Need some experience

[Thomas Jollans]

On 13/09/11 22:25, Tim Hanson wrote:
> I have been a desktop Linux user for better than eleven years, as a hobby.  
> Back when we still did most of our computing on desktops I even set up a 
> rudimentary server setup in my home.  Nothing fancy or anything, but I was 
> proud of it and of the fact that it was built Microsoft free.  I have no 
> formal education in IT nor programming.  Retired now, my career was finance; I 
> was an IRS field agent.
> 
> Since retiring two years ago, I have renewed my interest in software.  I know 
> some C and lately decided to learn Python.  I have worked through a couple of 
> the introductory texts and have a feeling for the OOP model, although I won't 
> be able to  call myself an experienced practitioner anytime soon.
> 
> I am looking for an open source project that will allow me to develop my 
> skills further.
> 
> Financially, I'm set; I'm not looking for a job.  I'm looking for some drudge 
> work, where I can look at other peoples' code and make a contribution.  
> Naturally I do not want to do this forever; I'm hoping to get up to speed with 
> my skill set so I can work to more complexity later.
> 
> Does anyone have some ideas that would help me?

This is becoming something of an FAQ - I don't suppose there's a canned
response link somewhere ? ;-)

I like to recommend CPython itself — which is a bit hypocritical, as I
haven't touched it in quite a while. It has a constantly overflowing bug
tracker where I'm sure you can find a lot of fascinating problems that
need solving. The community, I have found, is welcoming and friendly.
Much of the standard library is written in Python, but if you know C,
you can have a go at the C code as well.

Thomas