Introduction

Hey there! My name is Ronan D'Souza. I'm a Software Engineer based in Goa, India. My day job involves mainly backend development (using Java), but I enjoy learning and working with a wide variety of technology stacks.

It's been about 10 months since I've joined the DEV platform. I randomly came across this platform while exploring some tech-related articles. I'm really glad that I did, and regret not finding it earlier. DEV has helped me explore new ideas, technology trends, learn about open source projects, and so much more. I've always wanted to give back to the open source community, but never really knew where and how to start. Being a frequent reader of DEV posts, I came across quite a few posts towards the end of September, on Hacktoberfest 2020. I immediately realised that this would be the perfect opportunity for me to begin contributing to open source.

Background

I've been coding in Java, Python and Javascript for quite some time and have also been a consumer of open source. I am no stranger to open source, but I can't say that I've made any worthwhile contributions; I only had a couple of Pull Requests (PRs) to repositories such as first-contributions, etc.

Progress

My open source journey began with Hacktoberfest 2020 and I managed to get my first 4 PRs merged by mid-October. It was exhilarating and I continued to explore more projects to which I could contribute. By the time Hacktoberfest 2020 came to an end, I managed to land a total of 8 PRs 😄

Contributions

• edent / SuperTinyIcons

  Under 1KB each! Super Tiny Icons are miniscule SVG versions of your favourite website and app logos

  My first few contributions were to this "super" cool SVG icon repository. I had created the following PRs to close some issues for icon requests.

  Issue #429 - Add Roundcube Icon #431

  

  ronan696 posted on Oct 04, 2020

  #429 Added Roundcube icon, updated the readme and reference image

  View on GitHub

  Issue #438 - Add Uphold Icon #441

  

  ronan696 posted on Oct 06, 2020

  #438 Added Uphold icon, updated the readme and reference image

  View on GitHub

  Issue #449 - Add freeCodeCamp Icon #450

  

  ronan696 posted on Oct 17, 2020

  Resolves #449 Added freeCodeCamp icon, updated the readme and reference image

  View on GitHub

  Issue #462 - Add Svelte Icon #465

  

  ronan696 posted on Oct 21, 2020

  Closes #462 Added Svelte icon, updated the readme and reference image

  View on GitHub

  Issue #461 - Add Codeberg Icon #467

  

  ronan696 posted on Oct 23, 2020

  Closes #461 Added Codeberg icon, updated the readme and reference image

  View on GitHub

• taniarascia / takenote

  📝 ‎ A web-based notes app for developers.

  My next contribution was to this simple yet elegant note-taking web app. I worked on a feature request for adding an option to toggle line numbers in the note editor.

  [Feature] Add line numbers option to settings #404

  

  ronan696 posted on Oct 25, 2020

  Description

  Added the ability to display line numbers in the editor as a setting, along with minor CSS tweaks to adjust the display of line numbers.

  Screenshots:

  Closes #381

  Browser checklist

  This PR has been tested in the following browsers:

  • [x] Chrome
  • [x] Firefox
  • [ ] Safari

  Testing checklist

  • [ ] End-to-end tests have been created if necessary

  View on GitHub

• thedevdojo / tails

  This is the Tails composer package for Laravel. Easily fetch designs in your Laravel application that you design inside of the Tails Site/Page Builder.

  I've also recently started working on a side-project in Gridsome, Tailwind CSS and so I felt that contributing a new component to the Tails library would be a fun way to get more exposure to this utility-first CSS framework. I worked on a modal rating component and created a PR. You can also check out the component here.

  Add modal rating component #250

  

  ronan696 posted on Oct 22, 2020

  What type of PR is this? (check all applicable)

  • [ ] ♻️ Refactor
  • [x] ✨ Feature
  • [ ] 🐛 Bug Fix
  • [ ] 👷 Optimization
  • [ ] 📝 Documentation Update
  • [ ] 🚩 Other

  Description

  Added a modal rating component with hover animations.

  Related Tickets & Documents

  N/A

  Mobile & Desktop Screenshots/Recordings (if there are UI changes)

  

  Added to documentation?

  • [ ] 📜 readme
  • [x] 🙅 no documentation needed

  What gif best describes this PR or how it makes you feel?

  

  View on GitHub

• buttercup / buttercup-desktop

  🔑 Cross-Platform Passwords & Secrets Vault

Lastly, I fixed a minor UX-related issue for this multi-platform password vault.

Add select text for incorrect password input #953

ronan696 posted on Oct 11, 2020

Fixes: #874
When opening a Buttercup archive with an incorrect password, the entered password is selected for easier re-entry.

View on GitHub

Reflections

On the whole, Hacktoberfest 2020 was a fantastic experience. I couldn't have found a better way to kickstart my open source journey. Not only did it help improve my skills of understanding and analysing code written by other developers, but also, introduced me to a good lot of interesting and innovative projects, and more importantly connected me to other devs all around the world. This was my first Hacktoberfest but will definitely not be my last. I will surely continue contributing to open source the same way and I'm looking forward to Hacktoberfest 2021.

Acknowledgments

Thank you DigitalOcean, DEV Team for this awesome event.

Also, a big thank you to the authors/maintainers of the repositories that I have contributed to, for their suggestions and reviews.
@edent, @taniarascia, @perry_mitchell, @bobbyiliev

Well, if you've reached here, I really appreciate you taking the time to read my first DEV post. Thank you!