----BEGIN CLASS---- [14:00] #startclass [14:00] Roll Call [14:00] priyanka Saggu [14:00] Mrinal Raj [14:00] amit kumar [14:00] Pravar Agrawal [14:00] Jagannathan Tiruvallur Eachambadi [14:00] Ayush J [14:00] Ritwiz Sinha [14:00] sparsh [14:00] Aniruddha Basak [14:00] Abhay Kaushik [14:00] Ritik Raushan [14:00] Sk Sahidullah [14:00] Vibhor [14:00] Saurav [14:01] Bhavin Gandhi [14:01] Welcome to the first guest session of 2019. [14:01] Our speaker is actually a regular participant in the channel, pradyunsg. [14:01] Ankur [14:01] pradyunsg, The stage is yours, go ahead. [14:02] Hi everyone! [14:02] Hello! [14:02] Firstly, a quick introduction of myself. [14:02] Bhavesh Gupta [14:02] Hello pradyunsg [14:02] Hey pradhvan pradyunsg o/ [14:03] *pradyunsg [14:03] I'm a 4th year college student, studying CSE in VIT Vellore. I've been contributing to open source, since... around 2014. [14:03] Please do not speak in the middle of the session. [14:05] Has the session started yet? [14:05] Yes. [14:05] As on today, I'm a maintainer of pip and virtualenv. For those not familiar with those tools, pip is the package installer for Python. virtualenv is used extensively to work on multiple Python projects in isolation. [14:06] I basically work on Python packaging tools -- tools used to get Python software from the developer to other developers or even end users. [14:06] So, that's my introduction. [14:07] kushal: would you add anything to that? [14:07] pradyunsg, Nope. [14:08] pradyunsg, Please tell us a bit more about how did you start working on Open Source in general. [14:08] Sure! [14:09] My initial work in open source was acutally very odd/interesting, in my opinion. [14:09] My first reasonable Open Source work was actually a contribution to pip itself. [14:10] There was a very long standing request for an "upgrade" command in pip. [14:11] I was still learning Python, and I'd installed a few packages with pip by then. I stumbled upon that issue on GitHub because I was curious about upgrading an installed package. [14:13] Over the next few days, I read through the entire discussion (which started in 2011!). [14:14] I realized that the main thing missing was someone connecting the dots, helping a discussion happen to decide what should be done. I had a lot of time, so I volunteered to be that person. [14:15] More than 500 comments on GitHub and a few months later, we finally resolved one of the longest standing issues in pip. [14:15] Soon after that, I got into college and realized Google Summer of Code is a program I was now eligible for. [14:16] I saw another long standing issue that looked interesting, because it was a lot more technical, so I thought I'd work on that. [14:17] So I wrote a mail saying something along the lines of -- I'd like to work on pip, adding a dependency resolver to it, as a GSoC project. A lot happened, and long story short, I got accepted as a GSoC 2017 participant. [14:18] pradyunsg, How did you start learning Python at the beginning? [14:18] My father handed me a textbook -- Core Python Programming, written by Wesley J. Chun. [14:18] Did you study from a book? Or wrote many example code? [14:20] I got into it because someone told me I could make games if I learn programming. [14:21] I played around with the examples in the book, when I realized that I could do interesting things with computers. [14:21] I did make a basic game using pygame. [14:21] ! [14:21] Then a sudoku solver. [14:21] Then a GUI sudoku game. And then, the pip thing happened. :) [14:21] next [14:22] So what made you continue contributing to that organisation even after GSoC. How did you manage to find time to contribute to open source even with academics in college? [14:22] Nice question django_master! [14:23] There's 2 parts to that question: continuing contributions, managing time in college. [14:24] I continue contributing because: [14:25] 1. the people I get to discuss with, meet and work with. There are many great people (and friends!) I've met, due to this. [14:25] 2. the things I work I use myself and I see those around me use it. There's a certain joy to seeing someone use a thing you make. [14:25] 3. this stuff is complex and interesting. I like that kind of stuff. :) [14:26] Regarding managing time in college: [14:27] It's... non-trivial. My academic workload is fairly decent but I always have little bits of time here and there to look at code (maybe a gap hour between classes) or respond to a question. [14:27] That's during class hours. My evenings are usually free so I do what I can, when I can. :) [14:28] FWIW, I'm still in college. [14:28] next [14:28] pradyunsg: Well answered [14:28] ! [14:28] next [14:29] ! [14:29] ! [14:29] ! [14:29] I have tried to work with G SOC to take the project from organisation.How you have chosen the project and organissation? [14:30] but i failed and wasted 4 year of college [14:30] ! [14:31] amitkm9204, I think he just answered that. [14:31] Yea. My situation wasn't normal -- I'd actually proposed a project idea that was not listed on the ideas pages, which eventually got accepted. [14:31] yeah,kushal but i want more, if you can also add some point [14:31] amitkm9204, pradyunsg started contributing to pip first, and then later his proposal became the best one for GSoC. [14:32] ok..got it... [14:32] thank you [14:32] amitkm9204, you should our communications guidelines chapter. [14:32] Knowing what the project is, helps you understand how you can best contribute to it. [14:32] next [14:32] What helped you to be convinced in programming, your father's given book, making a game or Wesley J. Chun? [14:33] SSahid: The fun of it. [14:33] ! [14:33] Like, I enjoyed seeing how some text on the screen did interesting things. [14:34] Or solved problems that I couldn't by hand. [14:34] next [14:34] how do you learn in general. Can you explain the process, please :) [14:34] oh! that's great [14:34] AH... That's a loaded question. It is very context dependent. [14:35] Google is your friend. [14:35] Ask people who know about these things, for advice and help. [14:36] Use whatever resources you can find, to understand as much as you can. [14:36] I can't really elaborate more right now -- maybe I'll think about it and do a blog post later. :) [14:36] next [14:36] Does being selected in GSoC make a big difference in the community? I mean you can contribute without it too, right? Also did you get advantages because of GSoC? (I might sound stupid here :P) [14:37] ! [14:38] The biggest advantage of GSoC for me was that I felt a lot more responsible to work on pip. The fact that I could spend more time on this, was wonderful. [14:38] The other equally important bit, was the people I realized I could have talked to. [14:38] Does being selected in GSoC make a big difference in the community? No. [14:39] Also did you get advantages because of GSoC? Sort of; I had someone I could ask stupid questions, before I realized it's okay to ask stupid questions. :) [14:39] next [14:39] pradyunsg: My question is related to j605 's. How did you learn more skills and kept them updated with time? By contributing to open source only or by simultaneously building some personal projects too. [14:40] I've mostly worked on open source, and reading about things I'm using. [14:40] next [14:40] j605 asked and you answered my main question. thank you pradynsg. so just another curious one. if you remember, how long did it take you to go from zero to moderate fluency with python (like yes, i can do this?) [14:41] pradyunsg: Ok. Thanks. [14:41] (I'll write a blog post later about the learning question, I'll have to think about a more elaborate answer) [14:41] jasonbraganza: Not sure; I never had a "AHA!" moment for that. [14:42] thank you pradyunsg. that sort of clarifies it for me [14:43] I was still filling in "intermediate", in forms about proficency in Python until one day someone pointed out: "You're a maintainer of pip. You're definitely an expert.". [14:43] :) [14:44] So, I don't think I have an exact moment. But it was definitely 3-4 months before I was thinking more about the problem, not the language. [14:44] next [14:45] Heads up - I have to go in 10 minutes. [14:45] ! [14:46] django_master? [14:47] I'll skip django_master; feel free to send "!" again django_master. [14:47] next [14:47] How did you manage interview related stuff(DSA or competitive) along with Open source contributions? I find it quite difficult to manage. [14:48] I actually don't do much competitive programming. My DSA actually got better the more I worked on actual software. [14:49] pradyunsg, you don't know how many hearts you broke with that quote ^^. [14:50] xD [14:50] xD [14:50] I mean, I'm definitely not better than those around me, sitting for placements, at competitive programming. [14:50] ! [14:50] General problem solving and communication aren't things they test for in competitive programming though, which is what I have felt are a lot more important if you're actually solving problems. [14:50] ! [14:51] next [14:51] what are you software interests outside of pip? (domain) [14:51] ! [14:51] s/you/your [14:51] j605: mostly developer tooling, because I've become so accustomed that stuff. [14:51] I'm a maintainer of TOML fwiw. [14:52] Rust is interesting to me; because... complex things are interesting to me. :) [14:52] next [14:52] So, now pip is preinstalled with python or have to install it later? [14:52] sorry [14:53] lol [14:53] Usually, when you install Python, pip will get installed with it. If it doesn't, tell me and we'll figure out if we can change that. :) [14:54] django_master: you can ask. [14:54] (last question -- I need to leave for a meeting at 8:30pm) [14:55] ! [14:55] skipping django_master again. :P [14:55] next [14:55] next [14:55] What are the key responsibilities of a Project Maintainer? [14:55] depends on the project. [14:56] For pip, it's everything from communicating with users, to fixing bugs, to maintaining the issue tracker, to doing releases and more. [14:56] Okay, I think that's all I have time for today. :) [14:56] pradyunsg, Thank you for your time. [14:56] pradyunsg: thanks for the session and thanks for you contributions! I rely on the software to contribute to everyday, not sure what I would do without you :) [14:56] Thank you pradyunsg :) [14:56] For the rest, pradyunsg is generally on the channel, feel free to ask later. [14:56] Roll call [14:56] Thank you pradyunsg :) [14:57] Priyanka Saggu [14:57] Abhay Kaushik [14:57] Mrinal Raj [14:57] sparsh [14:57] Ritik Raushan [14:57] Jagannathan Tiruvallur Eachambadi [14:57] Ritwiz Sinha [14:57] Ankur [14:57] vibhor [14:57] Siddhant N Trivedi [14:57] Nilesh Patra [14:57] Aniruddha Basak ----END CLASS----