Hi Jeremy, Thank you for your encouraging reply. I understand your points and agree for the most part, especially with the mentorship discussion that you made.
I wasn't too sure about attempting to work on a more sizeable project (although I preferred that) but if you are saying that it's a reasonable thing to do, I might as well try that. I have already started checking out the larger Haskell projects. On Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 12:04 PM, Jeremy O'Donoghue < jeremy.odonog...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Dan, > > I am the maintainer of wxHaskell, but please don't let that worry you, as > I'm actually not going to go on and recommend wxHaskell as an Open Source > project for a relative beginner - it is architecturally complex, and you > need to know as much C++ as you do Haskell. You might choose to *use* > wxHaskell in any project you undertake, but that is a different matter. > > I'm also a software engineering manager in my day job, so I have a lot of > experience of what a good intern (those who come to me have generally > completed their second year of undergraduate studies in the UK) can achieve > - usually in fairly hardcore embedded C++, but that's beside the point. > > On 11 April 2012 22:52, Dan Cristian Octavian <danoctavia...@gmail.com>wrote: > >> >> I am a second year computer science student who is very interested in >> working on a haskell open source project. I have no particular focus on a >> certain type of application. I am open to ideas and to exploring new >> fields. What kind of project should I look for considering that I am a >> beginner? (Any particular project proposals would be greatly appreciated). >> > > Long experience of many types of software project tells me that before > everything else you should choose something which interests you. You need a > reason to want to understand, analyze and generally get stuck into a > codebase, and having an interest is what gives you that motivation. > > At the same time, please don't let being a 'beginner' be too much of a > barrier. I tell new interns that by the end of their internship they will > be debugging multithreaded kernel-mode C++ code on an embedded target > confidently and they look at me as though I am mad. However, they have all > (so far) managed to succeed in doing just that kind of thing. Don't > underestimate your ability to understand new concepts when you have a > reason to focus hard on them. > > What will help you a great deal is good mentorship. Working on a project > where the development team can take time to explain to you how (and why) > they think things should be done in a particular way will accelerate your > learning to a remarkable degree. Far more than 100 lectures, in fact. You > should also try to choose a project which is well documented - this will > help you to understand how everything hands together. > > Is the entry bar too high for most projects out there for somebody lacking >> experience such as me so that I should try getting some experience on my >> own first? >> > > It is amazing what you can do when you actually make a start! I'm assuming > that you are somewhat familiar with Haskell at this point (e.g. worked your > way through most of Learn You a Haskell or Real World Haskell, and felt > like you grasped at least 50% - if you haven't, do that first). > > The key is to start with something fairly small and then use it to build > up to something bigger. Most sizeable projects (wxHaskell, Gtk2Hs, Darcs, > Yi, Yesod and many others) will have things on the 'to do' list which are > not too large and maintainers who should be able to help. > > Would it be a better idea to try to hack on my own project rather than >> helping on an existing one? >> > > I think you would learn more by contributing to an existing project. > Whether that is of overwhelming importance is a question only you can > answer. > > Regards > Jeremy >
_______________________________________________ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
