Becoming a Go Contributor

Kevin Burke

@derivativeburke

What does "contributing" mean?

Clip from the movie 'The Truman Show' where Truman explains he would like to be an explorer. Text above the image reads 'I'd like to be a contributor'

Clip from the movie 'The Truman Show' where the teacher explains to Truman that the entire world has been explored. Text above the image reads 'But the standard library is already complete'

Ashley Macnamara explaining you do not need to be a wizard to contribute

Contribute by using Go

Notice confusion

Notice confusion

mail.ParseAddress("A (middle) B <a@b.com>")
>>> mail: no angle-addr

Small effort, big reward

1.1 million Go developers
1% use net/mail: 11000 people
1% hit edge case: 110 people

source: Russ Cox

Contribute error reports

How to file a bug report

What were you trying to do?
What did you expect to see?
What did you see?
How can I reproduce it?

Contribute reduced
test cases

Ideal reduced test case

Produces the error 100% of the time
In a small, fast program
On a common-ish OS

Example Reduced Case

An example of a reduced test case

Reduced test cases can
suggest contributions

Contribute Examples

Examples help because
people don't read

An example of an example

The fmt package in golang

List of API's provided by the fmt package

The fmt package has a single example

Contribute Documentation

The scrypt package: golang.org/x/crypto/scrypt

Docs for the scrypt package

Scrypt docs mention what the parameters should be for 2009, which is old.

Step 1: file issue

Github issue about scrypt parameters

Commit updating the scrypt parameters

Contribute to the golang.org/x repos

Gopherbot is a tool whose source code is in the golang.org/x/build repo

Trybots run a change on a ton of different machines to check for errors. A photo of the Trybot dashboard

There are lots of improvements that can be made to the Trybot dashboard

How do you get started contributing?

If we were racing cars in Tokyo a flashy entrance would be a good idea.

Lower your expectations for your first contribution

Expectations

My second change was a one character change

Expectations, cont'd

My third change was a typo fix two months after the second one

Expectations, cont'd

My fourth change was also a typo fix, two months after the third one

No change is too small

Small commits are common

I have 226 commits
118 under 20 LOC, 108 over
Bradfitz: 1030 of 2200 Gerrit
commits under 20 LOC

Small commits to start

I've seen someone barely dip their toe into adjusting the Node.js website...

Mikeal Rogers (@mikeal)

Small commits to start

...helped on-board more committers, and is now one of the top level decision makers in Node.js Core.

Mikeal Rogers (@mikeal)

Practice committing:
bit.ly/goscratch

The scratch repo

Photo of the 'scratch' repository for testing the Go contribution process

The scratch repo (cont'd)

Reviewing a change to the scratch repo

Theory of Contributing

Get an idea
Investigate it
Get stuck
Figure out a way OR quit

Don't get stuck, get help!

Resources for Help

golang-dev mailing list
#gocontributing/#goreviews Slack
Post the CL / explain where you got stuck
It's OK to not know/make mistakes

Getting stuck is on
Go team, too

Should you contribute?

OSS is (largely) free labor

It might be worth it!

Organize

Thanks!

Kevin Burke

kev.inburke.com

kev@inburke.com

@derivativeburke

These slides are available at:

kev.inburke.com/slides/becoming-go-contributor

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