Re: what are good ways to get starting contributing to GHC?

I think the problem we often have is that there are very few "easy" 
tickets in the Trac, because we pick off the easy ones ourselves, and 
the difficult ones tend to accumulate.

Getting familiar with a complex codebase is much easier if you have a 
goal in mind, and is even easier if the goal is *yours*, not just 
someone else's wish list.  So my suggestion is to scratch your own 
itches, while thinking about how to do so in a way that will benefit 
others too.

  - find a project that you want to use Haskell for
  - do it
  - along the way, discover ways in which the tools could be better

As you say you're already working with Haskell for developing numerical 
code, I'm sure you have come across places where GHC could be improved. 
  Once you have some ideas, start browsing the Trac and mailing lists 
for related tickets.  Hang around here for a while and watch what goes 
past, see what things people are working on.  Get GHC building on your 
system, and try making a few small changes - if something bothers you, 
see if you can fix it.

Cheers,
	Simon

On 10/10/2012 15:18, Simon Peyton-Jones wrote:
> Carter,
>
> Great stuff.  We really value people who are prepared to work on GHC.
> Thank you.
>
> The Trac tickets are indeed our main mechanism for identifying things
> that need doing, but can be a bit overwhelming!  Some way to prioritise:
>
> ·Look at http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/ghc/roadmap (the roadmap link
> in the Trac title bar).  Look at “Active tickets” for 7.6.2.  There are
> 509 of them today.  Now look at the high or highest-priority tickets
> listed there.  Or the “normal” ones.  Especially ones without an owner.
>
> ·Look at http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/Status/SLPJ-Tickets.
> These are ones I’ve collected but not done anything about.  Clearly
> there are far more than I’m going to get to.
>
> One particular set that might play to your experience is the “Tiresome
> arithmetic things”?
>
> ·A particular project with no cycles on it yet, is this one:
> http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/TemplateHaskell/UsingHaskellSrcExts
>
> Also read http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/WorkingConventions
>
> Don’t invest substantial effort (more than a few hours) without saying
> what you are doing on cvs-ghc.  Someone might pipe up and say “I’ve done
> that” or “Don’t do it that way”.
>
> happy hacking
>
> Simon
>
> *From:*[email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
> *On Behalf Of *Carter Tazio Schonwald
> *Sent:* 09 October 2012 22:49
> *To:* [email protected]
> *Subject:* what are good ways to get starting contributing to GHC?
>
> Hey All,
>
> what are some good small tasks / patches I could do to get started
>
> helping out with GHC / getting familiar with the code base?
>
> (possibly with an eye towards being able to comfortably do  more
> nontrivial / interesting contributions at a later point, i've a pretty
> rich CS & PL background)
>
> My current principle haskell work/coding is in the vein of trying to
> design tools to allow the authoring of high level & performant numerical
> code (which in some ways relates to things like the DPH work at some
> levels),
>
> though by day I"m doing consulting things presently to support myself.
>
> anyways, any good suggestions for starter contributions would be really
> appreciated!
>
> thanks,
>
> -Carter Schonwald
>
>
>
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