Contributor Guide on Learn

Choosing a project

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Contributing to a Scientific Python project#

A common question from new contributors is: “how do I choose which project to contribute to”? Some people end up contributing to many different projects, while others tend to focus their effort on a single project. And while projects in the ecosystem have a lot in common, each has it’s own community—so there may be differences in culture, style, and decision-making processes. Ultimately, which projects you contribute to will depend a lot on your own personal interests and goals.

Ecosystem

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Scientific Python ecosystem is a collection of open-source scientific software packages written in Python. It is a broad and ever-expanding set of algorithms and data structures that grew around NumPy, SciPy, and matplotlib.

First contribution

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

How to make your first contribution to open source?#

Before you start, make sure you have the following:

Getting started

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Choosing a project to work on#

How do you choose which project to contribute to? There’s no single best way to choose a project, but here are some questions to think about when choosing:

Install

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Before installing Scientific Python libraries, you need to have Python itself installed. There are two, largely equivalent, ways of doing that, and we describe both below.

If you have a working version of Python on your system already (check by running python at the terminal), you can skip to “Segment 1: Set up a virtual environment”.

Segment 1: Python.org#

This is the official Python distribution, which uses the pip package manager. pip installs packages from Python Package Index, or PyPI for short.

Next Steps

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Scientific Python therefore requires having a firm grasp of Python itself. We suggest reading through the official tutorial, doing an online tutorial on exercism, or using any of the countless resources that exist online or in print.

Learning a new language can be challenging, but Python is fun—so keep trying and hang in there! The community is there to help you along the way.

So let’s cover some basics.

How to run your Python code#

Python is an interpreted language: that means that it reads a text file with instructions and executes those one by one.

Ways to contribute

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

5 ways to contribute to Scientific Python without coding#

Scientific Python is code designed by scientists and engineers for science and engineering. All projects have a straightforward license that determines what you can and cannot do; typically, you may use and modify the software, as long as you give credit to the original authors. The entire ecosystem relies on peer review and community production, so your contribution is really important. There are many ways to contribute outside of coding—we’ll discuss a few.

Why contribute

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Your time is the most valuable thing you have, so when taking part in volunteer activities it is always worth asking “why?”. Here are a few reasons: