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open-source and me: tips for a career in software development

open-source and me: tips for a career in software development

a talk aimed at computer science students, about participating in open-source and building a career in software development

Aman Karmani

April 03, 2022
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Transcript

  1. Aman Gupta Karmani · github.com/tmm1
    open-source and me
    tips for a career in software development

    View Slide

  2. • programming for 20+ years

    • full-stack polyglot dev + ops

    • 10 years in silicon valley building my
    career

    • founded multiple startups

    • early engineer at GitHub

    • consulting for AirBnb, Twitter, etc

    • thousands of open-source
    contributions

    • moved to sunny Santa Barbara in
    2018
    Aman Karmani · @tmm1
    about me

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  3. about me
    2003 - high school

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  4. tips for a career in software development
    master a scripting
    language
    pick any one you like and get really
    good at it

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  5. tips for a career in software development
    invest in your
    development
    environment
    experiment with di
    ff
    erent code
    editors like vim, emacs, intellij,
    vscode to
    fi
    nd what makes you most
    productive

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  6. tips for a career in software development
    learn web
    technologies
    html, css, javascript
    http request/response + headers

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  7. about me
    2006 - college

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  8. about me
    2008 - San Francisco

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  9. 2009 - conferences
    about me

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  10. tips for a career in software development
    engage with your
    community
    attend conferences, talks and
    meetups about the languages and
    frameworks you’re using

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  11. about me
    2010 - rails performance consulting

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  12. tips for a career in software development
    learn to use
    debugging tools
    when you’re stuck,
    fi
    nd a tool which will
    dig deeper


    pro
    fi
    lers, tracers, inspectors, debuggers
    for example: chrome web inspector

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  13. about me
    2011

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  14. about me
    2012 - pro
    fi
    ling tools

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  15. tips for a career in software development
    think about how
    and where your
    code will run
    writing code is only half the battle..
    maintenance + operations
    resilient software saves you sleep

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  16. about me
    2013 - ruby-core team

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  17. about me
    2014 - RubyKaigi Tokyo
    !
    Aman Gupta (@tmm1)
    VP Technical Infrastructure
    GitHub, Inc.
    Ruby 2.1 in Production
    How I upgraded github.com from 1.8.7-p72 to 2.1.2
    http://bit.ly/ruby21-in-production

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  18. 2016
    about me

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  19. 2017
    about me

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  20. 2018
    about me

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  21. 2021
    about me

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  22. what is open source?

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  23. View Slide

  24. pick your battles
    why open source?

    Operating System

    Device Drivers
    Framework
    Libraries
    Proprietary


    Business Logic
    }
    } closed source
    trade secret
    speci
    fi
    c to your product/business
    open source
    shared infrastructure
    community adding features
    edge case bugs found and
    fi
    xed
    credit card

    processing
    http

    webserver
    tcp/ip

    network stack
    memory
    management


    process
    scheduling

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  25. open-source is
    a super power
    control your own destiny
    • look behind the scenes,
    instead of getting stuck

    • every change documented
    for future devs (+ you)

    • who changed it and
    when

    • what lines changed
    where

    • why why why

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  26. how does open source work?
    code

    (version control)

    discussion

    (code review)

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  27. case study
    open-source software for tax returns

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  28. OpenTaxSolver
    20 years old!
    • written in C

    • subversion source control

    • hosted on sourceforge

    • GPLv2, contribute patches
    via email

    • mailing list + facebook
    group for discussion

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  29. since 1996!
    excel1040
    • written in excel macros
    (!)

    • no source control

    no license

    • can it be called open-
    source?

    • hosted on google sites

    • contribute bug reports
    via email

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  30. • written in TypeScript and
    React.js

    • git for source control

    • AGPL3, hosted on GitHub

    • discord discussions

    • automation: CI, codecov,
    dependabot, code formatting
    newcomer
    UsTaxes.org

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  31. let’s contribute!

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  32. • with the project

    • README, contribution guidelines, coding style

    • recent discussions, upcoming releases and goals

    • with the code base

    • look at open and recently closed issues

    • read through open and merged pull requests

    • what libraries, languages and frameworks are used?

    • how to setup a development environment?
    familiarize yourself
    let’s contribute

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  33. start small
    let’s contribute

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  34. documentation
    and project
    planning
    not all
    contributions
    are code
    let’s
    contribute

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  35. let’s contribute
    setup development environment

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  36. let’s contribute
    setup development environment

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  37. document for the future
    let’s contribute

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  38. document for the future
    let’s contribute

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  39. copy existing patterns and style
    let’s contribute

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  40. code review and scope creeeeeeeep
    let’s contribute

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  41. code review and scope creeeeeeeep
    let’s contribute

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  42. code review and scope creeeeeeeep
    let’s contribute

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  43. bug
    fi
    x: follow the open source
    let’s contribute

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  44. bug
    fi
    x: follow the open source
    let’s contribute

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  45. bug
    fi
    x: follow the open source
    let’s contribute

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  46. bug
    fi
    x: follow the open source
    let’s contribute

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  47. fi
    x bugs that a
    ff
    ect you
    let’s contribute

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  48. tips for a career in software development
    participate in
    open-source!
    build your skills and your portfolio
    scratch your own itch

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  49. newborn project
    taxes.cue

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  50. questions?
    Aman Karmani
    [email protected] · github.com/tmm1

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