Re: Git in Outreachy December 2019?

From: Pratyush Yadav <me@yadavpratyush.com>
Date: Sep 8, 2019, 14:56 UTC
Message-ID: <20190908145610.3ho2wo5qqiw3u4lz@yadavpratyush.com>
In-Reply-To: <20190904194114.GA31398@sigill.intra.peff.net>

Hi Jeff,

On 04/09/19 03:41PM, Jeff King wrote: [snip]

Show 11 quoted lines

> The project page has a section to point people in the right direction
> for first-time contributions. I've left it blank for now, but I think it
> makes sense to point one (or both) of:
> 
>   - https://git-scm.com/docs/MyFirstContribution
> 
>   - https://matheustavares.gitlab.io/posts/first-steps-contributing-to-git
> 
> as well as a list of micro-projects (or at least instructions on how to
> find #leftoverbits, though we'd definitely have to step up our labeling,
> as I do not recall having seen one for a while).

I'd like to put out a proposal regarding first contributions and micro projects.

I have a small list of small isolated features and bug fixes that _I think_ git-gui would benefit with. And other people using it can probably add their pet peeves and issues as well. My question is, are these something new contributors should try to work on as an introduction to the community? Since most of these features and fixes are small and isolated, they should be pretty easy to work on. And I think people generally find UI apps a little easier to work on.

But I'll play the devil's advocate on my proposal and point out some 
problems/flaws:
- Git-gui is written in Tcl, and git in C (and other languages too, but 
  not Tcl). That means while people do get a feel of the community and 
  general workflow, they don't necessarily get a feel of the actual git 
  internal codebase.
- Since I don't see a git-gui related project worth being into the 
  Outreachy program, it essentially means they will likely not work on 
  anything related to their project.
- Git-gui is essentially a wrapper on top of git, so people won't get 
  exposure to the git internals.

I'd like to hear your and the rest of the community's thoughts about this proposal, and whether it will be a good idea or not.

If people do like this idea, I can do a write up on "things to fix in git-gui" that people can add to (and they get a chance to call me stupid for even thinking feature X is a good idea ;)).

-- 
Regards,
Pratyush Yadav