2 ms·

Ask HN: Tips for finding FOSS in need of documentation help?

I've wanted to learn to program for a lot of years[1] while dealing with a raft load of personal issues, thus failing to learn to program. My current baby step goal is to submit at least one pull request per week so it becomes a natural and easy process for me. I submitted my first pull request back in November for a typo in documentation. I submitted my second one today and it took more than a month to make that happen from the time I had the idea, including roughly a week of beating my head against the wall trying to sort out what I was doing wrong. It seems like just doing some small pull request regularly so it becomes easy will take less time than relearning the process every few months. Given that I'm a writer by trade and I don't really program, finding typos in documentation (or similar) seems like the low-hanging-fruit option for me. I don't know how to readily find places that need such help. I'm an outsider when it comes to the github ecosystem and all that. I've tried to google it, etc. I'm not readily hitting pay dirt. I'm hoping a few replies from people in the know will help me jump start this process, saving me weeks or months of spinning my wheels. Thank you! [1] My first post to HN nearly 12 years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=713015

sundarurfriend 6y ago
Most big (and many small) github projects have a "doc" tag on their issues, for issues that are about documentation work. A general search like https://github.com/search?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%22doc%22 https://github.com/search?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%22... is a good place to look through these, or you could search for 'label:"doc"' in any specific projects you're interested in helping out.
- DoreenMichele 6y ago
  Thanks. I've clicked the link and it will take me some time to begin understanding what I am looking at, but it's at least not a pointless google search pulling up articles saying "An easy way to contribute to open source is to contribute to documentation!" while failing to tell me where I can find documentation to edit.
gus_massa 6y ago
Essentially all projects need help. My recommendation is to read the docs of the projects you use, and wait until you find a typo or a badly written sentence. The advantage of a project you use is that you probably know the jargon, and can distinguish what is jargon and what is a typo. Note that error messages and comment in code have also many typos, so it's another source of small fixes. If you want a random project, you can try Racket. The docs are in https://github.com/racket/racket/tree/master/pkgs/racket-doc https://github.com/racket/racket/tree/master/pkgs/racket-doc There is a friendly guide for contributions in https://blog.racket-lang.org/2017/09/tutorial-contributing-to-racket.html https://blog.racket-lang.org/2017/09/tutorial-contributing-t... but I'd wish it were more simple. I prefer to use "TortoiseGit" in Windows and "Git Cola" in Linux instead of using the git commands directly. It's much more simple and works 99% of the time. Remember that posting an issue with a report of the error is also helpful. And if you explain that you want to send it as a pull request, people may help.
- DoreenMichele 6y ago
  Thanks. I have downloaded the github app to my phone. I likely wouldn't have wondered if there was an app if you hadn't mentioned other options. One of my issues is I don't use stuff like Linux, so I really don't use any FOSS repositories. Maybe someday, but not today.
  - gus_massa 6y ago
    I use mostly Windows, and I use Virtualbox, Shotcut, Gimp, Inkscape, Audacity, Geogebra, OBS, and perhaps a few more. (And LaTeX that has a weird license, but is almost "free".) (And Linux, Geany, Git Cola, in the virtual box.) [In case you are wondering, I didn't send PR for them.] There is a common part for contributing to any of them, that is cloning the repository and uploading the changes to Github, so any project is good for starting. On the other hand, each project has it's weird quirks, like tab vs spaces, formatting rules, merges vs rebase, if the github repo is the main repo of a mirror, if the maintainer is a moron, ... so YMMV.

sundarurfriend 6y ago

Most big (and many small) github projects have a "doc" tag on their issues, for issues that are about documentation work. A general search like https://github.com/search?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%22doc%22 https://github.com/search?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%22... is a good place to look through these, or you could search for 'label:"doc"' in any specific projects you're interested in helping out.

DoreenMichele 6y ago
Thanks. I've clicked the link and it will take me some time to begin understanding what I am looking at, but it's at least not a pointless google search pulling up articles saying "An easy way to contribute to open source is to contribute to documentation!" while failing to tell me where I can find documentation to edit.

gus_massa 6y ago

Essentially all projects need help. My recommendation is to read the docs of the projects you use, and wait until you find a typo or a badly written sentence. The advantage of a project you use is that you probably know the jargon, and can distinguish what is jargon and what is a typo. Note that error messages and comment in code have also many typos, so it's another source of small fixes. If you want a random project, you can try Racket. The docs are in https://github.com/racket/racket/tree/master/pkgs/racket-doc https://github.com/racket/racket/tree/master/pkgs/racket-doc There is a friendly guide for contributions in https://blog.racket-lang.org/2017/09/tutorial-contributing-to-racket.html https://blog.racket-lang.org/2017/09/tutorial-contributing-t... but I'd wish it were more simple. I prefer to use "TortoiseGit" in Windows and "Git Cola" in Linux instead of using the git commands directly. It's much more simple and works 99% of the time. Remember that posting an issue with a report of the error is also helpful. And if you explain that you want to send it as a pull request, people may help.

DoreenMichele 6y ago
Thanks. I have downloaded the github app to my phone. I likely wouldn't have wondered if there was an app if you hadn't mentioned other options. One of my issues is I don't use stuff like Linux, so I really don't use any FOSS repositories. Maybe someday, but not today.
- gus_massa 6y ago
  I use mostly Windows, and I use Virtualbox, Shotcut, Gimp, Inkscape, Audacity, Geogebra, OBS, and perhaps a few more. (And LaTeX that has a weird license, but is almost "free".) (And Linux, Geany, Git Cola, in the virtual box.) [In case you are wondering, I didn't send PR for them.] There is a common part for contributing to any of them, that is cloning the repository and uploading the changes to Github, so any project is good for starting. On the other hand, each project has it's weird quirks, like tab vs spaces, formatting rules, merges vs rebase, if the github repo is the main repo of a mirror, if the maintainer is a moron, ... so YMMV.