04 version of linux for more than a year.
Also i would like learn any other programming languages, so if could recommend any other programming language not listed above it would be great.

Thanks in advance for your response,
mgsurya.

Well, you use Ubuntu, so a good way to help the community is to start a PPA with a program or library that is not up yet or you can help developing an existent one. If you are brave enough, you can give it a shot at more "large/general" project as kernel.org or gnome (any project like epiphany).

I think perl is missing in your list, is pretty cool.

I wuold also like to know more about it

Well, I do not think that Linux needs another media player . . . . There are more than anyone can keep track of.

How about a workable Linux program for rejoining split binary files from newsgroups. I have to run hjspit under wine.

There is a Linux flavor. Based on my experience, it can be sort of quirkly to install. I have gotten it to work on some distros and not on others. I've been running hjsplit under Wine (which does work like a champ).

More seriously, if you want a much bigger challenge, a Linux equivalent to MSProject, to AutoCAD, or to Quicken, and similar business apps might find a home. Open source programmers tend to write stuff they want to use; as a result the business market gets short shrift.

I know that those tend to be huge and intimidating projects which can take years to develop. And I am not a programmer.

If there were more business-oriented open-source, free software programs, Linux might find more open doors in the business community.

I would join a local LUG and see what projects are being discussed and see where that would get you...also many languages have user groups that have members from open-source to those commercial providers.

The usual way to start contributing is to -first- use Linux, see what would you improve in the software you use daily, get in touch with the development team of that project and then start coding (or translating, or whatever the matter at hand is).

There's a lot of places where contributions would be welcome, it's hard to say what would fit you without knowing you at all.

The software you will be using the most (probably) will be your windowing system, whatever that is (kde, gnome, xfce, openbox...). If you think something could be improved then you should be joining the kde or gnome mailing lists and/or forums, get in touch with people there, see what can be done to implement a given feature or if there's someone already working on it that could use your help.

If you think that your favourite media player could use a better playlist handling you could implement it and submit a patch, or just fork the project if they have no interest in your contribution.

Contributions at lower layers are always good as well, but you probably will not be interested in programming a video driver for X or join the kernel development team unless it's for a very specific reason and with a clear objective in mind, which doesn't seem to be your case.

Hi everyone Thx for replies!!!!!!!

I still have a few more questions. I am sorry i wasn't completely clear earlier but although i have learned those programming languages, i have not implemented them in any projects(except Ruby two small softwares my own and not published). Anyways here are a few more questions i had.
1) Where can i find Projects that have already begun and request to join with them?
2) Would i need any qualifications to join a project since i am only a B.E.Computer Science 4th year student?
3) Also if there are any qualifications how do i get them?
4) And How do i start my own project?(Assuming i already know what to do).

Hey darolu,
Well at the moment PPA is good enough. I will work on a larger projects probably after my intership(in about 6 months).
I learned Python from youtube and a few books.
I have actually checked out perl but cant seem to find any good tutorials with examples and also am not sure where it can be used. Do you know any good ones?
Again Thx for your reply.

Hey frankbell,
I am not sure about media players will check it out and also wont be able to do any large projects but will start it in about 6 months. If there are any other suggestions please feel free to discuss them.
Again Thx for your reply.

Hey Joe Gulizia,
Thanks alot i registered for the LUG in Dubai as soon as i read your post. I found alot of projects. Will have to go through them in detail.
Again Thx for your reply.

Hey i92guboj,
Well your right, i dont have a clear objective in mind and thats why i wanted to check out a few projects, study what people have contributed so far, and what really has helped the linux community. Well so far i have learned LFS Linux From Scratch just so i know how the linux system works. I have a used ruby programming language to create two small softwares, nothing to fancy. So thats about it, i lack experience and hence would like to start of with something small. But after i do a few small successful projects(most probably by helping someone) i think i might start(with more confidence) a few of my own.
Again Thx for your reply.

Everyone Thx again!! for your replies. I am a programmer but an inexperienced one, so anymore ideas you get please feel free share them with me.

Originally Posted by mgsurya Hi everyone Thx for replies!!!!!!! I still have a few more questions. I am sorry i wasn't completely clear earlier but although i have learned those programming languages, i have not implemented them in any projects(except Ruby two small softwares my own and not published). Anyways here are a few more questions i had. 1) Where can i find Projects that have already begun and request to join with them?

That depends on your fields of interest. The place and methodology will differ from project to project, and from one field to another. To start with game programming (just a random example) you will probably need to look for an open source game that fits you, then make sure you meet the requirements depending on what do they demand (opengl, C, qt, gtk, SDL, graphics programming, AI, it will depend upon the concrete game).

It is usually easier to look first for a project that you like as a user, and *after that* then get involved as a developer.

2) Would i need any qualifications to join a project since i am only a B.E.Computer Science 4th year student?

That depends on the project as well. A lot of open source programs are a single-man project, or projects that are handled by a small team. Most of them will likely be very glad to receive contributions of any kind, as long as the code meets their coding style and has been designed with quality and correctness in mind. But truly, that is a question for the team that you apply to join. There's no right answer we can give you here to that question.

4) And How do i start my own project?(Assuming i already know what to do).

Just open a text editor or your favorite IDE and start writing code. You will probably be interested in git, cvs, svn, mercurial or bazaar if you want to start a collaborative project with someone else, so you can modify the sources concurrently with minimal hassle.

If you want a place to host your code and you don't have your own you can always apply for a sourceforge account. A lot of open source projects are hosted there, but there are many more services around. There are also free web hosting services that might fit your purpose.

Hey i92guboj, Well your right, i dont have a clear objective in mind and thats why i wanted to check out a few projects, study what people have contributed so far, and what really has helped the linux community. Well so far i have learned LFS Linux From Scratch just so i know how the linux system works. I have a used ruby programming language to create two small softwares, nothing to fancy. So thats about it, i lack experience and hence would like to start of with something small. But after i do a few small successful projects(most probably by helping someone) i think i might start(with more confidence) a few of my own. Again Thx for your reply.

Most open source projects always need help for one or another thing. Medium-size projects (i.e. mplayer, fvwm, openbox, gkrellm, screen, rxvt-unicode to name just a few) will accept patches as long as they don't interfere with the existing functionalities and they are rightly designed. You don't even need to be part of the team, and making patches to fix bugs or add long-awaited functionalities are a good way to make friends, to let people know about your skills and to train yourself to work with other developers, with revision control systems, with the patch and diff tools and with how things work in general.

There are lots of way that a project like mplayer could get help from any individual, and not all of them involve coding. Maintaining the documentation or the make files can be a daunting task, translations are always welcome, web authoring is another way to help a project, infra is always necessary (forums, mailing lists, someone has to take care of that as well).

A place where linux could really get some help is in audio authoring tools, I find them to be lacking in many ways. The linux sound stack is flawed from the very base (alsa nowadays, mostly).

Everyone Thx again!! for your replies. I am a programmer but an inexperienced one, so anymore ideas you get please feel free share them with me.[/QUOTE]

Re Perl:

http://perldoc.perl.org/ - the official Perl docs, with examples for each keyword etc and lots of tutorials

http://www.perlmonks.org/?node=Tutorials - this site is where the Perl gurus hang out, inc some of the people who write the internals & books.

Media players:

Let's see, off the top of my head, there's xine and gxine, totem, vlc, xmms, xmms2, amarok, kaboodle, noatum, and that's just the ones I remember--there's enough audio and video players for Linux to choke a team of horses.

Check out sourceforge and freshmeat to get a sense of open source projects.

Not much suggestion here.. Perhaps, try not to take on goals that will only give many regrets. e.g. long term hard projects or projects that whatever you do can't be put on its final form. You'll find it hard to move on other things and it will bother you on times that you no longer want to handle the project. That is, don't let projects unconsciously enslave you and make sure that you'll mostly gain benefit to it instead. Engage on projects you think is easy and will still be easy afterwards to the heart . And enjoy the community....

Edit: I'm not really able to practice this (can't escape my self from a self-made philosophy), but I made a suggestion hoping someone will be able to.

Hey everyone thanks alot for your help. Will definitely get back to you if i have any more question. "I am really glad asked".