Links
Repo that I worked on.
Issue I fixed.
PR I opened.
Process
For this last PR, I really wanted to contribute to a larger project. I started to read other classmates' blogs, the issues they worked on, and their contributions. I found out that some of the classmates made a PR to this repo, and also during the classes, Professor introduced this project; so I was interested in this. I started to look around the issues in this repo, and I found this issue. I thought that I could fix this issue. Then, I started to read the code. It was very complicated to me. I only had little knowledge about react and typescript. And the structure is very well organized in a object-oriented programming way. However, sometimes I feel like when codes are too well organized, it feels a little bit like a maze. It took me many hours to understand where I should look into in order to fix the problem. Finally, I found the code that I need to change. I made changes and did some experiments and fixed it.
Challenges
- Whenever I read code of a large project, it takes me a very long time to get just a little understanding. Therefore, it was not easy to get started.
- I wasn't familiar with the technologies used in the project. I wasn't familiar with
React,Typescript,Chakra UI, andDexie; so I had to study or search whenever I encounter a piece of code that I don't understand at all. Especially for Chakra UI, I wanted to addpadding-bottombut the syntax was very different, I went to the offical Docs page and spent quite a bit of time, for Chakra UI, ChatGPT wasn't helpful at all.
What I gained from this experience
- First, I love this project, The code is really clean, and well organized. And it uses the tech stacks that I want to learn. and the UI is really neat and modern
- Second, just reading the code many hours (not because I intended, but because I had to find where I should fix it), I learned a lot about React. It was amazing that I just read the code and learned a lot. It was much more effective than watching React lecture on Youtube. Of course it's because I already had a bit of knowledge of React. Nonetheless, I didn't expect that I would learn a lot by just reading code. When I have more time, I am going to read the code of this Chatcraft repo, and I will try to make something similar to this. It's beautiful app
- Third, I overcame the fear of working on a large project. I wouldn't say that I've completely overcome the fear; however, at least I tried it, and made some PRs. It's still really daunting to read and work on large project, but I think I learned that they are not invincible monster. They are mortal(just metaphor; I mean, touchable or fixable)
Hacktoberfest Recap
I think I didn't make any PR that can be counted on Hacktoberfest, but I don't care much. I learned a lot from this experience, and that's all I wanted and needed. Even if I get lower marks due to uncounted PRs, I am okay(unless I fail this course; as I could have Visa problem). I am glad that I was forced to step out of my comfort zone. If the Professor is reading this post, I want to thank you. I sincerely appreciate for pushing me out of my comfort zone, it was tough and I was stressed out but I learned a lot. Now I know how to participate in Open Source Project, I will keep looking around Open Source Projects and read them and work on them.
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