kubuntu-devel Digest, Vol 34, Issue 20

[Jos Poortvliet]

On 10/25/07, William Egert <begert at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hey All,
>
> I suppose I am in the same boat as Laurent.  I would like to start
> contributing to my favorite OS :)
> I know C++ and would eventually like to learn Python, but not exactly sure
> how/where to get started.  I have been submitting bugs and trying to help
> with triage but would like to also do more.  I think doing packaging could
> be beneficial to everyone but really just want to help in any way I can.
>
> So...Hi,
> Bill (begert)

Well, same to you - you could contribute to KDE (3.5/4), and getting a
development environment up around those is a good step (
techbase.kde.org ) - even if you want to work on Kubuntu specific
things.

Often, it's most fun to start doing something about something which
annoys you as developer (the famous "scratch your own itch"). Take a
tool or application which misses something, or has a bug/problem.
Figure out if it's fixed in the upcoming release (to avoid
duplication) and if not, try to fix it and get your fix to the
developer maintaining the application. They'll most likely give you
some pointers on how to improve your patch, and in time offer you/ask
you to apply for a SVN account so you can work on your own. This goes
for both Kubuntu-tools and generic KDE things, of course. And feel
free to contact developers if you have questions - they're always
happy to have help, and can often give pointers to where the
problem/solution lies and what needs improvements.

Again, if someone asks here for help on some Kubuntu-specific thing
(eg the unbreakable-X-KDM-support would be cool, but probably rather
complex), go for it. Or find some Kubuntu tool which could be
improved. If there are none which interest you, any KDE improvement
will trickle down into the Kubuntu repositories, and we're very much
in need of help for the 4.0 release (we really really need ppl testing
it and fixing the minor bugs and annoyances - due to a lack of testers
for the previous beta's, there are many small things which don't work
as they should). If you're going for KDE 4.0, please consider having a
look at the global "configure toolbar" thing in KDE, it's broken in
4.0 and needs some thinking and usability work. A more firefox-like
thing (ability to directly drag'n'drop to the toolbar itself) would
rock...

Have fun


Jos