Open Source

Muhammad Imran
4 min readMar 20, 2021

My name is Muhammad Imran. i m student of information technology. I love to write Articles and its my Hobby. i always want to share my knowledge with others.

So let’s begin! Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. It most commonly refers to the open-source model, in which open-source software or other products are released under an open-source license as part of the open-source-software movement

Open Source Programming

What is Open Source Programming? Open Source Programming simply means writing codes that other people can freely use as well as modify. It is essential for authors to license their code, it enables them to have a copyright for those codes. Therefore, for a code to be declared safe and free for all to use, whether it’s available in the GitHub or in a public-repo; the author is required to license their own code. This is to avoid cases of individuals being sued by the author for using, modifying or even embedding the code without being granted a license to do that.

What to Note When writing Open Source?

It is essential to note that you are not only writing just for yourself but to others too. When writing an open-source code, it is important to have the community interest at heart. Projects which involve community tend to survive longer. Often, they are adopted more heavily than projects that don’t. Therefore, it would be good to embrace and action plan for the intended community that you plan to build your project around. Share your project’s idea on platforms such as on Twitter, Reddit or rather mailing lists that are relevant to the scope of your project. Make an announcement of a plan to create a new project. Getting the community involves enable you to get suggestions that might help you to improve yourself or avoid pitfalls that might have occurred later. Develop your project based on the suggested ideas so that it can be adopted as well as used by other people.

Types of projects

After you’ve chosen the language you want to work in, you need to choose the type of project you prefer. GitHub projects are categorized into folders called Showcases. Here are some examples of Showcases: “security”, “virtual reality”, “text editors”, and “CSS preprocessors.” Just choose a topic that interests you. However, we do recommend paying extra attention to those projects that would be used by broad spectrum of people so you’ll have the chance to test your code on a large real-world audience. For example, the “Emoji” Showcase contains 25 repositories that represent its popularity. Another tip on how to choose an OSS project is to start working on software you already use or software you’re interested in using. This will keep you motivated to keep on working.

How to Contribute to Open Source Projects

When we speak about free software, we can’t avoid talking about GitHub and related tools. Let’s see what GitHub is and how it helps you to participate in open source projects.

GitHub

Git and GitHub

Many new person thinks Git and GitHub both are the same things. git and GitHub are not the same thing. Git is an open-source, version control tool created in 2005 by developers working on the Linux operating system; GitHub is a company founded in 2008 that makes tools which integrate with git. You do not need GitHub to use git, but you cannot use GitHub without using git. There are many other alternatives to GitHub, such as GitLab, BitBucket, and “host-your-own” solutions such as gogs and gittea. All of these are referred to in git-speak as “remotes”, and all are completely optional. You do not need to use a remote to use git, but it will make sharing your code with others easier.

All Skills Are Welcomed

Even non-programmers can contribute to open source projects! Documentation is needed for all projects, and sometimes this is poorly written and maintained. Thus, you can help by writing, updating or even translating documentation. Also, your design skills might come in handy: every application needs an interface, after all. Finally, you can contribute by managing a community by replying to questions and guiding newcomers.

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Muhammad Imran

My name is Muhammad Imran. i m student of IT . I'm a UI UX designer and Cyber Security Enthusiast.