Re: How To Pick And Work On A Microproject

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Oct 5, 2023, 22:42 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqq7co0elnt.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <CACS=G2z84_-WkWa-BnK8bNNqb9z_o37BC3-kb_NkrjzAL=r4Sg@mail.gmail.com>

Naomi Ibe <naomi.ibeh69@gmail.com> writes:

> "Select a microproject and check that it has not yet been taken or
> discussed by searching the mailing list. Public Inbox is your friend."

Yeah, that is VERY unfriendly. There is no mention on the pool of microproject ideas from which you can "select" here. I wonder if some HTML link is missing in the sentence (i.e., clicking a word leading to a page that lists what you can select from), or it has always been like this.

Later in the same document, I see

    How to find other ideas for microprojects

    First check the specific page(s) or information about Git
    microprojects related to your program that should have been
    published on this site or on the GSoC or Outreachy site. But then
    still read on everything below!

which is much more realistic, as long as the "specific page(s)" are well curated (which I have no idea myself, as I have never been in the mentoring pool). Naomi, have you checked and found such a page on Outreachy site?

Then it goes on to suggest finding a bug report, but I tend to think that fixing them is way oversized to be a good microproject.

And finally it gives a casual mention of good+first+issue, which is probably the closest to what _should_ be listed as the first place to try (sorry, I however do not know how well the list is curated, either, but from a cursory look it looks legit).

https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3A%22good+first+issue%22

There also is a mention of #leftoverbits in the document, but by its nature, they can easily become stale or irrelevant, and they tend to be more real issues, and I would expect them to be unnecessarily harder than what dip-your-toe-in-the-water-and-say-hello microprojects need to be.