Where can I go to find out about volunteer programming projects as a novice programmer?

Asked by thrice2k3 (309

) July 28th, 2009

I’ve recently decided to put a bit more focus on something that I’ve always been interested in… programming. Although I’ve been classically trained in school, I’ve never really been involved in any type of project… at work my personality has always lead me toward less technical/business type topics.

What languages would be appropriate? And where can I go to find volunteer work for experience?

programming

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2 Answers

I would suggest sourceforge.net:

http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/sourceforge/wiki/What%20is%20SourceForge.net

barumonkey (1074

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You mentioned languages… some suggestions, based on what kind of programming you want to be doing professionally:
Operating systems, drivers, programs that need to do low-level stuff: Take a good look at ANSI C.
Web development (especially database-driven web apps): Turbogears has been doing some neat stuff, IMHO.
Games: Nothing wrong with C, though learning the Unreal or Quake engine would be good places to look as well.

There’s nothing wrong with starting your own project, either… just grab onto a good, solid idea and run with it. Bust it up into manageable chunks and tackle them one at a time. You’re headed in the right direction, though… one of the best things you can do is get some stuff into your portfolio.

dUc0N (267

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