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Table of Contents

Getting Started

Memory Apiyo

This repo is to help newbies get started with Open Source. The objective of this tutorial is to make your first Pull Request and add your name to the contributors folder.

Setting up softwares

To work on Github hosted projects, one has to use Git - a Version Control System. So the first task is to install git on your machine. For Windows users, download git from here - https://git-scm.com/downloads. For Linux users, you can use your distro's package manager to install git.

Note: Although Linux isn't mandatory, it is preferred while working with Open Source Software.

Note: You can learn about Version Control Systems (VCS) here.

Setting up git

After installing git, run git and execute these commands:

git config --global user.name "[name]"
git config --global user.email "[email address]"

That should complete the software setup.

Forking and Cloning

Before you can edit any file on the repo, you must fork and clone it. A fork is a copy of the repository in your account. To clone a repo means to download it locally. Click the Fork button on the top right of this repo to fork it. Next, go to your copy of the repo and click the Clone button. Copy the url. Now open git and execute this command:

git clone [copied url here]

That should download the repo locally.

Making branches

A branch is a parallel copy of the code. When we add new features to a project, we usually create a copy of the code and work on it. This is done so that the main working copy of the code is unaffected. In most GitHub repos, the master branch is the default branch. You should create a separate branch for every contribution you make. To create a new branch, execute this command:

git checkout -b [branch name here]

You should see the branch name change on the terminal prompt. Congratulations! You created a new branch.

Editing files

Create a new text file in the contributors folder with your github handle as the file name. This file should contain your name. A sample file aryadas98.txt has been provided.

Adding and commiting changes

To create a commit means to save your work. But before you commit, you have to add your work to the commit. To do so, execute this command from the project root:

git add *

This adds all files to the upcoming commit. Now, to create the commit run this command:

git commit -m "[commit message here]"

Write any message in place of the commit message. If the command runs successfully, you should have committed your changes.

Pushing changes and submitting a Pull Request

After committing your changes, you have to upload them to GitHub. This is known as pushing. To push your changes, run:

git push origin [branch name]

Where branch name is the name of your newly created branch. This should upload your changes to your GitHub account. Now, you can propose these changes to the actual project. To do so, click on the Pull Request button on GitHub. Most of the fields should be automatically filled out for you. Click Create Pull Request. If everything went correctly, you should have created a pull request with your changes. Now it is upto the repo owner to merge these changes.

Congratulations! You made your first Open Source Contribution! Now contribute to some other repos on NWoC. Have a great time!

Resources

You can learn more about Git and GitHub here:

Rules and scoring system

  • 1 point for contributing to this repo by adding a file, namely [YourGitHubUsername].txt which contains your name, to the contributors folder.
  • 2 points for opening a legitimate issue in any of the projects announced for NWoC.
  • 5 points for solving an issue labelled “Beginner”.
  • 10 points for solving an issue labelled “Intermediate”.
  • 15 points for solving an issue labelled “Difficult”.
  • In case of equal scores, the one who has solved more number of difficult issues will be given priority.
  • In case of any disputes/discrepancies, the final decision shall be taken by the mentors of the respective projects.

Some other important points:

  • Any contributions made prior to the beginning of the coding period (1st December) will NOT be counted towards the final score.
  • Students should NOT review other student’s Pull Requests under any circumstances. Let the mentors alone review the Pull Requests.
  • Please try to Google your doubts before directly contacting mentors or posting on the Gitter channel itself.

FAQ

  1. I have exams till mid-December. What to do? Can I still participate?
    Yes, definitely! You can register anytime during the entire duration of the program and start contributing to the various projects. It is never late to contribute to the projects :-)

  2. What prizes shall I receive?
    Apart from a digital certificate, whatever merchandise we obtain from the sponsors, we'll distribute those among the active contributors. However, we would like to emphasise on the fact that this is more of a program to encourage Open Source, rather than a contest. So, your aim should be to learn along with the community and enjoy working on the projects, rather than to compete to get to the top. Cheers :-)

  3. Which language should I know to participate in NWoC?
    We will try to include projects in almost all common programming languages. However, you will have to work with Git and GitHub to contribute to any of the projects. You can learn to use these during NWoC itself, or you can start learning them from https://classroom.udacity.com/courses/ud775.