A beginning programmer

[Thomas Jollans]

On 07/11/2011 12:06 AM, Eric wrote:
> My problem is this though... I don't know what to do with this new
> found knowledge of these languages. I'm a linux user so availability
> of development tools is haaaaaaardly a problem. But I just don't know
> what to do with it, I don't have any problems that need to be solved
> and unfortunately I'm not familar enough with the languages (except
> maybe c++) to help out the big projects like KDE / Gnome.

Open source bug trackers are a great source of problems. Take an open
source program you like, ideally one with a sizeable and active user
base, written in a programming language you're comfortable with, check
out an open bug, and try solving it. This will
 * Get you reading other people's code. You can learn a lot from this
 * Provide a challenge
 * Do good

CPython itself is a great project to have a go at. I don't know how
familiar you are with C (as opposed to C++), but a large part of the
code is written in Python, there's loads of activity on the bug tracker,
and, in my experience, the community is very happy to help along new
people contributing their first patch.

Cheers,
Thomas