My Open-Source journey with Sugar Labs

From first commit to an active contributor and beyond.

Introduction

My name is Harshit Verma and I am an undergraduate student pursuing Bachelor of technology in computer science and engineering. My open source journey starts in June 2024 when I was exploring some projects to contribute, I had just finished learning Javascript and I was very excited to test my skills on some real world projects that’s when I discovered Sugar Labs, an open source organization dedicated to educational software. There projects especially Music Blocks immediate caught my interest.

Getting started

Like many beginners, my first challenge was to set up the development environment. I started by exploring the codebase of musicblocks. The first issue I picked up was a ‘good first issue’ it was about updating the hyperscore link in the documentation.

I raised my first pull request in July 2024. It was a simple fix, but seeing it getting reviewed and merged by an experienced member gave me a sense of accomplishment. I also got my first taste of open-source collaboration-discussion, feedback and iterative improvements.

Projects I worked on:

Music Blocks -a musical microworld

It’s a Visual Programming Language and collection of manipulative tools for exploring musical and mathematical concepts in an integrative and entertaining way.

The tech stack for this project is simple vanilla javascript, html and css the code is very well documented which makes it easier for new contributor to work on. Till now I have worked on 10+ issues and fixed most of them. I also worked on implementing new features some of them are:

1. Adding select button (merged PR).
2. Confirmation for changing theme (merged PR).
3. Drag and drop to upload samples (merged PR).
4. Opening sampler widget on sound sample drop (merged PR).

I learned a lot while working on these issues/feature and I am actively taking part in mainting this project.

Sugar Labs website -www

It’s the official website of Sugar Labs which aims are to announce our vision and mission, invite potential users of Sugar Labs software, promote our free software and open licensing approach, provide links to software downloads, and encourage developers to explore and contribute to the source code we steward.

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The code uses jekyll envirment and a base template designed and developed by Themefisher. Till now I have worked on 15+ issues and fixed most of them. I also worked on implementing new featues some of them are:

1. Fixed: Navbar not rendering on mobile (merged PR).
2. Added FAQ page (merged PR).
3. Restored the feature of color changing logo (merged PR).
4. Added product page (merged PR).

I learned a lot while working on these issues/feature and I also got a very valuable insight about the organization goal and future endeavors. We are also planning to build a new version of this website www-v2 with using a modern tech stack like react with typescript.

Lessons learned

Through my contributions, I not only improved my development skills but also learned some important lessons about open source:

• Coding is just one part of open-source, communication, documentation and collaboration is equally important.
• Feedback is valuable, receiving code reviews helped me improving my coding practice and also understand best practices.
• Persistence paid off, some bugs took longer to fix than expected, but solving them was rewarding.

Future goals

Recently I was invited to become a member of Sugar Labs organization by our executive director Mr Devin Ulibarri, to which I gladly accepted.

My future goals with Sugar Labs are to actively contribute as an open-source developer and a dedicated member of the organization. I aim to support the development of the educational software, helping to create innovative learning experiences for children. Additionally, I plan to collaborate with the community by fostering open-source participation, mentoring new contributors, and promoting the mission of Sugar Labs. My goal is to grow alongside the organization, driving forward impactful technology that empowers learners worldwide.

Conclusion

Contribution to Sugar Labs has been an incredible rewarding experience. It has not only helped me grow as a developer but also given me confidence to work on real world projects.

I’m excited about what’s next in my open source journey, and I can’t wait to continue learning and contributing!