from Hacker News

Ask HN: Is there a need for Training plan docs for Open Source projects?

by baradhiren07 on 3/23/19, 5:37 AM with 2 comments

I was just playing around with this idea for some time to go through some of the opensource projects. I started with cloning one of the projects but have no idea where to start.

So, (I might have been coming to a conclusion of my own here) Do you guys think that there will be more people like me out there who think about contributing to opensource projects but because of no awareness about the structure of the project OR which area will be good to start from they leave the idea about contributing altogether?

I think a basic graph of the structure of the program or a basic document explaining from where to start and how to go from there might help a number of people understanding opensource projects and that way we might get more contributors as well.

I was also thinking about using tools like gitKraken to traverse through the history of the project and understanding it from the ground to top. But some of the projects might not have started from Git and for them, a bit of an understanding on structure level can be helpful.

Sorry, for the long description still in the process of improving my English skills.

  • by brudgers on 3/23/19, 1:43 PM

    Making a tool to automate training plan documents might be a good way for you to contribute to open source. Asking project maintainers to make training plan documents is not a contribution. It's just more work for the project maintainer. Most projects can't handle the management overhead of contributors who haven't invested a lot of time in understanding the project. Few projects want contributors who value their own time more highly than the project maintainer's time.