WordCamp OC - Contributing to Core: Hassle to Hobby

I hear frequently that it’s difficult to contribute code to WordPress’ core. During the past year, there’s been an increased emphasis on not only reaching out to new contributors, but making it simpler to get involved by making toolsets more accessible and trac more friendly to newcomers. I’ll walk through how I got started, and how things have changed for the better since. Come to learn the first steps in contributing to WordPress’ core.

Presented at WordCamp Orange County 2014 by Mike Schroder

Transcript

1. Contributing to Core:
   Hassle to Hobby
   WordCamp Orange County 2014 Mike Schroder (DH-Shredder) @GetSource - http://www.getsource.net
2. Who Am I? • Mike Schroder, a.k.a DH- Shredder, a.k.a. @GetSource • Third Culture Kid, enjoy Coffee & Sailing • WordPress 3.9 Co-Lead and Core Contributor • Happy DreamHost Employee
3. I’m going to start with a story.
4. It’s not typical.
   
5. A user’s tech support start.
   
7. Tip 1: IRC is the place to be.
   
9. This landed me in trac.
10. It turns out, this was more difficult than it sounded.
12. So, I picked a ticket at random.
13. Fortunately, it’s become less complicated to use trac.
24. Patch process?
25. Core Contributor Handbook
28. My first patch was almost entirely reverted.
29. Tip 2: Don’t limit yourself to one task or ticket.
30. Looking to work on a feature?
31. Tip 3: Team up.
32. Every larger thing I’ve worked on has been a team exercise.
33. Consider working on a feature plugin.
35. Not everything you work on will make it into core.
36. But some things will.
37. Tip 4: It gets easier.
39. So, let’s recap.
40. IRC is the place to be.
41. Don’t limit yourself to one task or ticket.
42. Team up.
43. It gets easier.
44. We’ll talk about next steps tomorrow at the workshop! • https://make.wordpress.org/core • https://core.trac.wordpress.org
 Slides: http://www.getsource.net/tag/contribution/ Mike Schroder (DH-Shredder) @GetSource - http://www.getsource.net