GitHub user chrisdutz added a comment to the discussion: About contributing to plc4x and potential gsoc 2026 participation
Well ... I think Apache PLC4X is not the ideal entry-level project. As I mentioned before, it actually requires you to invest quite a bit upfront to really seriously benefit of participation (Both learning things and probably even investing money). Our community used to exist mostly from one of the three "persona types": 1) Senior Software engineers with quite a bit of experience, that wanted to open a new market for offering consulting services 2) Senior Automation engineers, wanting to make their life easier by scratching their own itches 3) People generally interested in the topic (These usually participate on higher levels) As I mentioned, most people of category 1 are facing the issue that their involvement hasn't been rewarded in the last 9 Years (in my case). I'm currently trying another approach, but most have left or drastically reduced their involvement. Category 2 also has shrunk quite a bit, however I still think it's the biggest group still actively contributing as they are the only ones having a direct benefit from participation. Category 3 is pretty much been constant. A strong category 1 and small category 2 would result in awesome drivers, that probably would not fit the needs of the automation industry. Our current balance, which is the opposite way around, results in strong industrial alignment, however it's lacking quite a bit of architectural oversight and software engineering best-practices. Causing technical debt to grow. The project would be in need of more category 1 people - to sort of gain a balance again - at least from my perspective. The project needs more guidance from senior software engineers in order to prevent tech-debt piling up. Juniors however - at first - simply add work for the seniors (both IT and OT), especially in PLC4X, as much guidance is needed. So we have grown quite cautious. Especially, with the increasing number of juniors showing up, using AI and vibe-coding, thinking to bring benefit to the projects, but mostly just for growing "virtual reputation" for their own careers. As soon as they have submitted "their" contributions, they usually disappear. Usually these types of contributions are a net-waste of energy for the project as the amount of work required to get the contributions into shape by far outweighs the benefit to the project. If the mentors had simply implemented the changes themselves, they probably would have needed a third of what they needed to put in by mentoring someone. This usually is the way it would go, because we'd hope to grow the community with fresh blood. But the last few years have shown us: If there's not an intrinsic motivation for contributing (you need PLC4X drivers for your product or your job), the contributions are not sustainable and cost the community more than it's getting back. That being said: If you folks show us that you are able and willing to do a lot of the learning on your own, I (an I assume others) will be more than willing to help you. One proposal from my side would be: If you started writing exactly that documentation that you are missing. I would like to help you with that, but only in form of guiding you. This way you learn a lot and you would make it easier for the next junior showing up (If you decided to leave after that). GitHub link: https://github.com/apache/plc4x/discussions/2367#discussioncomment-15147230 ---- This is an automatically sent email for [email protected]. To unsubscribe, please send an email to: [email protected]
