Is there an easy way to find small open source projects?

Question

It was suggested to me by the SO community to get into an open source project to get myself out there. Id like to find one that is preferably a small project (file size/project size). I figure getting into something that is small will help me get into something that wont take long to understand and start contributing.

I tried the big open source communities and they dont have a way to search based on size of project. So I come to SO to ask is there any easy way to find them? If not can someone recommend windows OS based project that uses C++ or C# and is small? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Finding OSS projects for windows is harder than for linux, although there are still plenty. I'm not sure I'd count it as "small" but there are projects such as "bless" (mono/c#) which would be manageable. I think it's better to think in terms of projects you can make small contributions to and are easy to get into, rather than necessarily small projects. Just pick a tool you use fairly often that you think you could tweak / bugfix and start there.

Answer 2

Don't worry about size. Instead, work on projects that you use and enjoy.

What software do you use throughout the day? What needs to happen to it? Don't just think about features.

Does it need a better test suite? Does it need any bugs to get fixed? Maybe some documentation fleshed out? Is there a wiki for it that could use some attention? If not, why not start one?

Is there a mailing list you can help out on, especially with the simple questions that a lot of more seasoned experts don't take time to answer?

There are many ways to contribute to an open source project, but if you don't like the project you're on, then you won't do any of them.

Answer 3

Perhaps you are going about this the wrong way.

Why don't you ask yourself what type of project you would like to work on, apart from small and open source, what software do you yourself use regularly that might be of interest. Or what areas of software are you interested in, graphics, scripting languages, games, security, web stuff, ...

I think to pick a project just because you can contribute is not the same as picking a project because you want to contribute and in the end if you can be passionate about developing on an open source software project you will be much more rewarded instead of doing it just for the sake of working on any open source project.

...just my 2c :)