Patrick Marsh, on 2012-02-07 13:58, wrote: > As I continue to mature as a Python person, I want to give back > explicitly to the community that's given so much to me. The problem > is, I don't know how. I'm intimidated by the awesomeness of what I see > being done around me that I don't even know where to begin. How does > one even begin to learn how to understand the deep intricacies of MPL, > Numpy, and Scipy so that I'd begin to develop a comfort level that > would allow me to begin to actively contribute? I know pretty much > everyone on these listservs, including myself, is busy. (I'm in the > midst of a 30-day PhD General Exam, and probably shouldn't even be > reading the listservs and/or typing this email! *wink*) But if there > are those out there that are willing to take a little time and invest > in me, and I'm sure there are others like me, I'd gladly become an > active contributor instead of a lurker.
One simple, minimally intimidating way to contribute is by making improvements to the documentation. Here's a relevant pitch I just made on the IPython lists about how easy, yet valuable such improvements can be. http://mail.scipy.org/pipermail/ipython-user/2012-February/009428.html Another would be to send the colleagues whom your helping here to these lists, that way any effort you put in to help them has a good chance of helping others, thanks to search engines and archives. Yet another would be to go through some the active issues on the tracker and trying to make a test for them. Yet another still would be to test the various active pull requests - and confirm that the fixes or new functionality they provide actually work - look through patches and ask questions - we have a lot PRs that get very few eyes or comments on them (Last [academic] year, I consciously made an effort to be more active on this list, and though I haven't pitched in as much lately, perhaps the rest of this year I should focus my efforts on incoming PRs) > Anyways, I know this email is a tad on the long side, and a little off > the original topic, so if you're still reading, thanks! This is > something that's been weighing on me for a few months now, and I > thought Ben's exultation of the benefits of the community might be a > good time to open up. I'm still rather enjoying this whole thread, thanks for opening up. I got worried how relatively quiet it's been here for a few months, and glad we're starting to buck that trend. best, -- Paul Ivanov 314 address only used for lists, off-list direct email at: http://pirsquared.org | GPG/PGP key id: 0x0F3E28F7 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Keep Your Developer Skills Current with LearnDevNow! The most comprehensive online learning library for Microsoft developers is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3, Metro Style Apps, more. Free future releases when you subscribe now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/learndevnow-d2d _______________________________________________ Matplotlib-users mailing list Matplotlib-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/matplotlib-users
