@@ -31,10 +39,10 @@ I looked closely to some of them by investigating the code, but it honestly seem
(and I barely know this language) but also because these issues require a good understanding of the global context to be solved, and
obviously I do not have this understanding.
I asked the developer is there was any other way I could help with this project, and he told me that I could maybe help to translate the game to my language.
I asked the developer if there was any other way I could help with this project, and he told me that I could maybe help to translate the game to my language.
Unluckily, the work was already done, a complete French translation of the game was already done, so there was nothing I could do.
## Making a Contribution
## Making my first contribution
Even though, I was glad that I found such a cool project with a very active community, it was still an unsuccessful attempt
since I did not really help on this project.
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@@ -64,11 +72,33 @@ Obviously, it is not easy when you are not the one who wrote the code.
I wrote an explanation to the project owner, and I made a pull request.
I am still waiting for an answer, and I hope I will be merged (should be granted as my fix is working just fine).
He made a review of my code and suggested some minor changes to make it better.
I followed his instructions : I used a pre-built function and changed the location of my fix,
so it does not have to be used several time but only once, hence it was more modular.
After that, he merged my pull request.
## Working on a bigger project
After making this first contribution to a humble project, I searched for a bigger one with several contributor.
I found a project named ScholarX which is platform providing a 6-month program for Sri-Lankan undergraduate
who would like to get free premium mentoring during their study period.
The issue I worked on is the following : Preventing duplicate mentee applications.
A mentee can select the course we want to attend ,but I needed to make sure a mentee cannot select it twice.
The code was easy, it only required an SQL request on two tables to see if an application did not already exist.
If an application did already exist, the application is simply cancelled and an error message appears.
After submitting my code, some of my mistakes were corrected by a developer.
Once my code successfully passed all the tests, my pull request was merged.
I chatted with this developer to ask him some questions about this project.
I learned it was a free to use platform aiming at creating a sustainable flow of knowledge back into Sri Lanka
It is meant to help fill some void left by the country's brain drain.
It was a fascinating exchange that made me understand the relevancy of this project, it was great.
## Conclusion
It was a lot of fun discovering these two projects, I am still frustrated I could not help on the first one since it was really
It was a lot of fun discovering these three projects, I am still frustrated I could not help on the first one since it was really
what I wanted to do initially. However, it helped me to realise that contributing to this kind of huge projects require
at least a small experience on working in such an environment and is very time-consuming.
Still, seeing a massive community working on an open source game was really cool.
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@@ -76,5 +106,9 @@ Still, seeing a massive community working on an open source game was really cool
Regarding the shop application, it was a much more humble project, but it was really satisfying to feel that I am able
to fix some minor issues and be helpful to someone.
I am glad I finally found a nice project such as ScholarX, it is really satisfying to help on a real platform used by other people,
it made me feel useful and the community was great, so it was an amazing experience.
I am used to working on my own projects but the feeling is not the same with open source projects.
I was not aware of this "issues" thing on GitHub and I find this feature of solving other people problems really awesome.
Maybe I will keep looking for some of them in the future.
