Hi,
I am Atul Agrawal, an undergrad at BITS Pilani I will be participating in GSoC this year. [GSoC 2013]. In order to imporve my chances for getting selected this year, I would like to start contributing early on to Open Source development via mediaWiki.
Here's a little background info :
Languages proficient in : Java, C,PHP Javascript [+jQuery] , HTML[+HTML5 Canvas], CSS [+CSS3]. C++ should be on the list soon.
CS Theory : Discrete Math, Probablity and Random Processes, Data Structures and Algorithms.
I installed MediaWiki software and I was going through the link "become a MediaWiki hacker".My question is how will the community judge me?Do I have to create a new extension?And whom should I report?
Thanks,
Hi Atul,
On 02/25/2013 12:12 PM, Atul Agrawal wrote:>
I installed MediaWiki software and I was going through the link "become a MediaWiki hacker".My question is how will the community judge me?Do I have to create a new extension?And whom should I report?
Those are very good questions. GSOC apart, people here (as in most communities) will probably judge at the end how helpful / useful you are.
For a programmer, fixing bugs effectively is a way to learn and be helpful at the same time. You can start with something small and grow the weight of your fixes as your experience grows. Here is a good starting point:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Annoying_Little_Bug
PS: Very good start so far!
Thanks a lot.Will try to fix bugs.But what knowledge should I have to fix bugs?knowing php is sufficient?Till now I have read this page( Developing_Extensionshttp://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Developing_extensions.If you can share the documents one should read before fixing bugs,I will be highly obliged.
Thanks for replying
On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 1:58 AM, Quim Gil qgil@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hi Atul,
On 02/25/2013 12:12 PM, Atul Agrawal wrote:>
I installed MediaWiki software and I was going through the link "become a MediaWiki hacker".My question is how will the community judge me?Do I have to create a new extension?And whom should I report?
Those are very good questions. GSOC apart, people here (as in most communities) will probably judge at the end how helpful / useful you are.
For a programmer, fixing bugs effectively is a way to learn and be helpful at the same time. You can start with something small and grow the weight of your fixes as your experience grows. Here is a good starting point:
https://www.mediawiki.org/**wiki/Annoying_Little_Bughttps://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Annoying_Little_Bug
PS: Very good start so far!
-- Quim Gil Technical Contributor Coordinator @ Wikimedia Foundation http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/**User:Qgilhttp://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Qgil
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On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 9:23 AM, Atul Agrawal adi.mdkk2@gmail.com wrote:
Thanks a lot.Will try to fix bugs.But what knowledge should I have to fix bugs?knowing php is sufficient?Till now I have read this page( Developing_Extensions< http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Developing_extensions%3E.If you can share the documents one should read before fixing bugs,I will be highly obliged.
I've been collecting a few links at http://www.mediawiki.org/?oldid=651991#MediaWiki_reference that might be useful for newcomer developers to get a first overview of various components of the MediaWiki universe.
Let me know if those are helpful to you and what you think is missing from that list. Bear in mind that it's a work in progress, though.
--Waldir
ps - while you're at that page, if you find some interest in any of some of the bugs I've listed in the "easy" part of the "Potential bugs for hacking sessions" section, I'd love to help you go about fixing them.
On 02/26/2013 06:40 AM, Waldir Pimenta wrote:
I've been collecting a few links at http://www.mediawiki.org/?oldid=651991#MediaWiki_reference that might be useful for newcomer developers to get a first overview of various components of the MediaWiki universe.
Your help is welcome aligning your selection with http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Developer_hub
By the way, do we really need 23 links under "Key documents", after the 23 links contained at the "Overview" section, following the first paragraph containing 5 links?
No wonder someone like Atul keeps asking about what to read for a first contribution.
Let me know if those are helpful to you and what you think is missing from that list. Bear in mind that it's a work in progress, though.
Thanks for the pointer.
My main concern with that page and most documentation on mw.org (and the reason I started a personal list, so I could quickly find the stuff that matters to me) is that it's too massive, with too many links (as you noted yourself) and too much stuff highlighted, and I honestly feel a little overwhelmed reading it, finding myself following links only to find out that their target doesn't provide the information at the abstraction level that I expected.
I'll speculate a little, and suggest that the root of this disorientation happens due to not separating reference docs from tutorial docs, from what I'll call "guided overviews", and allowing each of these to clearly assume one of those identities.
The list I've been putting together comprises reference docs, essentially index-like material that one can look up whenever one needs information on a specific part of mediawiki; There isn't much done in this regard. Brion once started a page which he called "Module registryhttps://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Modular_registry_of_components", in 2009, which looked promising but it wasn't updated since.
Tutorials should be mostly aimed at absolute newcomers: very short, and with a rather gentle learning curve; i.e., they should not introduce too many concepts too fast, nor assume a lot of previous knowledge. modular, interconnected compoments should be described in separate pages and hyperlinked so budding developers can RTFM, choose-your-own-adventure style. Currently very little of the docs fit that goal.
Guided overviews are like Wikipedia articles: long, descriptive and mostly sequential texts describing an important component of the mediawiki infrastructure, such as the skinning system, or the messages API. I actually am not sure about the usefulness of such long guides, since newcomers will have a hard time following them, and experts will likely benefit more from index-like reference material. Maybe they should be broken down into interconnected bite-sized tutorials.
I just came up with these categories, so there are probably many flaws to this analysis, but at a glance this seems like a good-enough overview of the state of our docs and what (in my humble opinion) needs to be done. Maybe my position won't be shared by many, but I'll be content if it causes some discussion about what overall strategy we need to implement to improve MW docs (which is undeniably considered important: let's not forget it's bug #1).
--Waldir
On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 10:14 PM, Quim Gil qgil@wikimedia.org wrote:
On 02/26/2013 06:40 AM, Waldir Pimenta wrote:
I've been collecting a few links at http://www.mediawiki.org/?**oldid=651991#MediaWiki_**referencehttp://www.mediawiki.org/?oldid=651991#MediaWiki_reference that might be useful for newcomer developers to get a first overview of various components of the MediaWiki universe.
Your help is welcome aligning your selection with http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/**Developer_hubhttp://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Developer_hub
By the way, do we really need 23 links under "Key documents", after the 23 links contained at the "Overview" section, following the first paragraph containing 5 links?
No wonder someone like Atul keeps asking about what to read for a first contribution.
Let me know if those are helpful to you and what you think is missing from
that list. Bear in mind that it's a work in progress, though.
-- Quim Gil Technical Contributor Coordinator @ Wikimedia Foundation http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/**User:Qgilhttp://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Qgil
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Thank you Waldir for your analysis of
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Developer_hub
On 02/26/2013 04:01 PM, Waldir Pimenta wrote:
My main concern with that page is that it's too massive, with too many links and too much stuff highlighted, and I honestly feel a little overwhelmed reading it
I agree, and this is exactly the opposite of what a Developer Hub should be.
I'll speculate a little, and suggest that the root of this disorientation happens due to not separating reference docs from tutorial docs, from what I'll call "guided overviews", and allowing each of these to clearly assume one of those identities.
And more: that overwhelming page focuses on PHP / MediaWiki core / extensions while all the newer areas of development are still missing. A Developer Hub must be the hub for all developers.
Following with your proposal, we could have:
Developer Hub: a general overview with a very focused selection of links to send people to appropriate places. Less is more.
/Get started (or similar name): intro for newcomers with relevant links.
/Reference (or similar name): what developers need on a regular basis.
Developer Hub and Get started should be more concise and visually pleasant, satisfying new developers. Reference is for usual suspects, so it could have more beef and links in order to have everything in one place.
Do you think this makes sense? Should we start discussing at http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:Developer_hub ?
On Wed, Feb 27, 2013 at 3:39 PM, Quim Gil qgil@wikimedia.org wrote:
And more: that overwhelming page focuses on PHP / MediaWiki core / extensions while all the newer areas of development are still missing. A Developer Hub must be the hub for all developers.
Agreed.
Following with your proposal, we could have:
- Developer Hub: a general overview with a very focused selection of links
to send people to appropriate places. Less is more.
- /Get started (or similar name): intro for newcomers with relevant links.
- /Reference (or similar name): what developers need on a regular basis.
Developer Hub and Get started should be more concise and visually pleasant, satisfying new developers. Reference is for usual suspects, so it could have more beef and links in order to have everything in one place.
Do you think this makes sense? Should we start discussing at http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/**Talk:Developer_hubhttp://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:Developer_hub?
Yes, that makes sense, though we need to think about how the pages in the Manual namespace would fit this arrangement. Other developers' opinions (seasoned and newcomers alike) would be quite valuable to prevent wasted effort due to overlooking details like these.
Also, I agree that it would be best to have this discussion at Talk:Developer hub. Perhaps copying this thread there (or linking to the mailing list archives) would be a good idea, to provide context.
--Waldir
Good that least you and me agree on the basics. :)
On 02/27/2013 08:50 AM, Waldir Pimenta wrote:
Also, I agree that it would be best to have this discussion at Talk:Developer hub. Perhaps copying this thread there (or linking to the mailing list archives) would be a good idea, to provide context.
More feedback and details are welcome at
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:Developer_hub#Developer_Hub_update
On 02/26/2013 01:23 AM, Atul Agrawal wrote:
Thanks a lot.Will try to fix bugs.But what knowledge should I have to fix bugs?knowing php is sufficient?Till now I have read this page( Developing_Extensionshttp://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Developing_extensions.If you can share the documents one should read before fixing bugs,I will be highly obliged.
We have many different software projects, and what to read depends pon what bugs you want to fix.
Why not choosing first a project or a bug that interests you, and then learn about the pieces involved as you try to fix it?
We can help you find a first bug. What is your area of interest?
@Waldir:working on the link you sent me.I will notify you if I need any help
@Quim:While I will love to work under a project and be guided .It will be great if you can suggest some beginner level project and I can work with someone or by my own. I will like to solve arithmetic bugs,logical bugs,deadlock situation and teamworking bugs. And one more thing as mediaWiki documentation is so vast, how will I know in which specific area I have to develop my skills so that I will able to get the idea as well as solve it which will be proposed for gsoc 2013?Do I need to contact the mentors?
Thanks for being so helpful.
Atul
On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 9:13 PM, Quim Gil qgil@wikimedia.org wrote:
On 02/26/2013 01:23 AM, Atul Agrawal wrote:
Thanks a lot.Will try to fix bugs.But what knowledge should I have to fix bugs?knowing php is sufficient?Till now I have read this page( Developing_Extensions<http://**www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:** Developing_extensionshttp://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Developing_extensions
.If
you can share the documents one should read before fixing bugs,I will be highly obliged.
We have many different software projects, and what to read depends pon what bugs you want to fix.
Why not choosing first a project or a bug that interests you, and then learn about the pieces involved as you try to fix it?
We can help you find a first bug. What is your area of interest?
-- Quim Gil Technical Contributor Coordinator @ Wikimedia Foundation http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/**User:Qgilhttp://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Qgil
______________________________**_________________ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/**mailman/listinfo/wikitech-lhttps://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
Atul, one of the fun projects that has been sitting on my backburner is to implement errors and warnings localization for the Web API. The project would involve some planning, figuring out translation framework, and later - converting all API modules and extensions to use it. As a result, all clients, including mobile, will be able to report errors to the users in their native language. I am not sure how GSOC supervision functions, but I will definitely be involved with the implementation.
This is slightly bigger than a bug fix, but should be fairly independent from everything and will give you good exposure into internals as well as javascript and other clients.
On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 11:20 AM, Atul Agrawal adi.mdkk2@gmail.com wrote:
@Waldir:working on the link you sent me.I will notify you if I need any help
@Quim:While I will love to work under a project and be guided .It will be great if you can suggest some beginner level project and I can work with someone or by my own. I will like to solve arithmetic bugs,logical bugs,deadlock situation and teamworking bugs. And one more thing as mediaWiki documentation is so vast, how will I know in which specific area I have to develop my skills so that I will able to get the idea as well as solve it which will be proposed for gsoc 2013?Do I need to contact the mentors?
Thanks for being so helpful.
Atul
On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 9:13 PM, Quim Gil qgil@wikimedia.org wrote:
On 02/26/2013 01:23 AM, Atul Agrawal wrote:
Thanks a lot.Will try to fix bugs.But what knowledge should I have to
fix
bugs?knowing php is sufficient?Till now I have read this page( Developing_Extensions<http://**www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:** Developing_extensions<
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Developing_extensions%3E
.If
you can share the documents one should read before fixing bugs,I will be highly obliged.
We have many different software projects, and what to read depends pon what bugs you want to fix.
Why not choosing first a project or a bug that interests you, and then learn about the pieces involved as you try to fix it?
We can help you find a first bug. What is your area of interest?
-- Quim Gil Technical Contributor Coordinator @ Wikimedia Foundation http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/**User:Qgil<
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Qgil%3E
______________________________**_________________ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/**mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l<
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l%3E
-- Atul Agrawal B.E Mechanical BITS PILANI Goa Campus Mobile:+91-81491-95049 _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 9:59 PM, Yuri Astrakhan yuriastrakhan@gmail.comwrote:
Atul, one of the fun projects that has been sitting on my backburner is to implement errors and warnings localization for the Web API. The project would involve some planning, figuring out translation framework, and later
- converting all API modules and extensions to use it. As a result, all
clients, including mobile, will be able to report errors to the users in their native language. I am not sure how GSOC supervision functions, but I will definitely be involved with the implementation.
This is slightly bigger than a bug fix, but should be fairly independent from everything and will give you good exposure into internals as well as javascript and other clients.
I think this is a potential 'good' project itself. There are also small tasks associated that the applicant can learn from, say properly handle the errors and warnings in an extension that doesn't already do it.
On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 11:20 AM, Atul Agrawal adi.mdkk2@gmail.com wrote:
@Waldir:working on the link you sent me.I will notify you if I need any help
@Quim:While I will love to work under a project and be guided .It will be great if you can suggest some beginner level project and I can work with someone or by my own. I will like to solve arithmetic bugs,logical bugs,deadlock situation and teamworking bugs. And one more thing as mediaWiki documentation is so vast, how will I know in which specific area I have to develop my skills so that I will able to get the idea as well as solve it which will be proposed for gsoc 2013?Do
I
need to contact the mentors?
Thanks for being so helpful.
Atul
On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 9:13 PM, Quim Gil qgil@wikimedia.org wrote:
On 02/26/2013 01:23 AM, Atul Agrawal wrote:
Thanks a lot.Will try to fix bugs.But what knowledge should I have to
fix
bugs?knowing php is sufficient?Till now I have read this page( Developing_Extensions<http://**www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:** Developing_extensions<
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Developing_extensions%3E
.If
you can share the documents one should read before fixing bugs,I will
be
highly obliged.
We have many different software projects, and what to read depends pon what bugs you want to fix.
Why not choosing first a project or a bug that interests you, and then learn about the pieces involved as you try to fix it?
We can help you find a first bug. What is your area of interest?
-- Quim Gil Technical Contributor Coordinator @ Wikimedia Foundation http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/**User:Qgil<
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Qgil%3E
______________________________**_________________ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/**mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l<
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l%3E
-- Atul Agrawal B.E Mechanical BITS PILANI Goa Campus Mobile:+91-81491-95049 _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
On 02/26/2013 08:29 AM, Yuri Astrakhan wrote:
I am not sure how GSOC supervision functions, but I will definitely be involved with the implementation.
Everything starts with you (and any other potential mentors) adding yourself to https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Summer_of_Code_2013#Mentors :)
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