Closed chadwhitacre closed 8 years ago
Is there anything specific that needs done that could be considered entry level?
Also - as I go through older issues that are still open should I drop a comment if they should be closed if they haven't been just yet?
Is there anything specific that needs done that could be considered entry level?
@kzisme We have several email notifications we want to start sending out. https://github.com/gratipay/gratipay.com/issues/3526 is probably the easiest to start with. Look good?
Also - as I go through older issues that are still open should I drop a comment if they should be closed if they haven't been just yet?
Yes, please!
@kzisme May I add you as a collaborator on GitHub? That will allow you to create topic branches in our main repo, as well as work with labels on issues.
@whit537 My goal is to try to address at least one issue/day, so we'll see how that shapes up. If you have any other suggestions and such don't hesitate to let me know.
Also I'll drop a line here if I have any other questions :)
@whit537 You're more than welcome to. I've been reading more about Gratipay as well - does an mailing list currently exist?
You're more than welcome to.
Awesome, thanks! Invite sent. :)
Once we bring back our payroll feature we can add you there as well.
I've been reading more about Gratipay as well - does an mailing list currently exist?
You mean an internal development mailing list? Naw, we just use GitHub. :-)
Here's the documentation for our communication channels.
Also I'll drop a line here if I have any other questions :)
Perfect. We can close this once you have a couple good PRs under your belt.
BTW, have you been able to set up a local Gratipay dev environment?
have you been able to set up a local Gratipay dev environment?
I haven't had time to do that just yet - I'll try to do that tonight. Thus far, I've been reading about the dependencies and such.
You mean an internal development mailing list? Naw, we just use GitHub. :-)
Well, I'm just happy to see some activity! I hope I can offer some sort of help and learn a bit :)
Thus far, I've been reading about the dependencies and such.
The heaviest dependency is Postgres. What OS are you using?
Currently, Windows 7/8 (depending on machine)
Okay, iirc in the past I've had good luck with these Postgres installers on Windows. We're on 9.3 in production.
@whit537 I'll spend my spare time during the day today playing catch-up on docs and where Gratipay currently stands. There seems to be a lot going on with #3399 and I'm reading through all that trying to get an understanding.
It's a lot to take in + looking at code :package:
Oh - I'll check that installer out! Thanks for the link, I'm considering buy a new dev machine in the near future as well :)
Yeah, #3399 is big right now. Check the Radar for current status.
Sifting through #3399 and the Radar for now - I suppose I'll add what I can without getting in the way :+1:
@whit537 I got Postgres installed and working last night - I suppose the next challenge for me is getting Make/gcc toolchain running so that I can build the project.
@kzisme We don't have a good Windows development story right now, I'm afraid. @techtonik has been working on a Vagrant-based solution (want to give us a status update on that, @techtonik?). If you're installing directly into Windows I think it'd make more sense to try to install pre-compiled binaries of our Python dependencies that have C extensions (e.g., psycopg2) rather than trying to build them yourself. Also, I'm not sure of the state of Aspen on Windows; over on https://github.com/gratipay/aspen-python/issues/442 we're looking at implementing continuous integration for Aspen, after which we should do the same for Gratipay.
Yeah I'm not surprised - Windows always makes building any project a hassle.
install pre-compiled binaries of our Python dependencies that have C extensions
I suppose I'll look into how to do this today
Also, if you dont mind me asking what sort of dev environment/OS do you use?
Personally? I'm on Mac OS.
Windows always makes building any project a hassle.
But it's ubiquitous, cheap, and easy. :)
But it's ubiquitous, cheap, and easy. :)
As long as it's possible to get it working :-P
@kzisme - If you're okay with running an Ubuntu VM within Windows, run this script on a fresh image followed by make run
and you should be ready to go :dancer:
@rohitpaulk That's a pretty quick way to get up and running! I'll take a look at setting up a VM today :smiley:
!m @rohitpaulk @kzisme
@whit537 Just starting to get a VM up and running - I'm curious though....What market is Gratipay focused on? More on the individual or a team?
Just been reading and thinking a lot :smirk: I've been keeping up with all that's been happening as well. Great progress in the past week even :D
@kzisme Good question! We recently pivoted to focus more on teams. The ticket for the pivot is, serendipitously, #180! :dancer:
@whit537 Do you know how most people find out about Gratipay? I've been looking around at our competitors, and I was surprised to find out where some of them have found business (or users).
One of the things I have been thinking about is trying to market Gratipay towards individuals/teams for Twitch channels. I saw Patreon does the same, but reaching - or at least making our presence(or impending presence with 2.0) known to individuals/teams.
The reason these users would possibly be interested in something like Gratipay is because they either
Just throwing ideas around :smile_cat:
@whit537 What email is it best to reach you at for other questions? I have a few random ones I'd like to bounce off of you - if you don't mind :D
chad@zetaweb.com—I'll probably bounce them back to public channels, though. ;-)
That's fine :) they would probably be useful to others as well. I know most of your policies for transparency and openness - I'll shoot you an email today On Jun 21, 2015 1:02 PM, "Chad Whitacre" notifications@github.com wrote:
chad@zetaweb.com—I'll probably bounce them back to public channels, though. ;-)
— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/gratipay/inside.gratipay.com/issues/253#issuecomment-113935978 .
About Vagrant status on Windows and testing.
Well, last time I checked Vagrant worked ok. The last issue fixed was https://github.com/gratipay/gratipay.com/issues/3000 After which I was not not able to run the JavaScript tests, but it appeared common problem for all setups https://github.com/gratipay/gratipay.com/issues/3069
So, run:
vagrant up
and it should be fine.
I myself abandoned Vagrant, because it was extremely slow on my Vista 32, and recent updates killed my custom hack for memory expansion back from 8Gb to 3Gb. =/
Right now I am testing GP on Windows completely from online IDE's. CodeEnvy was good and truly inspirational. It looks like complete Cloud IDE, but there was problems to get Dockerfile correctly, and the way it shows logs also appeared to be limited for me. So I switched to Koding, which is more like web based terminal with tabs, editor and full fledged Ubuntu. I really like the simplicity of the interface.
Also, if you want to try Koding, the link above is a referral like, which gives something like 500Mb of space to both you and me on sign in. But the default space is quite ok - Usage 1.77 GB of 2.82 GB
for https://inside.gratipay.com/
Sent you an email :) On Jun 21, 2015 1:30 PM, "anatoly techtonik" notifications@github.com wrote:
About Vagrant status on Windows and testing.
Well, last time I checked Vagrant worked ok. The last issue fixed was gratipay/gratipay.com#3000 https://github.com/gratipay/gratipay.com/issues/3000 After which I was not not able to run the JavaScript tests, but it appeared common problem for all setups gratipay/gratipay.com#3069 https://github.com/gratipay/gratipay.com/issues/3069
So, run:
vagrant up
and it should be fine.
I myself abandoned Vagrant, because it was extremely slow on my Vista 32, and recent updates killed my custom hack for memory expansion back from 8Gb to 3Gb. =/
Right now I am testing GP on Windows completely from online IDE's. CodeEnvy https://codenvy.com was good and truly inspirational. It looks like complete Cloud IDE, but there was problems to get Dockerfile correctly, and the way it shows logs also appeared to be limited for me. So I switched to Koding https://koding.com/R/techtonik, which is more like web based terminal with tabs, editor and full fledged Ubuntu. I really like the simplicity of the interface.
Also, if you want to try Koding, the link above is a referral like, which gives something like 500Mb of space to both you and me on sign in. But the default space is quite ok - Usage 1.77 GB of 2.82 GB for https://inside.gratipay.com/
— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/gratipay/inside.gratipay.com/issues/253#issuecomment-113938308 .
Yeah, I started writing you a reply but it started turning into a blog post, and I figured I should prioritize #3567. :)
https://github.com/gratipay/gratipay.com/issues/3567, that is. ;-)
@whit537 no worries at your leisure :) #3567 has been busy today
@whit537 I've come up with a few more questions I'll send your way. At your leisure :)
@kzisme I've been sitting for a while on your email about getting involved in open-source, and learning and contributing more. I think the easiest way to answer would be in person. You're in Akron, right? What's your schedule like during the week? Want to co-work for a day in Youngstown? I know a great coffee shop there. How about Thursday the 16th or 23rd?
I'm also curious if you've ever worked on a chrome extension of any kind :)
@kzisme Not to speak of. We do have https://github.com/gratipay/gratipay-everywhere and it needs a maintainer. Want to take it over? :-)
Currently I'm interning in Strongsville, Ohio 8-5 M-F. This should lessen in August when the school year begins, but then I being classes at the end of August. I'm be fine with co-working for a day when we figure out what works :D
@whit537 I'd be interested in taking it over - as long as I'm capable (I still have just been reading about how extensions work).
My main concern with finding work before/after graduation is just making sure I know enough/am capable of - doing entry level -> Junior level work o.O
Learn to ask good questions.
Write a lot of code.
Read other people's code.
Try lots of stuff because there's no substitute for experience.
Design from the outside in. Build from the inside out.
Data structures are more important than algorithms. Get the data structures right and the algorithms write themselves.
Don't make fun of people for admitting they don't know things. Don't be afraid to admit you don't know things.
ESR's doc is limited: it only covers online interaction, and it's too gruff. In face-to-face conversation the rules are different. Learn to ask "What's that?" when someone mentions something you don't know about. Google is a crutch for non-face-to-face contexts. You'll always learn more from a knowledgeable person than you will from Google, because you can only get social context from people.
When you're stumped by a hard bug, try Science Lite™:
Live-blog bugs on GitHub tickets. Discipline yourself, don't get distracted.
Form good habits!
@whit537 I've read that ask good questions link before! It's a great resource.
For me, the hardest part for most projects/jobs/whatever is getting started and finding direction. I've been reading and thinking about how the chrome extension should work and will work, but implementing it.
Currently I've just being trying to dedicate more time to writing code and reading others (especially in down time at work)
the hardest part for most projects/jobs/whatever is getting started and finding direction
Design from the outside in. Build from the inside out.
"Design from the outside in," means, start with the end result you want to deliver. So, for example, with the Chrome extension: how do you want it to behave? What do you want the user experience to be? Right now it adds a Gratipay link on a couple sites (GitHub, Twitter). Does it behave the way we want? Why or why not? Start with the user experience. If you're not the user, then find users to talk to.
User needs should be where you find direction. If you're stuck, it's helpful to talk to others on the project to come up with requirements together.
Hmm that's a good way to think about it. The other extension I want to create is just a tagging system for posts - the technical side is what I'm struggling with on that project.
Live-blogging your requirements gathering is also a good practice, even if no-one else is explicitly talking with you. If the rest of us can see your thought process, then we can jump in with an idea or suggestion.
By "live-blogging" I mean making a GitHub ticket and dumping a stream of consciousness there.
Do these methods generally work for the technical side of things as well?
I definitely use the live-blogging approach for technical challenges. Doing so forces me to put some thought into the questions I'm asking. "What technology do I need to learn? What APIs are available? What have other people done that is similar and I can learn from or borrow? Given what's readily available, how should I design the solution to my problem?" Etc.
This also helps keep me on track, because when I find myself off in the weeds I can scroll back up and be like, "No, where was I again?" and get back on track.
Alright! Thanks for the tips thus far - I enjoy asking questions and conversing about software, and especially other people's experiences.
If you think I'm up to working on the extension I'd be fine with trying something. It would be a good catalyst to starting my own small project as well. I have a few projects I would like to work on in my spare time too...just haven't started them (though I've thought a lot about them)
If you think I'm up to working on the extension I'd be fine with trying something.
@kzisme Cool. Two starting points in gratipay-everywhere: You could fix https://github.com/gratipay/gratipay-everywhere/issues/34, and/or review https://github.com/gratipay/gratipay-everywhere/pull/29.
Alright I'll try to take a look tonight :dancer:
Got a first PR from @kzisme at https://github.com/gratipay/gratipay.com/pull/3559.
@kzisme Here's a ticket to help you get onboarded. Any random questions you have about contributing to Gratipay, feel free to ask them here. How can we help you contribute more?