Talks
Speakers
Events
Topics
Sign in
Home
Talks
Speakers
Events
Topics
Leaderboard
Use
Analytics
Sign in
Suggest modification to this talk
Title
Description
By Eric Hodel Maintaining RubyGems, RDoc and other Ruby libraries has grown from a hobby to my full time job over the past six years. Working on and maintaining open source projects has brought me lots of fun and enjoyment. I'll cover the joy and pain of being an open source developer, strategies for maintaining both your project and the interest and happiness you derive from it. I'll also talk about some of the things that keep me motivated to continue working on open source. Help us caption & translate this video! http://amara.org/v/FG0r/
Date
Summarized using AI?
If this talk's summary was generated by AI, please check this box. A "Summarized using AI" badge will be displayed in the summary tab to indicate that the summary was generated using AI.
Show "Summarized using AI" badge on summary page
Summary
Markdown supported
### Summary of 'Open Source Maintenance' by Eric Hodel Eric Hodel's talk at Ruby on Ales 2014 explores the joys and challenges of maintaining open source projects, drawing on his six years of experience with RubyGems, RDoc, and related libraries. He highlights how open source development can be both fulfilling and demanding, sharing his personal journey as a paid open source developer. **Key Points Discussed:** - **The Nature of Open Source Work:** Hodel describes his role at AT&T, focusing on flexibility with his release schedules and project priorities, and the unique privilege of being paid to contribute to open source. - **Community Engagement:** He emphasizes the importance of community in open source, noting that despite disagreements, contributors work from a place of care and shared values. Engaging with users through documentation and guidance is framed as key to being a good steward of projects. - **The Significance of Good Commit Practices:** Hodel advocates for atomic commits—small, focused changes accompanied by descriptive commit messages. He explains how this assists in maintaining comprehensible project history and simplifies debugging and collaboration. - **Tools and Strategies for Maintenance:** He mentions using GitHub's issue tracker effectively, labeling, and managing milestones to track progress and enhance organization. This approach facilitates better communication with contributors and users. - **Handling Bugs and Features:** Hodel shares insights into addressing bug reports and feature requests thoughtfully, suggesting that new features should be approached with caution to ensure they don't complicate existing maintenance burdens. - **Contributing to Open Source:** He encourages viewers to start contributing to projects they already use and enjoy, stressing that even small changes can be impactful. This not only fosters personal interest but also supports community growth. Hodel concludes by reiterating the importance of simplicity in code, stating that complexity should be minimized to enhance maintainability. He invites questions, emphasizing his openness to further discussions about open source maintenance and best practices.
Suggest modifications
Cancel
