8 ms·

What can I do for Mozilla

194 points by vishal0123 14y ago

maga 14y ago
The question I often caught myself asking these days.
octo_t 14y ago
This is really cool! Didn't realise NSS was part of the Mozilla project, might start having a read of the bugtracker and see what there is :D
- gkanai 14y ago
  http://www.mozilla.org/projects/security/pki/nss/ http://www.mozilla.org/projects/security/pki/nss/
- justincormack 14y ago
  Apparently it is their only code in C according to this!
  - cpeterso 14y ago
    NSPR (Netscape Portable Runtime) is also C: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/NSPR https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/NSPR
brvs 14y ago
Is there a site like this for open-source projects/orgs in general, not just Mozilla?
- oscargrouch 14y ago
  if not, is a must have.. excelent idea!
  - S4M 14y ago
    It already exists: https://openhatch.org/ https://openhatch.org/
bbx 14y ago
It's a nice initiative but only aimed at developers. Only yesterday, I was browsing this page: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/contribute/ https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/contribute/ (How to get involved with Mozilla). I'm a non-English web designer so I thought "Maybe I could help with something". I find this page more helpful than http://www.whatcanidoformozilla.org/ http://www.whatcanidoformozilla.org/ because it covers a lot of areas. Even if you're just a Firefox user with no web development/design knowledge, you can help spread the word, or translate stuff, or become a software tester. Maybe "What can I do for Mozilla" could include these aspects and turn the website into a step-by-step wizard that would ask questions such as "What are you?" with these following options: developer/designer/writer/publisher/user for example.
- nsmartt 14y ago
  Agreed. I also dislike that I have to click a button (with text that probably isn't accurate anyway) to see the next result. A list of possibilities would be much preferred.
  - jakub_g 14y ago
    There's an alternate stylesheet for the page, but yeah, it's not very discoverable unless you like to read source code or have some extensions installed. In Firefox, one can switch the stylesheet with View > Page Style, don't know how about other browsers.
    - bbx 14y ago
      <link title="Bird's Eye View" href="plain.css" type="text/css" rel="alternate stylesheet"> Amazing! I've been writing CSS for the last 6 years (as my job mainly), and I've never heard of alternate stylesheets. I wonder how many of them I've missed. The only time I provided different styles for the same web page was by adding a class to the body tag, and modifying it using JavaScript.
      - yasth 14y ago
        This is quite probably the only time you've missed them. Seriously just not a feature that caught on (because of poor browser integration, and limited use cases)
redment 14y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4635990 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4635990
- Offler 14y ago
  No harm in putting it back up on the front page again, I never saw it the first time.
oscargrouch 14y ago
I like the human friendly approach.. very smart! i also think that maybe it must have something to young folks entering in the world of technology.. they maybe dont even know any specific computer language.. Something more passion focused.. like "how about to build the nextgen mobile os?" then point to boot2gecko.. Then map some sort of profile.. like if the guy is more focused in system programming, or more visual programming.. or more artistic focused.. After profiling the user will be more easy to point him to the projects he is more likelly to contribute.. anyway, very cool and inspiring initiative.
Ygg2 14y ago
They still haven't updated it with Servo as a Rust project? I'm slightly disappointed.
alecbenzer 14y ago
> C++ > So you like long compile times and incomprehensible error messages? um, okay. edit: oh, nvm, they're just making fun of all the languages
- jakub_g 14y ago
  AFAIU this is not an "official" Mozilla site. Which you can see in the footer ("Created by Josh Matthews"). But I might be wrong.
  - cpeterso 14y ago
    I'm pretty sure this is an official Mozilla website. Plus, Josh Matthews is a Mozilla employee who, among other things, works on contributor engagement.
    - lastontheboat 14y ago
      We're definitely blurring the bounds of official-ness. Everybody in the organization who has seen it is always enthusiastic, and nobody has asked me to remove the tabzilla branding.
  - Osmose 14y ago
    Mozilla webdev here. I could be wrong, but given that the repo is still on Josh's github account (https://github.com/jdm/asknot https://github.com/jdm/asknot) rather than the official Mozilla organization (https://github.com/mozilla/ https://github.com/mozilla/), my guess is that it's not "official". I'm almost certain we know about it after the last time it hit Hacker News, and given the amount of people contributing to it (https://github.com/jdm/asknot/commits/master https://github.com/jdm/asknot/commits/master) there's at least some level of effort in making it better, but it probably doesn't have priority over official entry points for contribution, like http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/contribute/ http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/contribute/
  - McP 14y ago
    It's linked from http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/contribute/#coding http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/contribute/#coding which kind of makes it officialish
TamDenholm 14y ago
After picking PHP (yeh i know, dont hate), the next line was: "So you like your variable names to include dollar signs? That's cool, everyone misses Perl once in a while." Nice touch.
- kostya-kow 14y ago
  I also liked the one for Java is "So you're a believer in AbstractMethodFactoryBeans?" and C++ "So you like long compile times and incomprehensible error messages? That's cool, we do too."
jaredsohn 14y ago
Previous: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4635990 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4635990
michaell2 14y ago
the website organization seems targeted to "special education student at incompetent guidance counselor's office" level of intellectual ability. People who have the smarts to do any serious contribution to Mozilla probably prefer reading meaningful articles, not being spoonfed fortune cookie BS.
cpeterso 14y ago
"Bugs Ahoy" is another way to find ways to help. Bugs Ahoy is a Bugzilla search engine of "mentor bugs" with filters for programming languages and product areas that may interest you. http://www.joshmatthews.net/bugsahoy/?unowned=1 http://www.joshmatthews.net/bugsahoy/?unowned=1
niggler 14y ago
Aren't there paid mozilla employees working on the various items?
- melling 14y ago
  Wouldn't having a 1000 more developers contributing to the project make it even better? 10,000 more?
magg 14y ago
Hi, What is the required knowledge for someone to gain in order to contribute to Mozilla projects?
hackmiester 14y ago
Maybe if I know HTML, then what I can do is make the page fail more gracefully when there is no JS. :) http://puu.sh/2v6hB.png http://puu.sh/2v6hB.png
simonsarris 14y ago
This stuff is pretty inspiring. I'd love to see a broader "What Can I do for the Web", though, and to Mozilla's credit there would be an awful lot of overlap! I'm a full time JS/canvas dev, but I greatly enjoy helping others and writing tutorials, so I've spent my spare time doing just that. (At my peak I had answered more than 10% of all canvas questions ever asked on StackOverflow. I'm putting that in my resume under "poor time management".) I had to stop SO/tut writing last June because of a book deal, but I'm very nearly done, and sites like this inspire me to return to "contributing" to the web. In a lot of ways, I can't wait. I had considered taking some time off my job to do nothing but make JS tutorials, and try to make some "Bob Ross"-style learn to program with JS videos, update the MDN, and hold office hours in StackOverflow chat. My "dream job" would be doing something like that full-time, maybe for a year, but I can't really afford to quit work for more-or-less charitable web stuff just yet. Someday though, probably in a couple years, I'll have the money to "buy" the time.
- reubenmorais 14y ago
  You might be interested in this spot: https://careers.mozilla.org/en-US/position/opLgXfw7 https://careers.mozilla.org/en-US/position/opLgXfw7
saosebastiao 14y ago
This is cool...but it also tells me that I can't do anything for Mozilla. And I find that unfortunate. I wish open source projects would openly solicit help with things like 1) Writing tests 2) Writing documentation and tutorials 3) Bug finding and reporting 4) Bug report maintenance and management 5) Porting to new platforms Not everybody is capable or willing to work on the stuff that devs find glamorous...and a project has no chance of real success without the things I mentioned.
- Osmose 14y ago
  EDIT: Looks like at least some of my links can also be found on http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/contribute/ http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/contribute/. Who knew? My attempt at providing helpful links for your requests (and ignoring the problem of whatcanidoformozilla.org not having this stuff): 1. There's probably better resources for QA for the browser and other Mozilla projects, but the WebQA is awesome at working with contributors and getting them to help on real projects (I've worked on website releases where 100% of our QA and bug verification was done by contributors): https://quality.mozilla.org/teams/web-qa/ https://quality.mozilla.org/teams/web-qa/ 2. MDN is the biggest place contribution like this happens: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Project:How_to_Help https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Project:How_to_Help 3. This seems like a decent resource, specifically the bug reporting guidelines: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/QA https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/QA 4. I'm not sure about this one; A lot of triage happens by the teams working on a specific project, as managing these bugs requires a lot of domain knowledge. Closest link I could find was how to contribute to Bugzilla itself: http://www.bugzilla.org/contribute/ http://www.bugzilla.org/contribute/ 5. This looks like an outdated page (updated February 1st, 2012!) but it has some info on ports. I would recommend joining the #developers channel on the Mozilla IRC and asking around. In general the larger IRC channels will help point you in the right direction.
EllaMentry 14y ago
This provides a really nice intro, but I feel that what many projects are missing is this++ (or ++this), and by that I mean a nice summarized dashboard with a roadmap, links to bug reports, new features, discussions etc. The problem as I see it is I can click through a few buttons and then I get to the last "Tell me More" and it points me to a wiki page, with lots of missing sections, half paragraphs, unfinished bullet points etc. Then there is a link to a bugtracker, on a different domain, with no introduction text, then contributing to the source code is on a different site, with yet another profile to fill in (Once you have gone through the Wiki, Bug Tracker ++ !) Actually I guess my main problem is lack of concise, consistent "Getting Started" documentation (Not just Mozilla, nearly every project - in fact Mozilla is far better than many!). Yes, I could read through pages and pages of wiki but, let's be honest, it's ugly and in some cases badly organized - it just gets the job done (let's somebody who is interested in getting involved in that project find some information they need to bootstrap themselves), rather than lure in new developers. I know many, many excellent developers who would love to try their hand at open source, but simply are not going to spend the hours/days necessary to trek through wiki articles to find what they need, especially on projects they barely know about (Mozilla's Build and Automation tools for example - not public facing, but many many devs have an interest in this area and would love to work on something like that) In an attempt not to just complain, I will offer a few ideas, please steal, iterate and implement! A Dashboard - What are people working on, talking about, planning to do now? What are their blockers? I see so many projects with a Project Website, Wiki, Development Wiki, Bug Tracker, Source Code, Road Map, Discussion Forums etc. All with different branding, not linked together and without actually finding the default page you become lost. Digging further, who are these people, what parts have they worked on? Who can I ask about a certain section of code (git annotate?) Bring developers, testers, writers, artists, support etc. together in one place. When a new feature is being planned, be able to co-ordinate, form a mini strike team and go! Build a style and a community. I see far too many default Bugzilla themes in open source projects. Which is great and fine when you are small and starting out and need to keep track, for someone new wondering around your docs suddenly faced with a blank bugzilla theme with zero branding information anywhere. To summarize: Bigger projects need to do the follow to their on boarding new contributors documentation: Have It. Brand It. Simplify It. (And yes I know, the problem is time and money! But one can dream...) (PS, If there are any projects that would like a C++ programmer with a passion for documentation, give me a shout!)
__herson__ 14y ago
The Spanish translation is really bad, I had to choose it in english in order to understand the purpose of the page.
- lastontheboat 14y ago
  https://github.com/jdm/asknot/blob/master/locales.ini#L62 https://github.com/jdm/asknot/blob/master/locales.ini#L62 I love getting pull requests!
Paul_D_Santana 14y ago
Here is a list of everything available in case anyone might find that more convenient: Languages: - C - C++ - C++ (Firefox) - Java - JavaScript - PHP - Python - Rust C So you think OOP is for hipsters? That's cool, we all get nostalgic sometimes. You could work on: - NSS: The network security pieces of Firefox https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Getting_Started_With_NSS C++ So you like long compile times and incomprehensible error messages? That's cool, we do too. You could work on: - Gecko: The engine that drives Firefox See: C++ (Firefox) - Boot2Gecko: The operating system for Android phones built on web technologies https://wiki.mozilla.org/B2G/Hacking - Thunderbird: The open source email client http://developer.mozilla.org/En/Simple_Thunderbird_build - Seamonkey: The open source web productivity suite http://www.seamonkey-project.org - v8monkey: Implementing the v8 API on top of Spidermonkey http://github.com/zpao/v8monkey - emscripten: Creating a LLVM-to-JS system to allow porting native code to the web https://github.com/kripken/emscripten/ - SVG Project: Help with the implementation and testing of Mozilla's Scalable Vector Graphics engine (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/SVG) https://wiki.mozilla.org/SVG:Contribute - Windows 8 Integration: The Metro-style enabled desktop browser for Windows 8 https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Windows_8_Integration See 3.3 Platform Integration Windows 8 Development - MathML: Display and represent math formulas on the web https://wiki.mozilla.org/MathML:Home_Page C++ (Firefox) That's cool, but not very specific. You could work on: - General Firefox work: I don't really care about the details http://developer.mozilla.org/En/Introduction - Graphics: Lots of work with OpenGL, DirectX, and Skia making things draw quickly https://wiki.mozilla.org/Platform/GFX/Contribute - Accessibility: Make the web more accessible for users using assistive technologies (eg. screenreaders) https://wiki.mozilla.org/Accessibility/Contribute - Networking: Tcp, http, ssl/tls, spdy, and more http://wiki.mozilla.org/Networking - Spidermonkey: The JavaScript engine: if you like compilers, interpreters, JITs, and more https://wiki.mozilla.org/JavaScript:New_to_SpiderMonkey JavaScript So you're a dynamic individual who thinks that, underneath, everything is an object? That's cool, we like to dream as well. You could work on: - Firefox: Did you know that all of the UI is written in JS? See: JavaScript (Firefox) - Mobile Firefox: It's the Gecko engine, with an Android-specific UI. No Android device required. https://wiki.mozilla.org/Mobile/Get_Involved - pdf.js: A PDF viewer written entirely in JavaScript https://wiki.mozilla.org/PDF.js - Shumway: a Flash player written entirely in JavaScript https://github.com/mozilla/shumway/wiki - The addon SDK: The foundation upon which all new kick-ass addons are built https://wiki.mozilla.org/Jetpack - Gaia: the default UI for the web-based mobile operating system Boot2Gecko https://wiki.mozilla.org/Gaia - DXR: The intelligent source code indexing system http://github.com/mozilla/dxr - Thunderbird: The open source email client http://developer.mozilla.org/En/Simple_Thunderbird_build - Seamonkey: The open source web productivity suite http://www.seamonkey-project.org - Web development: We have many large, complicated projects that use JavaScript https://blog.mozilla.com/webdev/get-involved/ - Popcorn: Create interactive media pages that seamlessly integrate video, audio, and traditional web technologies http://www.benmoskowitz.com/?p=527 - Windows 8 Integration: The front end for the Metro-style enabled desktop browser for Windows 8 https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Windows_8_Integration See 3.2 Front End Windows 8 Development - Persona: Implement a new way to safely and easily sign into websites https://wiki.mozilla.org/Persona JavaScript (Firefox) Good choice - there are a lot of different areas if you'd like to specialize. You could work on: - Firefox in general - I don't really care: http://developer.mozilla.org/En/Introduction - Developer tools: Implement a suite of tools similar to Firebug directly in the browser https://wiki.mozilla.org/DevTools/GetInvolved - Sync: Help users take their personal browsing data on the road https://wiki.mozilla.org/Services/Sync#Get_Involved Java So you're a believer in AbstractMethodFactoryBeans? That's cool, we all have our vices. You could work on: - Mobile Firefox: It's the Gecko engine, with an Android-specific UI. No Android device required. https://wiki.mozilla.org/Mobile/Get_Involved - Rhino: It's Spidermonkey in Java. Is this actually still a thing? https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Rhino PHP So you like your variable names to include dollar signs? That's cool, everyone misses Perl once in a while. You can work on: - WordPress: The code that runs our blogs (http://blog.mozilla.org) https://wiki.mozilla.org/Webdev/GetInvolved/WordPress - Marketplace: The PHP client for Marketplace (https://marketplace.firefox.com) https://github.com/mozilla/Marketplace.PHP - The Mediawiki-Bugzilla plugin: The Bugzilla plugin for Mozilla's MediaWiki https://wiki.mozilla.org https://github.com/mozilla/mediawiki-bugzilla Python So you enjoy the paradigm of backtrace-driven development? That's cool, everyone gets a bit tired of static typing once in a while. You can work on: - Firefox: Lots of code is generated by python scripts http://developer.mozilla.org/En/Introduction - Web development: We have many large, complicated projects written in Python https://blog.mozilla.com/webdev/get-involved/ - DXR: The intelligent source code indexing system http://github.com/mozilla/dxr - Tools & Automation: Various projects to facilitate easier automated testing of products https://wiki.mozilla.org/Auto-tools/New_Contributor Rust The new systems programming language created by Mozilla. - Rust: http://www.rust-lang.org
shurcooL 14y ago
Sadly there's no mention of golang.
ancarda 14y ago
I'd love to get into Open Source (right now I'm trying to figure out how to properly use Git). My biggest issue right now is when do I work on it? Is it just in my spare time? Are people able to work on Linux in their spare time? I'm not really sure how it all works to be honest. And if I commit/push an update, how does it eventually end up in Firefox?
- lastontheboat 14y ago
  https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Introduction#Step_5_-_Get_your_code_reviewed https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Introduction#Step_5... should address the last question.

194 points by vishal0123 14y ago

maga 14y ago

The question I often caught myself asking these days.

This is really cool! Didn't realise NSS was part of the Mozilla project, might start having a read of the bugtracker and see what there is :D

gkanai 14y ago
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/security/pki/nss/ http://www.mozilla.org/projects/security/pki/nss/
justincormack 14y ago
Apparently it is their only code in C according to this!
- cpeterso 14y ago
  NSPR (Netscape Portable Runtime) is also C: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/NSPR https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/NSPR

brvs 14y ago

Is there a site like this for open-source projects/orgs in general, not just Mozilla?

oscargrouch 14y ago
if not, is a must have.. excelent idea!
- S4M 14y ago
  It already exists: https://openhatch.org/ https://openhatch.org/

bbx 14y ago

It's a nice initiative but only aimed at developers. Only yesterday, I was browsing this page: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/contribute/ https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/contribute/ (How to get involved with Mozilla). I'm a non-English web designer so I thought "Maybe I could help with something". I find this page more helpful than http://www.whatcanidoformozilla.org/ http://www.whatcanidoformozilla.org/ because it covers a lot of areas. Even if you're just a Firefox user with no web development/design knowledge, you can help spread the word, or translate stuff, or become a software tester. Maybe "What can I do for Mozilla" could include these aspects and turn the website into a step-by-step wizard that would ask questions such as "What are you?" with these following options: developer/designer/writer/publisher/user for example.

nsmartt 14y ago
Agreed. I also dislike that I have to click a button (with text that probably isn't accurate anyway) to see the next result. A list of possibilities would be much preferred.
- jakub_g 14y ago
  There's an alternate stylesheet for the page, but yeah, it's not very discoverable unless you like to read source code or have some extensions installed. In Firefox, one can switch the stylesheet with View > Page Style, don't know how about other browsers.
  - bbx 14y ago
    <link title="Bird's Eye View" href="plain.css" type="text/css" rel="alternate stylesheet"> Amazing! I've been writing CSS for the last 6 years (as my job mainly), and I've never heard of alternate stylesheets. I wonder how many of them I've missed. The only time I provided different styles for the same web page was by adding a class to the body tag, and modifying it using JavaScript.
    - yasth 14y ago
      This is quite probably the only time you've missed them. Seriously just not a feature that caught on (because of poor browser integration, and limited use cases)

redment 14y ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4635990 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4635990

Offler 14y ago
No harm in putting it back up on the front page again, I never saw it the first time.

oscargrouch 14y ago

I like the human friendly approach.. very smart! i also think that maybe it must have something to young folks entering in the world of technology.. they maybe dont even know any specific computer language.. Something more passion focused.. like "how about to build the nextgen mobile os?" then point to boot2gecko.. Then map some sort of profile.. like if the guy is more focused in system programming, or more visual programming.. or more artistic focused.. After profiling the user will be more easy to point him to the projects he is more likelly to contribute.. anyway, very cool and inspiring initiative.

Ygg2 14y ago

They still haven't updated it with Servo as a Rust project? I'm slightly disappointed.

alecbenzer 14y ago

> C++ > So you like long compile times and incomprehensible error messages? um, okay. edit: oh, nvm, they're just making fun of all the languages

jakub_g 14y ago
AFAIU this is not an "official" Mozilla site. Which you can see in the footer ("Created by Josh Matthews"). But I might be wrong.
- cpeterso 14y ago
  I'm pretty sure this is an official Mozilla website. Plus, Josh Matthews is a Mozilla employee who, among other things, works on contributor engagement.
  - lastontheboat 14y ago
    We're definitely blurring the bounds of official-ness. Everybody in the organization who has seen it is always enthusiastic, and nobody has asked me to remove the tabzilla branding.
- Osmose 14y ago
  Mozilla webdev here. I could be wrong, but given that the repo is still on Josh's github account (https://github.com/jdm/asknot https://github.com/jdm/asknot) rather than the official Mozilla organization (https://github.com/mozilla/ https://github.com/mozilla/), my guess is that it's not "official". I'm almost certain we know about it after the last time it hit Hacker News, and given the amount of people contributing to it (https://github.com/jdm/asknot/commits/master https://github.com/jdm/asknot/commits/master) there's at least some level of effort in making it better, but it probably doesn't have priority over official entry points for contribution, like http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/contribute/ http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/contribute/
- McP 14y ago
  It's linked from http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/contribute/#coding http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/contribute/#coding which kind of makes it officialish

TamDenholm 14y ago

After picking PHP (yeh i know, dont hate), the next line was: "So you like your variable names to include dollar signs? That's cool, everyone misses Perl once in a while." Nice touch.

kostya-kow 14y ago
I also liked the one for Java is "So you're a believer in AbstractMethodFactoryBeans?" and C++ "So you like long compile times and incomprehensible error messages? That's cool, we do too."

jaredsohn 14y ago

Previous: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4635990 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4635990

michaell2 14y ago

the website organization seems targeted to "special education student at incompetent guidance counselor's office" level of intellectual ability. People who have the smarts to do any serious contribution to Mozilla probably prefer reading meaningful articles, not being spoonfed fortune cookie BS.

cpeterso 14y ago

"Bugs Ahoy" is another way to find ways to help. Bugs Ahoy is a Bugzilla search engine of "mentor bugs" with filters for programming languages and product areas that may interest you. http://www.joshmatthews.net/bugsahoy/?unowned=1 http://www.joshmatthews.net/bugsahoy/?unowned=1

niggler 14y ago

Aren't there paid mozilla employees working on the various items?

melling 14y ago
Wouldn't having a 1000 more developers contributing to the project make it even better? 10,000 more?

magg 14y ago

Hi, What is the required knowledge for someone to gain in order to contribute to Mozilla projects?

hackmiester 14y ago

Maybe if I know HTML, then what I can do is make the page fail more gracefully when there is no JS. :) http://puu.sh/2v6hB.png http://puu.sh/2v6hB.png

simonsarris 14y ago

This stuff is pretty inspiring. I'd love to see a broader "What Can I do for the Web", though, and to Mozilla's credit there would be an awful lot of overlap! I'm a full time JS/canvas dev, but I greatly enjoy helping others and writing tutorials, so I've spent my spare time doing just that. (At my peak I had answered more than 10% of all canvas questions ever asked on StackOverflow. I'm putting that in my resume under "poor time management".) I had to stop SO/tut writing last June because of a book deal, but I'm very nearly done, and sites like this inspire me to return to "contributing" to the web. In a lot of ways, I can't wait. I had considered taking some time off my job to do nothing but make JS tutorials, and try to make some "Bob Ross"-style learn to program with JS videos, update the MDN, and hold office hours in StackOverflow chat. My "dream job" would be doing something like that full-time, maybe for a year, but I can't really afford to quit work for more-or-less charitable web stuff just yet. Someday though, probably in a couple years, I'll have the money to "buy" the time.

reubenmorais 14y ago
You might be interested in this spot: https://careers.mozilla.org/en-US/position/opLgXfw7 https://careers.mozilla.org/en-US/position/opLgXfw7

saosebastiao 14y ago

This is cool...but it also tells me that I can't do anything for Mozilla. And I find that unfortunate. I wish open source projects would openly solicit help with things like 1) Writing tests 2) Writing documentation and tutorials 3) Bug finding and reporting 4) Bug report maintenance and management 5) Porting to new platforms Not everybody is capable or willing to work on the stuff that devs find glamorous...and a project has no chance of real success without the things I mentioned.

Osmose 14y ago
EDIT: Looks like at least some of my links can also be found on http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/contribute/ http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/contribute/. Who knew? My attempt at providing helpful links for your requests (and ignoring the problem of whatcanidoformozilla.org not having this stuff): 1. There's probably better resources for QA for the browser and other Mozilla projects, but the WebQA is awesome at working with contributors and getting them to help on real projects (I've worked on website releases where 100% of our QA and bug verification was done by contributors): https://quality.mozilla.org/teams/web-qa/ https://quality.mozilla.org/teams/web-qa/ 2. MDN is the biggest place contribution like this happens: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Project:How_to_Help https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Project:How_to_Help 3. This seems like a decent resource, specifically the bug reporting guidelines: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/QA https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/QA 4. I'm not sure about this one; A lot of triage happens by the teams working on a specific project, as managing these bugs requires a lot of domain knowledge. Closest link I could find was how to contribute to Bugzilla itself: http://www.bugzilla.org/contribute/ http://www.bugzilla.org/contribute/ 5. This looks like an outdated page (updated February 1st, 2012!) but it has some info on ports. I would recommend joining the #developers channel on the Mozilla IRC and asking around. In general the larger IRC channels will help point you in the right direction.

EllaMentry 14y ago

This provides a really nice intro, but I feel that what many projects are missing is this++ (or ++this), and by that I mean a nice summarized dashboard with a roadmap, links to bug reports, new features, discussions etc. The problem as I see it is I can click through a few buttons and then I get to the last "Tell me More" and it points me to a wiki page, with lots of missing sections, half paragraphs, unfinished bullet points etc. Then there is a link to a bugtracker, on a different domain, with no introduction text, then contributing to the source code is on a different site, with yet another profile to fill in (Once you have gone through the Wiki, Bug Tracker ++ !) Actually I guess my main problem is lack of concise, consistent "Getting Started" documentation (Not just Mozilla, nearly every project - in fact Mozilla is far better than many!). Yes, I could read through pages and pages of wiki but, let's be honest, it's ugly and in some cases badly organized - it just gets the job done (let's somebody who is interested in getting involved in that project find some information they need to bootstrap themselves), rather than lure in new developers. I know many, many excellent developers who would love to try their hand at open source, but simply are not going to spend the hours/days necessary to trek through wiki articles to find what they need, especially on projects they barely know about (Mozilla's Build and Automation tools for example - not public facing, but many many devs have an interest in this area and would love to work on something like that) In an attempt not to just complain, I will offer a few ideas, please steal, iterate and implement! A Dashboard - What are people working on, talking about, planning to do now? What are their blockers? I see so many projects with a Project Website, Wiki, Development Wiki, Bug Tracker, Source Code, Road Map, Discussion Forums etc. All with different branding, not linked together and without actually finding the default page you become lost. Digging further, who are these people, what parts have they worked on? Who can I ask about a certain section of code (git annotate?) Bring developers, testers, writers, artists, support etc. together in one place. When a new feature is being planned, be able to co-ordinate, form a mini strike team and go! Build a style and a community. I see far too many default Bugzilla themes in open source projects. Which is great and fine when you are small and starting out and need to keep track, for someone new wondering around your docs suddenly faced with a blank bugzilla theme with zero branding information anywhere. To summarize: Bigger projects need to do the follow to their on boarding new contributors documentation: Have It. Brand It. Simplify It. (And yes I know, the problem is time and money! But one can dream...) (PS, If there are any projects that would like a C++ programmer with a passion for documentation, give me a shout!)

__herson__ 14y ago

The Spanish translation is really bad, I had to choose it in english in order to understand the purpose of the page.

lastontheboat 14y ago
https://github.com/jdm/asknot/blob/master/locales.ini#L62 https://github.com/jdm/asknot/blob/master/locales.ini#L62 I love getting pull requests!

Paul_D_Santana 14y ago

Here is a list of everything available in case anyone might find that more convenient: Languages: - C - C++ - C++ (Firefox) - Java - JavaScript - PHP - Python - Rust C So you think OOP is for hipsters? That's cool, we all get nostalgic sometimes. You could work on: - NSS: The network security pieces of Firefox https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Getting_Started_With_NSS C++ So you like long compile times and incomprehensible error messages? That's cool, we do too. You could work on: - Gecko: The engine that drives Firefox See: C++ (Firefox) - Boot2Gecko: The operating system for Android phones built on web technologies https://wiki.mozilla.org/B2G/Hacking - Thunderbird: The open source email client http://developer.mozilla.org/En/Simple_Thunderbird_build - Seamonkey: The open source web productivity suite http://www.seamonkey-project.org - v8monkey: Implementing the v8 API on top of Spidermonkey http://github.com/zpao/v8monkey - emscripten: Creating a LLVM-to-JS system to allow porting native code to the web https://github.com/kripken/emscripten/ - SVG Project: Help with the implementation and testing of Mozilla's Scalable Vector Graphics engine (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/SVG) https://wiki.mozilla.org/SVG:Contribute - Windows 8 Integration: The Metro-style enabled desktop browser for Windows 8 https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Windows_8_Integration See 3.3 Platform Integration Windows 8 Development - MathML: Display and represent math formulas on the web https://wiki.mozilla.org/MathML:Home_Page C++ (Firefox) That's cool, but not very specific. You could work on: - General Firefox work: I don't really care about the details http://developer.mozilla.org/En/Introduction - Graphics: Lots of work with OpenGL, DirectX, and Skia making things draw quickly https://wiki.mozilla.org/Platform/GFX/Contribute - Accessibility: Make the web more accessible for users using assistive technologies (eg. screenreaders) https://wiki.mozilla.org/Accessibility/Contribute - Networking: Tcp, http, ssl/tls, spdy, and more http://wiki.mozilla.org/Networking - Spidermonkey: The JavaScript engine: if you like compilers, interpreters, JITs, and more https://wiki.mozilla.org/JavaScript:New_to_SpiderMonkey JavaScript So you're a dynamic individual who thinks that, underneath, everything is an object? That's cool, we like to dream as well. You could work on: - Firefox: Did you know that all of the UI is written in JS? See: JavaScript (Firefox) - Mobile Firefox: It's the Gecko engine, with an Android-specific UI. No Android device required. https://wiki.mozilla.org/Mobile/Get_Involved - pdf.js: A PDF viewer written entirely in JavaScript https://wiki.mozilla.org/PDF.js - Shumway: a Flash player written entirely in JavaScript https://github.com/mozilla/shumway/wiki - The addon SDK: The foundation upon which all new kick-ass addons are built https://wiki.mozilla.org/Jetpack - Gaia: the default UI for the web-based mobile operating system Boot2Gecko https://wiki.mozilla.org/Gaia - DXR: The intelligent source code indexing system http://github.com/mozilla/dxr - Thunderbird: The open source email client http://developer.mozilla.org/En/Simple_Thunderbird_build - Seamonkey: The open source web productivity suite http://www.seamonkey-project.org - Web development: We have many large, complicated projects that use JavaScript https://blog.mozilla.com/webdev/get-involved/ - Popcorn: Create interactive media pages that seamlessly integrate video, audio, and traditional web technologies http://www.benmoskowitz.com/?p=527 - Windows 8 Integration: The front end for the Metro-style enabled desktop browser for Windows 8 https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Windows_8_Integration See 3.2 Front End Windows 8 Development - Persona: Implement a new way to safely and easily sign into websites https://wiki.mozilla.org/Persona JavaScript (Firefox) Good choice - there are a lot of different areas if you'd like to specialize. You could work on: - Firefox in general - I don't really care: http://developer.mozilla.org/En/Introduction - Developer tools: Implement a suite of tools similar to Firebug directly in the browser https://wiki.mozilla.org/DevTools/GetInvolved - Sync: Help users take their personal browsing data on the road https://wiki.mozilla.org/Services/Sync#Get_Involved Java So you're a believer in AbstractMethodFactoryBeans? That's cool, we all have our vices. You could work on: - Mobile Firefox: It's the Gecko engine, with an Android-specific UI. No Android device required. https://wiki.mozilla.org/Mobile/Get_Involved - Rhino: It's Spidermonkey in Java. Is this actually still a thing? https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Rhino PHP So you like your variable names to include dollar signs? That's cool, everyone misses Perl once in a while. You can work on: - WordPress: The code that runs our blogs (http://blog.mozilla.org) https://wiki.mozilla.org/Webdev/GetInvolved/WordPress - Marketplace: The PHP client for Marketplace (https://marketplace.firefox.com) https://github.com/mozilla/Marketplace.PHP - The Mediawiki-Bugzilla plugin: The Bugzilla plugin for Mozilla's MediaWiki https://wiki.mozilla.org https://github.com/mozilla/mediawiki-bugzilla Python So you enjoy the paradigm of backtrace-driven development? That's cool, everyone gets a bit tired of static typing once in a while. You can work on: - Firefox: Lots of code is generated by python scripts http://developer.mozilla.org/En/Introduction - Web development: We have many large, complicated projects written in Python https://blog.mozilla.com/webdev/get-involved/ - DXR: The intelligent source code indexing system http://github.com/mozilla/dxr - Tools & Automation: Various projects to facilitate easier automated testing of products https://wiki.mozilla.org/Auto-tools/New_Contributor Rust The new systems programming language created by Mozilla. - Rust: http://www.rust-lang.org

shurcooL 14y ago

Sadly there's no mention of golang.

ancarda 14y ago

I'd love to get into Open Source (right now I'm trying to figure out how to properly use Git). My biggest issue right now is when do I work on it? Is it just in my spare time? Are people able to work on Linux in their spare time? I'm not really sure how it all works to be honest. And if I commit/push an update, how does it eventually end up in Firefox?

lastontheboat 14y ago
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Introduction#Step_5_-_Get_your_code_reviewed https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Introduction#Step_5... should address the last question.