Re: Newbie Involvement

I think your original advice was probably sound, the difficulty is taking the first step. The problem is everything is hard until you know it, then all of a sudden it is all very simple and obvious. The trick is realising this. In my experience of OS projects they are crying out for people to do 'stuff' as long as those people are committed. Exactly what you can do will depend upon the project, to start with documentation (tiss dull but it gets your head into the project) is a good way to go.

I would suggest taking a big jump find a project on source forge that interests you and joining their mailing list, offer your services and see what happens.. you may surprise yourself. You have nothing to lose, if you are honest about your experience then no-one can as more.
-- Zigster

Comment on Re: Newbie Involvement

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Re: Re: Newbie Involvement by PsychoSpunk (Hermit) on Nov 29, 2000 at 01:26 UTC
To the extent that the problem that everything is hard until you know it, I'm going to disagree. Hard is the wrong adjective to use, and albeit a semantic disagreement, it is an important semantic choice. Perhaps, it is the most important choice, but that is for pundits to ultimately decide. I think the real issue, and one which I am working on daily, is that the solution is dull until you know the language, then all of the sudden it is very vibrant and creative. I think that what causes us to think something is very "hard" is that we equate simple with dull. I'm not talking about using the advanced features of the language to do something simply. I'm talking about using simple, almost elementary, commands to achieve the task. This is dull. But we know we can achieve it this way. We also know that this code does not impress many people. So, the suggestions that you pore over as much code as you can and tear into documentation like it's a big juicy steak are the best ones out there to teach you those vibrant solutions and perhaps even why it is the best solution. ALL HAIL BRAK!!!	[reply]

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Re: Re: Newbie Involvement
by PsychoSpunk (Hermit) on Nov 29, 2000 at 01:26 UTC

I think the real issue, and one which I am working on daily, is that the solution is dull until you know the language, then all of the sudden it is very vibrant and creative.

I think that what causes us to think something is very "hard" is that we equate simple with dull. I'm not talking about using the advanced features of the language to do something simply. I'm talking about using simple, almost elementary, commands to achieve the task. This is dull. But we know we can achieve it this way. We also know that this code does not impress many people.

So, the suggestions that you pore over as much code as you can and tear into documentation like it's a big juicy steak are the best ones out there to teach you those vibrant solutions and perhaps even why it is the best solution.

ALL HAIL BRAK!!!

[reply]