Ok, maybe that was a little bit corny, but hey, that is me. At this point in our HFOSS projects we are getting involved with the bug tracker and solutions. We have been tasked to identify a bug and fix it. This assignment has had its ups and downs...let me explain.
At first we were all very optimistic because the bug tracker is very organized. At least it impressed us more than what we saw last semester in our projects. There is also a simple section of bugs that are supposed to be easy to fix - a good place for beginners. However, as we started reading those tickets we got confused. Many of the remaining open tickets either already had patches waiting for approval or the developers disagreed on the proper method of handling the bug reports or we still didn't understand what they were talking about. This was turning out a bit more complicated than it first appeared.
However, we continued searching and using the software and discovered an error in a Pippy program. Pippy is an activity for the Sugar OS that provides a simple Python programming environment. Since this is educational it comes with several sample programs built into it. One of these programs, Factorial, is supposed to do a factorial calculation on a number entered by the user. What it actually does is give the user an error message saying that a variable is never defined. The problem is that the coder refers to the user's number as 'number' in some places and as 'n' in other places - a common newbie or 'quick-and-dirty' coding mistake.
Since there was no bug ticket about this we thought maybe this error was left intentionally, but after communicating with the Activity Team on the IRC, they encouraged us to pursue a solution. Ah, sweet relief! I'm actually pleased that we get to see this bug all the way through discovery and solution. It's almost like we get a little bit of positive bonus learning experience! I know this project has and will continue to provide lots of 'extra' learning opportunities, but most of them tend to be unexpected complications, while this seems (for now) to be simply an opportunity to participate in an extra step. I'm pleased to say that I'm still quite optimistic about the project!
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