Why Open Source?

When I hear “open source”, I think of source code that is pubilcly available and contributable. It’s a collaborative space where developers across the world work on the same project together. Open source is exactly like wanting to take apart a toy to see how it works. It’s great for learning especially when considering it’s real world code written by experienced developers from all over the world. It’s also free.

However, some issues with open source may include the lack of security or quality. Because the code is open, someone out there might not be reviewing it carefully. Due to the lack of security, there’s even more reason for students in this field to understand how important version control and documentation is.

Most developers don’t work from scratch up and instead work on existing projects so I think learning how to properly contribute is a valuable skill.

What projects do I regularly use?

• VSCode
• Python
• Discord Bots
• Bootstrap

As someone who enjoy UI/UX, I use Bootstrap often to style webpages and look for inspiration. From that, I then work out the layouts in VSCode. In addition, I make use of Discord bots, which is very useful when it comes to managing people in a server. It would be nice if rather than just using these tools, I can contribute to them.