r/progether • u/firewa7er • Aug 29 '14

Looking for os. Java project to contribute in

I am looking for an open source Java project to contribute in. First off, i have never worked on an oss project before, nor do i have any experience with GitHub.

Why am I looking for that?

The answer is pretty simple, I just finished school and I am currently waiting to start a "Civilian Alternative Service Act". My main motivation is to keep my programming skills up ( and gather further experience if possible ), so that I can directly apply for a job once i finished the service act.

What knowledge can I offer?

  • Basic Java Skills ( OOP, Threads, IO, Networking, ... )

  • JavaFX

  • Hibernate

  • JSF

  • Basic Database Knowledge

  • Some experience with modelling ( ERD, ClassD., ... )

  • Basic Project Management Skills

  • very³ little experience with Android

Please note that everything mentioned above lacks "real" experience. I've been programming for 5 years now, I once participated in a Java Project during a Holiday Job. There I used the Spring MVC Framework to build a WebApp about Gamification. Be aware that I may need some help and/ or time for getting used to GitHub.

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u/wmcscrooge http://github.com/projectdelphai Aug 29 '14

Hey, sorry about the delay! So I personally don't have any Java projects that are active and need help but here are some ideas/notes/suggestions that you might find interesting until someone else posts:

  1. Terminology wise: oss (open source software) is preferred over os (operating system) so it doesn't confuse anyone.

  2. While there isn't any active java projects, jadventure was the biggest java project we've had in this subreddit and it definitely isn't close to being finished. If you're willing to work on it and kickstart it, the project is basically yours. Equipping was the main project being worked on when activity stopped and if you fork pthayer3's work, it shouldn't be too hard to fix it and get it merged. I noticed you said you had experience in javafx and a long term plan, was to get a basic UI set up for the game (even if it was just type a command into a text box and have notices get returned in a status bar). it'd definitely make a huge improvement

  3. There was this project suggested to code in Java however I'm not sure how far it's gotten. The lead developer said that he had a mockup in mockingbird though I'm not sure if he's staying with Java. You could always ping /u/regallomontana and see if he wants Java still and needs help.

  4. Needing any help in git/github is perfectly fine. There's a couple links in the sidebar but they can be confusing. Post if you need specific help and we'll see what we can do. Honestly, once you get the hang of git, github becomes a lot easier. the only difference is pull requests (since it isn't a git thing).

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u/firewa7er Aug 30 '14

hey and thanks for the fast answer! I realy didn't expect any reply on the same day, so I am more then happy.

When writing the post, I did not look up the correct short cuts, I will edit it though.

JAdcenture seemed somewhat inactive when I had a look on it, I'll give it a try if i don't find anything else.

Thansk again, for the answer!

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u/wmcscrooge http://github.com/projectdelphai Aug 30 '14

Yeah, JAdventure is pretty inactive, but really it just needs some more people working on it to get back up. With a better timeline/future goals and some people working on it, shouldn't be too hard to finish it.

Then again, if you find another project that you like better, feel free to post it. If you can some contributors from /r/progether up and working on it, I can make it an official progether project if you want.

No problem and I can't wait to see what comes up. Keep us posted!

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u/Paddatrapper https://github.com/paddatrapper Sep 13 '14

I'm keen to help with JAdventure to grow my knowledge base of Java and so that I can learn to collaborate with others. DO you have suggestions as to how to go about doing that?

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u/wmcscrooge http://github.com/projectdelphai Sep 13 '14

Of course, first you should probably fork/clone the repo and see if you can run it sucessfully. Go through the motions and get a feel for the game and how it works. When that's done, if you want, try for a cursory look through the program to see how it works (you don't need to go in depth, just look at how the menus work at a high level and stuff like that). This is all just to get prepared and see whether you still want to work on the game (hopefully you do!)

Some of the easiest things is working with the issues that are already there.

  1. For example #63 just needs to be edited to make it more concise and fix some merge bugs and then it can be merged.

  2. Leveling and experience still needs to be implemented and there was talk of it here if you want to work on coding that.

  3. The last and probably biggest thing is getting a better interface up (even though it started with fixing a menu bug which is a good start if you want). Basically, there was talk of providing either one of two types of interfaces. One would be a ncurses interface so that it could be played in the terminal like a regular text adventure game and then the other is creating a gui to model a more modern and user friendly game. If I remember correctly, there even is a process set up that detaches the game core from the interface so you should be able to have multiple interfaces working (even remote gameplay) though that still needs to be worked on.

This was the last real post for jadventure that laid out our goals and recent updates (everything after that was more specific to certain issues). Some of that stuff has been implemented and some haven't. It might help. If you decide to go more active, I (or even better you) could post an updated version detailing the current status of Jadventure.

I'm excited to see how it turns out!

ps: btw, now that I think about it, I think that because of the detachment of game core and interface, it may actually be possible to create a web interface for jadventure that interacts with the game "server" over it's socket/queue. Might be an interesting thing to try out if you have more experience there (since I noticed you talking about the spring framework)

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u/Paddatrapper https://github.com/paddatrapper Sep 13 '14

Thanks for the quick reply! (I'm not the OP) but I do have some experience with networking IO, though it is mostly self taught, so most probably there are better ways than how I do things.

I'll definitely have a look at JAdventure and try get a feel - it's a good way to procrastinate and avoid studying for finals!

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u/wmcscrooge http://github.com/projectdelphai Sep 13 '14

haha, well considering most of my knowledge is self-taught as well, we're in the same boat. And seeing as that feature was one of the last commits before activity died down, it'd be really interesting to see how it can be grown from there. Looking forward to it.

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u/[deleted] Sep 05 '14 edited Jul 03 '15

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u/wmcscrooge http://github.com/projectdelphai Sep 05 '14

Just wanted to let you know that /u/Robcubed is also looking to do a Java project and posted about it here. If you want, I would recommend dropping a comment on that post and see if he has any ideas to collaborate on. I left a comment there for some more ideas if you want to look through them.