Computers, Open Source

Best Open Source Projects

open source programming projects

Learning programming has never been easy. Despite the many ways you can program, we believe that the best way to improve your skills is to contribute to open source projects.

The open source community offers a great opportunity for aspiring programmers to stand out, and by contributing to various projects; developers can improve their skills and get inspiration and support from like-minded people. But the most important thing is that they can show that they can make fantastic experiences that people love.

Non-programmers can also contribute to open source projects. Documentation is necessary for all projects, sometimes poorly written and maintained. Therefore, you can help by writing, updating or even translating the documentation. In addition, your design skills can be useful: after all, each application needs an interface. Finally, you can contribute by managing a community by answering questions and guiding newbies.

This article is for developers who are just starting their careers and want to get involved in the community (and maybe become a programming genius).

What To Keep In Mind Before You Go To Open Source

Okay, you cannot wait to start your first OSS project. Let’s take a look at some tips that can help you choose.

Programming language
The most basic technology behind every application is a programming language. The most accepted languages ​​on GitHub (a mutual code hosting platform) are Python, JavaScript, Ruby, Java, and PHP. There are a variety of projects that can adapt to your abilities and tastes.

Type of project
After selecting the language in which you want to work, you must select the project type you want. Github projects are divided into folders called Showcases. Here are some examples of shop windows: “Security”, “Virtual Reality”, “Text Editor” and “CSS Preprocessors”. Just pick a topic that interests you.
However, we recommend paying special attention to projects that can be used by a large number of people. So you have the opportunity to test your code in the real world in a large audience. For example, the storefront “Emoji” contains 25 repositories that represent their popularity. Great projects can be found on dating apps and websites as well. Plenty of fish, match, and fuckbook are great places to start. Hook up apps often provide opportunity to practice your skills as they are always looking to optimize their user’s chance of hooking up through their website. Another piece of advice for choosing an OSS project is to start working on the software you already use or the software you want to use. This will motivate one to keep working.

Best Open Source Projects Used In Most Android-Based Applications

Retrofit
License: Apache 2.0
GitHub Stars: 20,370
This open-source Android project can convert the REST API to the Java interface. With Retrofit, you can write a pure Java quality code with almost any RESTful API.
It is worth noting that the main features include dynamically generated requests, error procedures, and the ability to transfer files. In addition, this open-source git library provides a powerful infrastructure for authenticating and interacting with APIs, as well as sending web requests via OkHttp.
Retrofit automatically converts JSON into objects using another open source Android repository called Gson. All library logic is based on annotations that allow the creation of dynamic requests within a server.
Also for the Android-based library, it’s light enough and relatively easy to use.
Advantages:
Easy to use and install
Excellent documentation
Disadvantages:
Lack of image loading

Glide
License: Apache 2.0
GitHub Stars: 14,600
Uploading images is a fairly common task in the development of Android. The open source repository Android Glide can download and display images from multiple sources. It also takes care of caching and memory usage.
However, to find the balance between quality and memory usage, you need to change the Glide default settings from RGB-555 to ARGB-8888. With this simple step, you increase the image quality and maintain a balanced storage volume.
Advantages:
Fast loading
Low memory consumption
GIF support
Disadvantages:
Size in 430 kb


Butter Knife
License: Apache 2.0
GitHub stars: 15,500
As you know, it often happens that a seemingly repetitive code is used during the project. In order to keep up with a good programming style, you should avoid the so-called repetitive code. For this purpose, Android open source libraries such as Butter Knife were created. This library uses an InjectView annotation to eliminate repetitive text and shorten its code.
Advantages:
Easy configuration
It allows you to write less code
Good performance
Disadvantages:
No support from Pojo Injection


Parceler
License: Apache 2.0
GitHub Stars: 2,700
In addition to Butter Knife, the repetitive code problem could also be solved by Parceler, an open source Android project. GitHub has allowed developers to easily search for tools like this that make code building easy. The Parceler library generates the required container classes and compiles the data automatically. In this way, the library allows reducing the number of repetitive steps necessary to obtain the maximum performance of the packages.
Advantages:
Eliminate the manual generation of the parcelable code
Good basis for counting methods
Disadvantages:
RealmList cannot be controlled by default

Conclusion

Open source projects bring many benefits to those who attend and this experience is great for their resume. As you join a community of like-minded people and refine your skills, as an aspiring developer, you can go one step further.

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Introduction

Hello! Welcome to Help Desk Lite. We hope to be the starting point for programmers looking for valuable information on a variety of topics within the world of computers and programming. On the site you will also find links to resources that we found valuable when we were starting out. There is a lot of information out there for people interested in becoming a programmer. Unfortunately that also means there is a lot of not so helpful and confusing information out there. Our goal is to provide easy to digest information for the aspiring programmer. If you have relevant advice, guidance, or support feel free to submit an article that you would like to see added to the site. We hope that we can make the journey a little bit easier than it was for some of us and wish you the best of luck on your entry into the world of programming!