I like MV more than SF office. I did the same thing: there is a constant pressure that I can't always bother people because people might say "it's on the wiki". It's still a hard decision to make.
More Mozilla intern blog posts should come... let's bomb HN.
> Documentation is often not the best way to understand code.
I hope they teach that in college now. As much code as possible should be self-documenting. It can be short and/or efficient (one-liners ok), but it should be clear to someone with experience, so have good method names, variable names, decent formatting, organization, etc.
It took me about 8 years of professional coding experience before I truly appreciated this, so hammering it in in college is key.
I guess the point that I was really trying to make was that reading the code and documentation can only get you so far, and doesn't help nearly as much with the bigger-picture "why" questions. (The code I worked on, in addition to being well documented, was also IMO pretty well organized and clear.)
What's the best way to approach Mozilla about getting involved in a project? I'm an undergrad that's interested in getting some more experience contributing to projects, but not necessarily looking for a full-time internship. I spend time on their IRC, but only #rust.
You don't need to ask permission to get involved. _Everything_ is open source, just write a patch. [0] There's also more ways to contribute than just writing code. [1] Check out some more of our IRC channels. [2] Just don't be afraid to get started, everyone was a noob at some point. The rust team does a great job as marking bugs beginner or easy in their issue tracker.
I work at Mozilla. Having contributed to a FOSS project is not a requirement, although it's a big bonus – note that any FOSS project is taken into consideration, not just Mozilla stuff.
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[ 5.1 ms ] story [ 39.1 ms ] threadMore Mozilla intern blog posts should come... let's bomb HN.
I hope they teach that in college now. As much code as possible should be self-documenting. It can be short and/or efficient (one-liners ok), but it should be clear to someone with experience, so have good method names, variable names, decent formatting, organization, etc.
It took me about 8 years of professional coding experience before I truly appreciated this, so hammering it in in college is key.
For Rust specifically, I found this: https://github.com/mozilla/rust/wiki/Note-guide-for-new-cont...
Also, you're handle made me do a double take! [3]
[0] http://www.whatcanidoformozilla.org/
[1] http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/contribute/
[2] https://wiki.mozilla.org/IRC
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jwz
Is this the normal process? First doing some OSS stuff for them and then applying for a job?
They sound like a good company, but they probably only employ the best...
Now, if you want to come and do some FOSS with us, you're welcome :) http://client00.chat.mibbit.com/?server=irc.mozilla.org&chan...)
I found the whole thing interesting, but a bit intimidating, because I never did FOSS stuff, code reviews etc. are all new to me.
But it's probably a good thing for improving skills.
Thank you for the link. :)