You Might Be a Go Contributor Already and Not Know It

Contributing to Go is more than just writing code for the compiler and standard library. Between other official Go projects, third-party projects, articles, workshops, and conference talks, you can even be a contributor to Go without ever even signing up for a Gerrit account.

Transcript

1. You Might Be A Go Contributor Already
   And Not Know It
   Aditya Mukerjee
   Observability Engineer at Stripe
   @chimeracoder
   

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2. It’s not about becoming a contributor to Go
   @chimeracoder
   It’s about making contributions to Go
   

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3. Why do people not contribute to Go?
   •Not sure where to start
   •Don’t feel qualified
   •Lack of time
   @chimeracoder
   

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4. @chimeracoder
   

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5. @chimeracoder
   The Go programming language is an open source project to
   make programmers more productive.
   

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6. Contributing to Go means contributing to the success of the
   Go programming language and mission
   @chimeracoder
   

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7. @chimeracoder
   

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8. …but Go hasn’t won yet
   @chimeracoder
   

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9. “How could programmers be more productive?”
   @chimeracoder
   Any answer that involves Go is a contribution to Go
   

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10. What are the biggest obstacles to Go’s success?
    @chimeracoder
    

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11. We’ve passed an inflection point – what skills will we need now?
    @chimeracoder
    

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12. @chimeracoder
    Knowledge of how Go is used in
    companies of different sizes
    Logistics and event planning
    Isolating reproducible failures
    Presentation and public speaking
    Writing, editing, and publishing technical content
    Teaching and mentorship
    Graphical design
    Marketing
    Community management
    Knowledge of compiler design and architecture
    

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13. Contributing to Go is an investment in your own
    personal development
    @chimeracoder
    

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14. How do I leverage these skills to contribute to Go?
    @chimeracoder
    How can I improve my skills as a developer by contributing to Go?
    

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15. Leveraging your skills to contribute to Go
    •Helping other Go programmers solve problems
    •Sharing your experience, knowledge, or perspectives on Go
    •Connecting Go programmers together
    •Writing Go code
    @chimeracoder
    

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16. Contributing to Go by helping other Go programmers solve
    problems
    @chimeracoder
    

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17. Slack, IRC, Stack Overflow, mailing list, help forums
    •Answering questions on Stack Overflow helps others
    •But asking questions on Stack Overflow helps others too!
    @chimeracoder
    

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18. @chimeracoder
    

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19. Mailing list and Github issues
    •If you’re wondering, “is this an actual bug or not”, it’s worth asking
    •If the replies are terse, it’s not personal!
    @chimeracoder
    

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20. Contributing to Go by sharing experience, knowledge, or
    perspectives on Go
    @chimeracoder
    

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21. If you’ve ever felt frustrated by something in Go, you have an
    experience. So report it!
    @chimeracoder
    Experience reports describe problems that people have
    experienced
    

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22. Writing an experience report
    1. Describe what you wanted to do
    2. Say what you actually did
    3. Explain why that wasn’t great, using concrete examples from production
    @chimeracoder
    

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23. If you’ve ever…
    •… debugged a tough bug in Go
    •… encountered a funny problem in a Go program
    •… helped a friend solve an issue in Go
    •… debated Go code patterns and style with a coworker
    @chimeracoder
    …why not write about it?
    

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24. Writing is not about being right
    @chimeracoder
    Writing is about engaging in the process of exploration
    

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25. Writing about Go helps us know what makes Go code good
    @chimeracoder
    

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26. Contributing to Go by connecting Go programmers together
    @chimeracoder
    

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27. Organize a local Meetup
    •Contact GoBridge, GopherCon, and other nearby organizers
    •Co-host events with other local developer meetups
    •Host a GoBridge event, or help out with one
    @chimeracoder
    

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28. @chimeracoder
    

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29. Contributing to Go by writing code
    @chimeracoder
    

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30. Over the next 5-10 years, most of the code that advances the
    mission of Go will be written outside the standard library.
    @chimeracoder
    

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31. Make a commitment today: open-source the next utility
    library you write
    @chimeracoder
    

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32. But someone has to write code for the compiler and standard library
    …right?
    @chimeracoder
    

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33. But someone has to write code for the compiler and standard library
    …right?
    @chimeracoder
    Go Project
    

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34. The Go Project is not a monolith
    build - continuous build and release infrastructure
    crypto - additional cryptography libraries
    exp - experimental code
    image - additional imaging packages
    mobile - libraries for Go on iOS and Android
    sys - low-level interactions with the operating system
    net - additional networking packages
    tools - tooling such as godoc, goimports, vet, cover, etc.
    … and much more
    @chimeracoder
    

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35. There are over six hundred packages in the Go Project that
    are not part of the standard library or compiler
    @chimeracoder
    

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36. Getting started
    •Use go-contrib-init to sign the CLA, set up codereview, and git aliases
    •The contribution guide provides a comprehensive overview
    •The contribution workshops this afternoon will guide you through it
    @chimeracoder
    

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37. Ideas for Contributing to the Go Project Repositories
    • Submit examples
    • Augment documentation (if you’ve ever been confused, that’s a problem!)
    • Look at open issues
    •…or even https://dev.golang.org/imfeelinglucky
    • Try running on obscure architectures and OSes
    @chimeracoder
    

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38. •Helping other Go programmers solve problems
    •Sharing your experience, knowledge, or perspectives on Go
    •Connecting Go programmers together
    •Writing Go code
    @chimeracoder
    Four Pillars of Contributing to Go
    

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39. It’s not about becoming a contributor to Go
    @chimeracoder
    It’s about making contributions to Go
    

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40. We contribute to Go when we lead by example
    @chimeracoder
    

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41. Thank you!
    Aditya Mukerjee
    @chimeracoder
    

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