Software Engineering Stack Exchange
Software Engineering Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [contribution]

Contribution refers to updates or feature additions to an existing open-source project.

23 questions
59
votes
6 answers

Why aren't there code overviews for open-source projects?

There are very complex open source projects out there, and to some of them I think I could make some contributions, and I wish I could, but the barrier to entry is too high for a single reason: for changing one line of code at a big project you have…
fiatjaf
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23
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3 answers

At what stage of an Open Source project should you invite contributions from the community?

I've been wondering about getting contributions to a new open source product my team will be developing. There's encouragement for us to get as much support from the wider community as we're able, but I can also see this absorbing a lot of time…
Armand
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20
votes
1 answer

How do I better engage the users who starred my project on GitHub?

I recently put up a project, called Hebel, that I've been working on to GitHub. It's a framework for GPU accelerated deep learning written in Python and Nvidia CUDA. I posted about it on Google+ and soon afterwards it was picked up on Hacker News…
oceanhug
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17
votes
4 answers

Does your company have a written policy about contributing to open-source projects?

Does your company have a written policy about contributing to open-source projects? We've been contributing "don't ask don't tell" style, but it's time to write something down. I'd appreciate both full written policy text and bits and…
dblock
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15
votes
5 answers

Should I help anonymity related projects?

Projects that increase online anonymity, such as Tor and bitcoin, allow personal freedom from government oppression but also allow crimes to go unpunished. As a developer, should I contribute to such projects? Is there a way to enforce that those…
Jader Dias
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14
votes
1 answer

Author has inserted copyright into code with gnu public license notice - implications?

I've found a project on Github that I'm interested in contributing to which claims to be open source and has a GPL license included with it. But the original author has added a copyright notification to each source file. I'm not sure why but I…
Nick Pickering
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11
votes
3 answers

How do I convince my company to contribute towards Open-Source?

I'm trying to convince the company I work for to contribute towards open-source software, specifically building a library/component for ASP.NET web apps. We have an 'Innovation Day' coming up where we can work on our own personal pet projects at…
Sunday Ironfoot
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10
votes
3 answers

How does one become a big contributor to an opensource project?

I know that the default advice for open source projects, and getting started, is to start fixing bugs. But I have a feeling that its the path that one would want to take if they wanted to be a tester/fixer of bugs in the project. How does one become…
monksy
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9
votes
4 answers

Is it fair to require copyright assignments from contributors of an OS project?

As a follow up to Does a BSD-licensed project need a signed statement from each contributor?: There are several reasons why an open source project might want to get copyright assignments from its contributors. For example: To allow the project…
Petr
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9
votes
2 answers

Does a BSD-licensed project need a signed statement from each contributor?

Today I read on Fossil SCM's mailing list: The problem with BSD is that you really should get a signed form from each contributor stating that their contribution is BSD. This is automatic with GPL, since releasing your contributions under a…
Petr
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6
votes
1 answer

Should one time contributors be listed as an Author?

When working on open source projects should one time contributor's (I mean like single or minor patchset, nothing that would be considered a major contribution ) be listed as an Author? or should they simply get listed in say an acknowledgement…
xenoterracide
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6
votes
2 answers

How do you endorse/support a code project that you find helpful?

How do you endorse/support a code project that you find helpful, be it established, emergent or fledgling? I think there are some obvious answers, but hopefully there will be some novel suggestions too.
Ian Mackinnon
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6
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2 answers

Content of AUTHORS file

GNU recommends making an AUTHORS file to list the authors and contributors of a program. But how many "levels" of authors and contributors should the file contain? E.g. if I write a program foo that actively use some library, should I include the…
user55777
5
votes
2 answers

How can one measure contributions to a project?

Has anyone ever come across this problem? When you have a team of developers working on a project, how can you measure their contributions to said project? Is there a "formal" way of doing it? Number of commits? Number of bug fixes? Lines…
Deleteman
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4
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1 answer

How do I advertise for volunteers for my open source project

I have found a couple of related questions here on programmers.SE: How/where would I best advertise my open source project, in order to maximize my odds of finding…
Code-Guru
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