Lessons from the Other Side: Effectively Contributing to Open Source

Slide 1

Slide 1 text

Lessons From The Other Side Michael Koziarski [email protected] Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 2

Slide 2 text

Who am I? Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 3

Slide 3 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 4

Slide 4 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 5

Slide 5 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 6

Slide 6 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 7

Slide 7 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 8

Slide 8 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 9

Slide 9 text

Long Time Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 10

Slide 10 text

6 Years! Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 11

Slide 11 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 12

Slide 12 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 13

Slide 13 text

Learned Many Lessons Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 14

Slide 14 text

Help Us Help You Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 15

Slide 15 text

Koz Lesson #1: Listen to Users Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 16

Slide 16 text

How do you spot a User? Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 17

Slide 17 text

It’d be cool if... Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 18

Slide 18 text

It’s a bit annoying how... Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 19

Slide 19 text

Why do I have to ...? Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 20

Slide 20 text

Here’s a patch that ... Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 21

Slide 21 text

I’ll never use your software until ... Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 22

Slide 22 text

More Modular Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 23

Slide 23 text

Has Tail Call Optimization Magic Beans Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 24

Slide 24 text

Supports full internationalization Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 25

Slide 25 text

Supports a real database Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 26

Slide 26 text

Runs on Windows 8 Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 27

Slide 27 text

Supports the ‘enterprise’ Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 28

Slide 28 text

You Stop Swearing At Conferences Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 29

Slide 29 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 30

Slide 30 text

I’ll never use your software Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 31

Slide 31 text

Implications for You Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 32

Slide 32 text

How could I add function X? Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 33

Slide 33 text

Has anyone tried ﬁxing Y? Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 34

Slide 34 text

I can’t use this until Z! Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 35

Slide 35 text

Why doesn’t your craptastic hunk of junk do Z? Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 36

Slide 36 text

“This is the very reason I don’t use Rails, and I know there’s many others who think like me.” Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 37

Slide 37 text

“This is the very reason I don’t use Rails, and I know there’s many others who think like me.” Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 38

Slide 38 text

“[blah blah] I don’t use Rails [blah blah blah]” Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 39

Slide 39 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 40

Slide 40 text

Koz Lesson #2: Users Make The Best Contributors Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 41

Slide 41 text

Koz Lesson #2: Users Make The Best Contributors* Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 42

Slide 42 text

Scratching Their Own Itch Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 43

Slide 43 text

Solves a Problem They Actually Had Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 44

Slide 44 text

Help Your Users Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 45

Slide 45 text

Users as Contributors Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 46

Slide 46 text

Users as Contributors Users Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 47

Slide 47 text

Users as Contributors Users Contributors Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 48

Slide 48 text

More Users Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 49

Slide 49 text

More Contributors! Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 50

Slide 50 text

Better Product!! Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 51

Slide 51 text

Even More Users!!! Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 52

Slide 52 text

Problem! Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 53

Slide 53 text

Our Users are Developers Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 54

Slide 54 text

Our Users are Engineers Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 55

Slide 55 text

Our Users are Computer Scientists Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 56

Slide 56 text

Rewrite Stuff Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 57

Slide 57 text

Rewrite Stuff Endlessly Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 58

Slide 58 text

<% if !protected_attributes.empty? %> ... <% else %> ... <% end %> Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 59

Slide 59 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 60

Slide 60 text

<% if !protected_attributes.empty? %> ... <% else %> ... <% end %> Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 61

Slide 61 text

<% if protected_attributes.any? %> ... <% else %> ... <% end %> Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 62

Slide 62 text

<% unless protected_attributes.empty? %> ... <% else %> ... <% end %> Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 63

Slide 63 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 64

Slide 64 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 65

Slide 65 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 66

Slide 66 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 67

Slide 67 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 68

Slide 68 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 69

Slide 69 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 70

Slide 70 text

34 Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 71

Slide 71 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 72

Slide 72 text

Implications for You Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 73

Slide 73 text

The Bike Shed is Green Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 74

Slide 74 text

Cope Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 75

Slide 75 text

Focus on small, digestible ﬁxes. Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 76

Slide 76 text

Focus on minor annoyances Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 77

Slide 77 text

Koz Lesson #3: Listen to Contributors Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 78

Slide 78 text

Contributors are like Super Users Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 79

Slide 79 text

Trust Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 80

Slide 80 text

The Patches Problem Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 81

Slide 81 text

The Early Days Volunteers Work To Do Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 82

Slide 82 text

Equilibrium Volunteers Work To Do Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 83

Slide 83 text

Eventually Volunteers Work To Do Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 84

Slide 84 text

Trouble Volunteers Work To Do Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 85

Slide 85 text

Danger Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 86

Slide 86 text

Neglected Patches Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 87

Slide 87 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 88

Slide 88 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 89

Slide 89 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 90

Slide 90 text

Fork! Fork! Fork! Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 91

Slide 91 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 92

Slide 92 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 93

Slide 93 text

Implications for you Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 94

Slide 94 text

Do the grunt work Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 95

Slide 95 text

We mess up Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 96

Slide 96 text

We mess up Constantly Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 97

Slide 97 text

Don’t take it personally Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 98

Slide 98 text

Lesson for You #1: Maintainers are Human Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 99

Slide 99 text

Busy Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 100

Slide 100 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 101

Slide 101 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 102

Slide 102 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 103

Slide 103 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 104

Slide 104 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 105

Slide 105 text

Make Mistakes Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 106

Slide 106 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 107

Slide 107 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 108

Slide 108 text

Need Persuading Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 109

Slide 109 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 110

Slide 110 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 111

Slide 111 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 112

Slide 112 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 113

Slide 113 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 114

Slide 114 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 115

Slide 115 text

Use Concrete Examples Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 116

Slide 116 text

It’s a POLS violation Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 117

Slide 117 text

It’s a POLS violation Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 118

Slide 118 text

It’s not compliant with RFC2549 Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 119

Slide 119 text

It’s not compliant with RFC2549 Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 120

Slide 120 text

It could be more elegant Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 121

Slide 121 text

It could be more elegant Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 122

Slide 122 text

This breaks when ... Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 123

Slide 123 text

This doesn’t let me ... Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 124

Slide 124 text

Lesson for You #2 Applying Patches is Hard Work Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 125

Slide 125 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 126

Slide 126 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 127

Slide 127 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 128

Slide 128 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 129

Slide 129 text

What’s So Hard!? Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 130

Slide 130 text

Why does the change ﬁx it? Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 131

Slide 131 text

Is it the right ﬁx? Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 132

Slide 132 text

def some_huge_method # 100 lines snipped rescue nil end Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 133

Slide 133 text

Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 134

Slide 134 text

Lesson for You #3: Contributions should be a by-product Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 135

Slide 135 text

Don’t go looking for problems to solve Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 136

Slide 136 text

Solve the problems you ﬁnd as you work. Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 137

Slide 137 text

Example Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 138

Slide 138 text

$ ./script/generate model Person Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 139

Slide 139 text

CREATE TABLE `people` ( id int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, name varchar(255), employer_id int(11), PRIMARY KEY (ìd`), KEY ìndex_people_by_employer` (èmployer_id`) ) Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 140

Slide 140 text

Writing SQL is hard Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 141

Slide 141 text

$ ./script/generate model Person Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 142

Slide 142 text

class CreatePeople < ActiveRecord::Migration def self.up create_table :people do |t| end end def self.down drop_table :people end end Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 143

Slide 143 text

class CreatePeople < ActiveRecord::Migration def self.up create_table :people do |t| t.column :name, :string, :null=>true t.column :employer_id, :integer, :null=>false t.column :created_at, :datetime t.column :updated_at :datetime end end def self.down drop_table :people end end Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 144

Slide 144 text

$ rake migrate Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 145

Slide 145 text

Why do I have to edit the migration? Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 146

Slide 146 text

$ ./script/rails generate model Person name:string \ employer_id:integer Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 147

Slide 147 text

class CreatePeople < ActiveRecord::Migration def self.up create_table :people do |t| t.string :name, :null=>true t.integer :employer_id, :null=>false t.timestamps end end def self.down drop_table :people end end Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 148

Slide 148 text

$ rake migrate Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 149

Slide 149 text

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base end Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 150

Slide 150 text

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base belongs_to :employer end Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 151

Slide 151 text

Why do I have to edit the model? Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 152

Slide 152 text

$ ./script/rails generate model Person \ name:string \ employer:belongs_to Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 153

Slide 153 text

Slide 154

Slide 154 text

class Person < ActiveRecord::Base belongs_to :employer end Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 155

Slide 155 text

class CreatePeople < ActiveRecord::Migration def self.up create_table :people do |t| t.string :name, :null=>true t.integer :employer_id, :null=>false t.timestamps end add_index :people, :employer_id end def self.down drop_table :people end end Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 156

Slide 156 text

Slide 157

Slide 157 text

Why do I have to add an index manually? Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 158

Slide 158 text

$ ./script/rails generate model Person \ name:string \ employer:belongs_to Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 159

Slide 159 text

Slide 160

Slide 160 text

What Next? Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 161

Slide 161 text

Small Incremental Improvements Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 162

Slide 162 text

Motivated By Real Frustration Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 163

Slide 163 text

Huge Net Improvement Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 164

Slide 164 text

Not Just For Toy Features Tuesday, 22 May 12

Slide 165

Slide 165 text

singapore_now = Time.zone.now # => Thu, 17 May 2012 18:12:11 SGT +08:00 wellington_now = singapore_now.in_time_zone("Wellington") # => Thu, 17 May 2012 22:12:11 NZST +12:00 singapore_now == wellington_now # => true Tuesday, 22 May 12