Good Ruby or Python OpenSource projects that need help?

Question

Anyone know any good Ruby or Python OpenSource projects that are in need of some help at the junior level?

I seen this link: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/38881/how-to-find-opensource-projects-looking-for-help but I am looking for some opinion.

Answer 1

Here's what I'd do. Look at all of the open-source applications and libraries that you use and pick the one you like best. Start helping out with that project. Really good libraries and applications usually are the ones with good open source communities behind them. And those are the projects that most benefit from new people helping out, they really carry that momentum.

Odds are that you'll be quite familiar with the library or application already. You will also have some ideas of where there are weaknesses or ideas for new features.

This advice works just as well with any language, not just ruby or python.

Answer 2

The Ruby Redcloth Gem is currently looking for help in becoming JRuby compatible.

See this post in the mailing list for details.

Answer 3

I would suggest checking out Github and reviewing some active projects. You can easily fork a project and see what contributions you can add. Many projects will typically have a "to-do" that you can review.

Another option that also works best in these situations are to find an open source tool you use and contribute back to it. I'm a big fan of Redmine, a project management tool written in Rails which provides issue tracking and SCM capabilities. In a few instances I have found a few "itches" that I needed to scratch so I went ahead and peeked around the code and started some plugins. After discussing the plugin on their forum I found out a few others had interest in it as well. So before you know it, something you've created for your own needs has turned into something that a hand full of other users would benefit from as well.

Good luck!

Answer 4

I run Delta3D, an open source game engine. We use python bindings to our C++ code, but we have trouble trying to get all the C++ code to have bindings and keep those we do have up to date. If you're looking to help, we'd love it.

http://delta3d.org

Answer 5

It's also not a bad idea to start something on your own. Especially if you're 'junior' it can be a great learning experience to start from the ground up, making mistakes and learning along the way. Not only will you possibly gain more experience that way, you'll probably also come across other projects and libraries that you'll want to use with/in your project that you could help out with.