Difference between revisions of "Coders"

Latest revision as of 18:46, 17 September 2008

Intro

The coders group at Free Geek is the place you can learn or teach about software programming and development. This is informally organized around various projects, with some guidance from the Technocrats and some spillover with the ASSes. This is not very educationally focused, lacking any structure for shepherding people through the trying work of figuring out how to get stuff done. If you want to contribute to a free software project and you can work fairly independently (or in small, self-forming groups of interested volunteers), go through the rest of this page and find something that piques your interest.

Coding Projects

Here are some projects we are working on at Free Geek:

FGdb -- This is Ruby ( http://www.ruby-lang.org/ ) on rails ( http://rubyonrails.org ) code that talks to a PostgreSQL database ( http://www.postgresql.org/ ).

FGdiag -- Miscellaneous code for testing gizmos. (mostly ruby)

Distro Implementation -- Figure out how to get the software onto the boxes we build, and how to make it work like we want it to.

Other Coding Projects -- There are usually a variety of smaller tasks that need doing, often using shell scripting.

Getting Started

If any of the above projects interest you, you may want to join the coders. we're open to anyone so long as the work you do is done cooperatvely with other Free Geek volunteers and you're willing to let it be licensed under an open source license, preferably the GPL.

To get started:

Read Martin's stock New Coder Introduction.

In the Portland, Oregon, USA area?

Sign up for the coders mailing list http://lists.freegeek.org/listinfo/coders (email lists for coders)
- Post a message and introduce yourself
- If you're in the Portland, Oregon area, you'll want to come down to Free Geek to meet the other local coders and get started. Ask the front desk to meet a sysadmin or technocrat.

Somewhere else?

Sign up for the coders mailing list http://lists.freegeek.org/listinfo/coders (email lists for coders)
- Post a message and introduce yourself
- Say you're from out of town and we'll contact you about getting set up.
Coding is one of the few ways you can volunteer at Free Geek from a distance.

Wherever you are:

Coding is done by editing text files, see Text Editing for Coders for more info.
Get an account on the appropriate Free Geek Computers for Coders.
Get an SVN account. (Subversion for Coders)
Get an RT account http://todo.freegeek.org/ (RT for coders)
Free Geek coders hang out on IRC at freenode.net ( http://freenode.net/ ) on the #freegeek channel. (IRC for coders)

Big Picture Stuff

Rethinking Coders -- thoughts on how the coders program can be improved and where it's going.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-Coders Workshops meet weekly on Tuesdays at 7:15. Coders Workshops are open to all, experienced and new coders alike. The only requirement is that you want to help and learn or teach in the process. We try to team up experienced folks with newbies. We only work on stuff we actually use, so your work is always needed.
+[[Category:Structure]]
+[[Category:Programs]]
+==Intro==
+The coders group at Free Geek is the place you can learn or teach about software programming and development.  This is informally organized around various projects, with some guidance from the [[Technocrats]] and some spillover with the [[ASS]]es.  This is not very educationally focused, lacking any structure for shepherding people through the trying work of figuring out how to get stuff done.  If you want to contribute to a free software project and you can work fairly independently (or in small, self-forming groups of interested volunteers), go through the rest of this page and find something that piques your interest.
 ==Coding Projects==
 Here are some projects we are working on at Free Geek:
-[[FGdb]] -- This is PHP code ( http://www.php.net/ ) that talks to a PostgreSQL database ( http://www.postgresql.org/ ).
+[[FGdb]] -- This is Ruby ( http://www.ruby-lang.org/ ) on rails ( http://rubyonrails.org ) code that talks to a PostgreSQL database ( http://www.postgresql.org/ ).
-[[FGDiag]] -- Python code ( http://www.python.org/ ) used for testing gizmos.
+[[FGdiag]] -- Miscellaneous code for testing gizmos. (mostly ruby)
 [[Distro Implementation]] -- Figure out how to get the software onto the boxes we build, and how to make it work like we want it to.
@@ Line 13: / Line 17: @@
 ==Getting Started==
-If any of the above projects interest you, you may want to join the coders. To do so:
+If any of the above projects interest you, you may want to join the coders. we're open to anyone so long as the work you do is done cooperatvely with other Free Geek volunteers and you're willing to let it be licensed under an open source license, preferably the GPL.
-* Coding is done by editing text files, see [[Text Editing for Coders]] for more info.
+To get started:
+* Read Martin's stock [[New Coder Introduction]].
+===In the Portland, Oregon, USA area?===
 * Sign up for the coders mailing list http://lists.freegeek.org/listinfo/coders ([[email lists for coders]])
-* Get an account on our development box. ([[SSH for coders]])
+** Post a message and introduce yourself
-* Get a CVS account. ([[CVS for coders]])
+** If you're in the Portland, Oregon area, you'll want to come down to Free Geek to meet the other local coders and get started.  Ask the front desk to meet a [[ASS | sysadmin]] or [[Technocrats | technocrat]].
-* Get an RT account http://todo.freegeek.org/rt/ ([[RT for coders]])
-* Free Geek coders hang out on IRC at freenode.net ( http://freenode.net/ ) on the #freegeek channel. ([[IRC for coders]])
-==Old Page Text==
+===Somewhere else?===
-FREE GEEK Information for Coders
+* Sign up for the coders mailing list http://lists.freegeek.org/listinfo/coders ([[email lists for coders]])
+** Post a message and introduce yourself
+** Say you're from out of town and we'll contact you about getting set up.
+* Coding is one of the few ways you can volunteer at Free Geek from a distance.
-This is oriented to new coders working on the database project, but may be of use to other coders at FREE GEEK.
+===Wherever you are:===
+* Coding is done by editing text files, see [[Text Editing for Coders]] for more info.
-COMPUTERS AT FREE GEEK YOU MAY NEED AN ACCOUNT ON:
+* Get an account on the appropriate [[Free Geek Computers for Coders]].
+* Get an SVN account. ([[Subversion for Coders]])
-Coders working on database related projects and/or taking classes will need access to certain machines:
+* Get an RT account http://todo.freegeek.org/ ([[RT for coders]])
+* Free Geek coders hang out on IRC at freenode.net ( http://freenode.net/ ) on the #freegeek channel. ([[IRC for coders]])
-    * obsidian* -- "classroom" server (so you can log in from FREE GEEK's terminals in the classroom)
-    * llama -- the "homework" box, for people taking classes (some development can happen here)
-    * cvs -- (also known as haibane) so you can check stuff in and out of cvs. This account doesn't typically allow shell access -- only cvs access.
-    * foyer -- this is the gateway for getting into FREE GEEK machines from the outside (ssh into foyer, and then from foyer ssh to the machine you need to get to). You do not need an account on this machine if you will be doing all your work from inside FREE GEEK.
-Coders with higher access privileges may also get accounts on these machines:
-    * flowers* -- the development box for coders volunteering longer term at FREE GEEK
-    * turing* -- the production box for coders that need to actually deploy tested code
-* Servers with asterisks are unavailable for connection from outside FREE GEEK. Servers without the asterisks are in the DMZ and are typically locked down pretty tight. You can ssh into them and do work, but they are usually unable to connect to other servers.
-All computers can be connected to from inside FREE GEEK by their simple hostname (above). From outside of FREE GEEK, you need to add the domain name (freegeeks.org -- note the 's'), for example:
-$ ssh foyer.freegeeks.org # from outside FREE GEEK
-$ ssh foyer # from inside FREE GEEK
-MAILING LIST FOR CODERS:
-You should also be on the coders mailing list:
-http://lists.freegeek.org/listinfo/coders
-This is where we discuss programming issues.
-FREE GEEK DATABASE HOME PAGE
-The FREE GEEK Database home page can be found at:
-http://web.freegeeks.org/groups/sw/fgdb/
-CLASS OUTLINES
-The Intro to Web Based Applications Using PHP class outline is available at:
-http://web.freegeeks.org/groups/sw/fgdb/lessons/
-The Intro to Relational Databases and SQL class outline is available at:
+==Big Picture Stuff==
-http://web.freegeeks.org/groups/ed/sql-class/
+* [[Rethinking Coders]] -- thoughts on how the coders program can be improved and where it's going.
-If you need to understand how databases work in general, please study this as soon as possible.
+[[Category: Coders]]