[FFmpeg-devel] [RFC] beginner difficulty bug trac tag for new open source developers

compn tempn at mi.rr.com
Sun Jul 3 21:29:31 EEST 2016


hello

about once a month (also, around OPW/GSOC time) we get people in
#ffmpeg-devel or the ml asking about contributing to ffmpeg. i think we
need to try to organize something for new contributors.

usually there is only one or two devs alive (including me) to guide
newbies. most times these want-to-be devs already have knowledge of
git, make, etc and have c or c++ programming skills.

what they ask for is an easy way to start or easy bugs to look at.

so my proposed idea is to make a tag or priority on the bug tracker for
"easy" bugs. that way new contributors can look at a list of bugs that
are easy to fix.

what i need from you, fellow reader:

1. do you think this is a good idea? or do you have other ideas to help?
maybe write a newbie developer guide for developer documentation? is
there any knowledge from the OPW/gsoc mentors that we should put in the
developer docs?

2. what the name of this bug tag should be? "easy bugs" ? "beginner
difficulty" ?

3. are there other oss projects out there that already help new
contributors? can we steal something from them?

i'm not sure what criteria would make for an easy bug vs a hard bug.
but i'd rather leave that open to whoever adds/reviews the bug. i think
we all agree adding a codec tag or documentation is easier than adding
3d mvc h264 support.

i'm also not suggesting tagging every bug with a difficulty rating , as
that would take a while and i'm not sure of the benefit. i just want to
have a solid number (100-300+) of bugs that are somewhat easy to
understand, implement, review and finish.

have a great summer (for those in the northern hemisphere),
-compn


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