Submissions/Improving MediaWiki - What to do, when you’re new?

This is an Open submission for Wikimania 2017 that has not yet been reviewed by a member of the Programme Committee.

Submission no. 3051 - TW

Title of the submission

Improving MediaWiki - What to do, when you’re new?

Type of submission (lecture, panel, tutorial/workshop, roundtable discussion, lightning talk, poster, birds of a feather discussion)

tutorial/workshop

Author of the submission

Christoph Jauera

Language of presentation

English

E-mail address

christoph.jauera@wikimedia.de

Username

Christoph Jauera (WMDE)

Country of origin

Germany

Affiliation, if any (organisation, company etc.)

Wikimedia Deutschland

Personal homepage or blog

https://software.wikimedia.de/department

Abstract (up to 300 words to describe your proposal)

Getting into the development of Wikimedia projects can seem difficult and easy tasks that fit the experience level of newcomers are seldomly found. - So what to do, when you’re new?

This workshop will show some ways how developers can find themselves parts in the code that need attention and how to address them. Things probably included here are:

Showing simple ways to discover smaller issues in the code base - for example via automated code analysis.
How to find and refactor messy code blocks.
Find easy tasks on Phabricator.

To increase your chances on getting good reviews, we will discuss best practises for fixing issues and refactoring code, including the most relevants do's and don'ts. The presentation will finish with tips how to to give your commits meaningful names and a brief introduction on how to submit fixes, and poke the right people to get them reviewed.

During the workshop part of the session participants can use the given input to find and fix issues while getting assistance from experienced Wikimedia developers.

What will attendees take away from this session?

Attendees will learn simple ways to contribute as a developer to Wikimedia projects, without getting too deep into the details of the implementations. Best practices will help them with getting reviews and submitting patches. This knowledge can then be used as a starting point to get more into the codebase and contributing.

Theme of presentation

Technology, Interface & Infrastructure

For workshops and discussions, what level is the intended audience?

All levels

Length of session (if other than 25 minutes, specify how long)

60 min

Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?

yes

Slides or further information (optional)

Special requests

projector, whiteboard

Is this Submission a Draft or Final?

This is a Completed submission for Wikimania 2017 ready to be reviewed by a member of the Programme Committee.

Interested attendees

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