On Tue, Jul 9, 2019 at 12:35 AM Stephen J. Turnbull <turnbull.stephen...@u.tsukuba.ac.jp> wrote: > > Jonathan Goble writes: > > > As for me, I'll continue to lurk and learn as I continue my sophomore > > year as a college student majoring in computer science, with hopes of > > becoming more active in contributing to Python as I gain more > > experience and skills. > > Evidently you have ambition to acquire a "commit bit". That's a > worthy goal (heaven knows we need more reviewers!),
Ha, I don't have any kind of grand ambitions like that (at least not yet). To date I've contributed exactly one commit, that being a trivial typo fix in a PEP. My real goal is get to the point in a year or two where I can periodically contribute non-trivial code to fix real bugs and such, but I'm going through a major transition right now (graduating community college and transferring to a four-year university next month) and don't have the spare time to wade in currently. I also haven't taken any real computer courses yet other than a basic freshman-level Java sequence, so my general skills are lacking, but this upcoming academic year is when I will get elbow-deep in the more advanced courses, including algorithms, so once I settle in to the university over the next few months I plan to try to contribute more. > but there are > plenty of other ways to contribute. Some of the obvious ones (like > documentation and teaching) may not be your thing, but there's > probably a PyCon or Python meetup near you. Especially for the larger > ones, there are all kinds of "social volunteer" tasks, such as swag > bag stuffing and registration desk, where even an hour or so of > contribution is appreciated and you can interact with other people who > are there for the same reasons you are. I cannot afford a lot of travel, and as a college student, I have limited dates to do so. For example, this year's PyCon was inaccessible to me despite living "nearby" in Southwest Ohio partially because of inability to afford gas and a hotel, but more importantly, because it was held during final exam week. Next year's PyCon, a similar distance away, will be during the last week of classes before final exams, so I can't attend it either. I wish I could, but the schedules don't work. From a financial perspective, even a single night in a hotel is something I have to plan and budget for at least a month or two in advance. > (Beware: volunteering can be > addictive, and you may find yourself running for PSF Board before you > know it!) The day that happens will be the day hell freezes over. :P > "Contribution" doesn't have to involve "skills" or deskwork, and > everyone can find ways that are lots of fun for them! > > Steve What's fun for me is writing code. ;) When I have the free time (which isn't much lately), I like to play around with writing random personal projects, a couple of which I have published rough betas to PyPI (that probably have been downloaded by nobody except me). I need to find time between semesters to sit down and polish some of them up to create a portfolio for internship applications, and I'm sure that the next year of college will help me improve the quality significantly. That said, if I could get to a PyCon or other meetup (which is a function of both money and scheduling), I would be more than willing to sign up for a volunteer shift. The difficulty is getting there without disrupting my education or breaking the bank. _______________________________________________ Python-Dev mailing list -- python-dev@python.org To unsubscribe send an email to python-dev-le...@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman3/lists/python-dev.python.org/ Message archived at https://mail.python.org/archives/list/python-dev@python.org/message/H4TOJPKULU2MQM436TJOF27MHUNFA2G2/
