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I am interested in contributing! How can I start?

Open ghost opened this issue 4 years ago • 5 comments

I love LISP, and I love Mezzano - how can I get started in contributing to this project? I do not know where to start in terms of reading the code, and what the overall architectural design of the operating system is - is there somewhere I can read about Mezzano's development?

Should I jump into the IRC channel?

Thanks in advance.

(Btw I love this project)

ghost avatar Feb 26 '20 00:02 ghost

Hi Blair Vidakovich

Can you write what do you like to make?

Irc is good place to talk, it is in freenode #mezzano

ebrasca avatar Feb 26 '20 00:02 ebrasca

thanks! i'll jump into the IRC :-)

i'm not sure what i like to make, but i have a big passion for LISP operating systems and LISP machines, after looking at the CONS, the CAR and the Symbolics 3600 LISP machines.

I recently read the MINIX operating systems book by Tanenbaum and was horrified about how UNIX systems work, and would really rather work on a LISP operating system project.

can i perhaps work on documentation first? is there anything in the project that needs documenting, that would enable me to better understand how Mezzano works, so I can decide what I am interested in?

are there any good background reading books I can look at?

ghost avatar Feb 26 '20 09:02 ghost

I'd love to contribute too, this is an awesome project! Maybe we can share the "onboarding" information? :)

rudolfkral avatar Feb 26 '20 11:02 rudolfkral

The first step (after initial installation and testing) may be to dive into the code, as correctly documenting a system that you don't understand would likely not be easy nor pleasant (nor possible, at least at a satisfying level of quality).

The strategy for contributing code enhancements would be much the same. Dive into the code and see if there is anything that you think you could improve.

Hexstream avatar Feb 26 '20 15:02 Hexstream

okay awesome!!

i'll just dive into the code, and see what i can make of it :-)

and if i need help, i'll just ask!

ghost avatar Feb 27 '20 13:02 ghost