Updates from my Opensource Journey

Hi,

My previous blog post described my journey into Opensource development and how I was able to submit my first PR to the FreeCodeCamp platform.

I have since been consistently helping out in pushing fixes, reviewing code and engaging with the community on unresolved issues.

A week ago, I was offered to become a member of the moderator team. Needless to say, I accepted and have been given access to other repositories of the FCC platform. I plan on using this opportunity to make better, more significant contributions and give back to the FCC platform.

What I learned to improve my contributions to FCC

If you open up the Github for FreeCodeCamp, you will find that it uses Gatsby. Gatsby is an opensource framework built on React that allows you to build server-side-rendered applications. Gatsby allows you to easily enforce best practices and reduce the overhead on writing a lot of boilerplate via its library of plugins. You can learn more about it from their official site.

I went through this course from Frontend Masters to equip myself with an introductory knowledge of Gatsby. As soon as I was done, the FCC repository became very easy to navigate and understand. This has helped me be more confident in taking on issues that I would not have otherwise.

The next items on my list are:

• Redux
• GraphQL

Just for your information, I have been working as a DevOps Engineer and Backend JS Developer for the last 5 years. But lately, I have been pushing myself towards the frontend domain. My experience has led me to believe that being a solid software generalist makes you more productive and reliable, especially if you work with opensource tools, start-ups or aim to architect complete software applications. I have also found being able to quickly churn out products is invaluable as a technology entrepreneur. Hence, investing time in bridging your knowledge for the various silo-ed software domains is paramount.

Takeaways for you from this post:

• Consistent effort always pays off
• Learn the technology behind the opensource software you want to work on
• Aim to be a software generalist

Thanks for reading and do leave a comment if you have any questions.