Newbie, want an Open Source project to work on

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I'm a 1st year CS student and only know basic Java so far.. Main reason I want to do a project is to get a bit better at programming and bolster my CV a bit giving me a better chance to intern somewhere in summer 2011.

Any ideas lads?

Evil Phil

What are your interests? I guess what attracted you to doing CS in the first place is a good start. If you're going to work on something it will help a lot if you've an interest in the work you're going to be doing.

php-fox

Solve a real world problem. Automate one of your daily tasks: recording homework, keeping track of your exam results.
Pick one

Evil Phil

How about a final year project suggestion tool for CS students? :pac:

Seriously though, something you've an interest in or something like what php-fox suggested is going to keep you interested.

Also, read the Pragmatic Programmer. I'm reading for the first time after 15 years of development experience and it's brilliant. Code Complete is a good read too.

techguy

Hi OP,

I don't mean to offend you but you probably wouldn't have enough knowledge to go and work a fully fledged open source project. I'm speaking from experience here..When I was in first year I though I was the shit. it's only when you get down to work and listen to others you realise how little you know.

I think php-fox gives some solid advice here.. solving real world problems is the way to go.

Just think of something really simple that you do regularly on your computer. Think about how a program could automate it or let you complete the task faster. Then do it!

It is also very important to stick at whatever it is you start.. you'll want to give up when things get tough but that is when you'll learn the most.

Do you want to stick with Java or try pickup another language?

petergfiffin

Getting involved in an open source project is great as you're learning to solve real problems, you get familiar with dealing with other people's code you also learn to work as part of a team, however, for your own benefit I think it would be worth spending some time learning the tools of the trade as my experience is colleges teach you how to write code not how to do it commercially.

Become familiar with tools like Ant & Subversion (SVN). In any Java job you get you will almost certainly be using some flavour of these and while what you may ultimately end up using may be different you will at least understand the fundamentals.

Learn how to test your code - you absolutely, no excuse, 100% have to learn about unit testing - this will help you both professionally & even in your final year project - learn Junit.

Web & Application servers - download and start playing around with Apache & Tomcat. Learn how web applications work and how they're structured.

What I would say is take your time and learn about the supporting tools because it will make your life a LOT easier if you get involved in any of these projects or in any commercial job.

Rulmeq

You aren't really going to be able to contribute to an OSS project if all you have is 6 months of a CS course under your belt.

However you could try working on one of the ideas at the many sites with CS final year project suggestions (I've linked to one below)

http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/recommender_interest_area.php?ia=CompSci&dl=9

Once you've completed a few of those projects, then you could take a look around srouceforge for some projects in areas that interest you. Once you find one that you like, find out everything you can about it, perhaps write up some documentation as a starter (all OSS projects are short on documentation). This will demonstrate that you understand the project, and are interested in it. Then once you are sure you understand the code guidelines specific to the project, submit a patch or a bug fix for one of the issues that have been outstanding for a while.