HOWTO: Be full of C.R.A.P.

In part 1 I rambled on at length about what I think needs to be done to prove yourself to a project team in order to become a committer on tht project.

So, what the crap's up with being full of C.R.A.P.? I'm not referring to the four principles of design (Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, Proximity), though there are some similarities here.

For me, being full of C.R.A.P is about the transition from one state to another:

Contributing Responsive Able Peer

to

Committed Responsible Active Participant

How do you move from one state to another?

Simple, right?

'Till next time...

HOWTO: Becoming an open source project committer

The Tweetosphere/blogosphere has been buzzing with discussions about what one needs to do to be a committer @ Eclipse.org.

I got my rights by working for IBM and being handed the keys to the Porsche when I started working at the Toronto Lab as a member of the EMF team, oh so many lunar eclipses ago. No longer with IBM, I'll retain my committerships until I manually ask to be removed, or they claw 'em from my cold dead hands. After all, what's a revised patch but a 2nd Amendment? (Aside: seriously, people, it's 2009. You don't need a gun. There's no Imperial Army coming to steal your land. LET IT GO.)

For most committers, however, you can't just be appointed to the job; you have to earn it. So, here are my tips for getting on *my* project, the Athena Common Build.

1. Easiest way to get on the project: be invited by someone already on the team by personal recommendation (see criteria below). Others can +1/-1 the suggestion based on the criteria below, but in my experience with other projects, no one ever vetoes a nomination. (I've seen it once, and it only delayed that person's committership by about a month.) So cozy up to the existing committers, and you're in. Why is this? Because it's OPEN source, and how can you be open if you exclude people who want to contribute?
2. The nominee must use the project at least weekly, if not daily. For Athena, this means you have to be actively writing Ant scripts, doing builds, or at least be active in PDE or p2 development. Why is this important?
   a) I don't want "dump and run" code which I'll then have to maintain, and
   b) if you're not a user, you can't intelligently decide what pains exist and which are important to solve
3. I'd like to see two accepted patches to prove you've got the technical skill, and that you're willing to thrown down and help with existing known issues - see 2 (b) above.
4. If you're not technical (or not *yet* technical), then you need demonstrated skills or commitment, or have worked in a related field with someone mutually known who can vouch for you.

So, what constitutes "commitment?" Lots of things...

• show up to meetings
• comment on or write bugs, blogs, wiki, articles, recipes, HOWTOs, newsgroup, mailing list, IRC
• submits patches or test cases
• help triage bugs
• mentor students (GSoc or other)
• runs contests, does viral marketing, etc.

Now, of course, these items are not all mesaurable, but if people know you're involved, and you'd like to be a committer, you'll likely be voted in. (Many people trying out Athena may have noticed I've offered them committer rights in exchange for code or doc contributions. So far, no takers, but the offer stands.)

Frankly, I'd rather have more people as committers who do little to the code base but who have the power to do so when needed. For example, (if the data is accurate) Kim's only committed 48 LOC in the past 9 months, compared to my 80,000 LOC (seriously, that can't be right) - but what she, Andrew and Andrew have done has been invaluable. And, often much more valuable, they've all helped out with with advice in bugs. Thanks!

Good planning trumps code any day.

Continued in part 2

Do you wanna be open source?

I've got a plan to make code free and open,
Lucky for me, for you it's a cause you can join,
The world is slowly changing,
FLOSS is so contagious

Chorus
I'm willing to code my way to the top,
I wanna be o-pen source,
I don't wanna stick with vendor lock-in,
I wanna be open source

I must confess,
Lin's got too many distros,
Been sleepin around,
Talk of the town,
My name is...

E-clipseCon will beckon,
E-veryone will listen,
Play my vimeo
Check me out on ohloh,
Browsin' through the source, yo
No one ever says no

Chorus

I'm willing to code my way to the top,
I'm a contributor
I'll submit patches, write docs, and test stuff
Make me a committer

My friends... are all... sans Windows
My friends... they all... pronounce the 'g'

I just fixed a bug!

Play my vimeo
Check me out on ohloh,
Browsin' through the source, yo
no one ever says no

Chorus

I'll collaborate my way to the top,
I'm a beta-tester
I'll report problems and suggest features
Help to make better software

Freedom... comes when... the source is free
Freedom... thanks to... community

Play my vimeo, check me out on ohloh
I'm willing to code my way to the top
Browsin' through the source, yo, no one ever says no
I wanna be o-pen source
x2

Are you willing to code your way to the top?
Do you want to be o-pen source?

Darren Hayes - Popular

Is there a MIDP 2.0 Music Player that does Ogg?

Having switched from ubuntu to Fedora and from .mp3 to .ogg and .flac, I've been looking for a player for my Sony Ericsson W810i... at least until such time as I finally settle on a Blackberry.

Here's what I've tried...

• jorbis 0.0.17 - unusable UI (won't play); sources provided (no precompiled binary) won't compile with anything less than JDK 1.3; my phone requires CDC-1.1/MIDP 2.0, so this one's a non-starter
• jOggPlayer 1.1.6s - works on linux with .ogg; ugly UI; won't compile locally with CDC-1.1 (no JApplet class) or JVM 6.0 (missing kiwi.io.* classes in source bundle); precompiled binary won't install on phone
• jlGui 3.0 - works on linux with .mp3 and .ogg; WinAmp-skinnable; requires JDK 1.4 (won't install on phone)
• jlGui 2.x - requires JDK 1.3

Does anyone know of a good .ogg or .flac player for MIDP 2.0 devices? None of the ones I tried above work.