From 8113494e6a23d734c2072c36f7cdc87075e5e34b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Ekaitz Zárraga Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2018 23:39:44 +0200 Subject: First time -- sketch --- content/posts/first_time.md | 113 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 113 insertions(+) create mode 100644 content/posts/first_time.md (limited to 'content/posts/first_time.md') diff --git a/content/posts/first_time.md b/content/posts/first_time.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dc24e8f --- /dev/null +++ b/content/posts/first_time.md @@ -0,0 +1,113 @@ +Title: My first time +Date: 2018-06-23 +Category: +Tags: +Slug: First-Time +Lang: en + +The other day I remembered a very important day on my life, one of those early +beginnings that started to change my mind: **The first time I contributed to +free software**. + +My first contribution was in 2014, more specifically the 22nd of May of 2014. + +That's only 4 years ago. But, at the same time, they already passed 4 years +since then? OMG. + +You get the feeling, right? + +You may think I started coding when I was 10 or something like that. I didn't. +I learned programming in the university and not as well as a Computer Scientist +because I studied Telecommunication Engineering and computers are just a third +of the studies while the other two parts are electronics and signals related +things. + +I'm not a young hacker or a genius. My parents don't like computers. I didn't +live with a computer at home since I was a toddler. That didn't happen. + +Today I want to tell you my story. Not because it's awesome and you'll love it. +I want to tell you my story because it's **really** standard. I want you to see +that you can also contribute to Free Software. Anyone can. + +So, how did it all start? + +I started my university studies in 2009. The first year we had one semester of +C and the next one of C++. Not real programming classes, just introductory +stuff for the languages and computers. A couple of years later we had a +networking subject where I used Linux for the first time. The computers had +*Kubuntu* installed. At that time my laptop started to give me some trouble and +I installed *Kubuntu* in a dual boot and tested it. It was nice. + +Few time later the *Windows* partition failed again and I was comfortable +enough in *Kubuntu* to delete it and use only *Kubuntu*. It was easy. + +The second semester that year another subject had some focus on Linux because +it was a networks and tools subject and I really needed it. We learned to use a +terminal, some SQL and many things like that. Simple tools but they resulted to +be useful in the future. I was really surprised by the power of the terminal +and I studied a lot in my free time I finished the subject with honours just +because I was really interested on it. As I said, I'm not a genius, I was +interested. + +We had a subject about *Minix*, following Andrew Tannenbaum's *Operating +Systems: Desing and Implementation* book and *Minix* version 1, which gave us +the initial needed knowledge about Operating Systems at that time. That started +to give me some info about the ethical part of the free software and also +sparked more interest. + +Next year I had a couple of Operating Systems subjects (the theoretical one and +the practical one). The teacher was part of *KDE Spain*, and he talked about +free software in class. I was quite into it at that time. The practical part of +the subject was real software, we covered the contents of the book called +*Advanced Linux programming*[^1]. That was pure C development and we didn't +have a lot of knowledge on that. We just touched some C/C++ during the first +year and some assembly in a couple of subjects. It was really hard, but it was +really cool. + +We made a small shell. It was great! + +Final year[^2] of the university: I had to make the final project. + +I didn't know what to do so I contacted the teacher who was part of *KDE Spain* +and he mentored me. I installed a IRC client and started talking with the +people at *kde-telepathy* project. I wasn't used to that kind of collaborative +development. Heck, I wasn't used at any kind of development! But it was all +good, mostly thanks to the great people in the project (David, Diane, George, +Martin... *You* are awesome!). + +The project itself was a *KDE* application, *KDE-Telepathy*, a big one. Thanks +to heaven, my part of the project was quite separated so I could focus on my +piece. That taught me to search in a big codebase and focus on my part. Then I +had to code in C++ like in the real life, not like designed problems I've +worked on at the university, and I also had to read tons of documentation about +*Qt*, *KDE* and anything else. + +I started with the contribution that opened this post and I went on until I +renewed the whole interface. It wasn't great, but the code was finally merged +in the application some time later. + +Since then I could say I code almost everyday and I've been studying many +languages more but, at that time, I was relatively new to programming and +computers. + +With all this I mean: + +> If you are interested, try. Everything is going to be fine. You don't need to +> be a genius[^3]. + +[You can check the contribution +here](https://git.reviewboard.kde.org/r/118256/diff/2#index_header). + +Love. + +Ekaitz + +[^1]: It's a great book, by the way. You can find it + [online](https://mentorembedded.github.io/advancedlinuxprogramming/). + +[^2]: When I studied, right before the [Bolognia + Process](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bologna_Process), the university was 5 + years long for a Masters Degree and 3 for a Bachelor Degree. + +[^3]: But congratulations if you are, that way you'll learn faster and probably + have more reach if you want to. -- cgit v1.2.3