Minimum Requirements for Core Developers (a.k.a. you must be 'this tall' to enjoy this ride)

Apologies if this post is misplaced, but this discussion asks the following question:

"What constitutes appropriate minimum requirements for an ideal core developer?"

I know that theoretically it could be anybody or anything capable of typing on a keyboard, but I'd imagine the talent you'd be looking for is somewhat higher.

This may seem like a silly academic question, but it is important in the sense that I think there are some of us (including people like myself) who aren't sure if we are "The Little Engine That Could", or if we're simply the less often told, yet tragic, story of "The Little Engine That Couldn't Because It Thought It Was An Amphibious Vehicle."

I think people need to stop thinking they don't have what it takes to help the core.

If you want a list of minimum requirements, I'd say my personal list is something along the lines of this:

• Has a github account and either knows how to press buttons on the site, has a good IDE or knows how to work with git.
• Has an idea on how to improve something (varying from that annoying 1px jump in select boxes to a big refactor to get rid of things that aren't really needed).
• Either has the skills to make their idea happen, or the ability to translate the idea into a design or use case or anything that could serve to excite or convince people with the skills to spend time on it. In most cases (at least if I'm the person that is asked to review or work on something) that means a little more than just posting 15 ideas in a thread.
  
  Let's take the media manager for example... I'm quite reluctant to fix that personally as I doubt my design skills would help make the user experience better. Now if some UI designer would send me a link to a video walk through of a html mockup that shows me something that is so much better, let's just say you have my attention.
• Has a "let's make it happen!" instead of a "damnit why doesn't this exist or work yet you people suck and need to fix it" attitude

[ed. note: markh last edited this post 11 years ago.]

Quote from: markh at Apr 07, 2013, 03:10 PM

I think people need to stop thinking they don't have what it takes to help the core.

If you want a list of minimum requirements, I'd say my personal list is something along the lines of this:

• Has a github account and either knows how to press buttons on the site, has a good IDE or knows how to work with git. I'll figure it out, not because I'm particularly intelligent, but because I'm too stupid to give up
• Has an idea on how to improve something (varying from that annoying 1px jump in select boxes to a big refactor to get rid of things that aren't really needed). Well, I guess we're about to find out
• Either has the skills to make their idea happen, or the ability to translate the idea into a design or use case or anything that could serve to excite or convince people with the skills to spend time on it. In most cases (at least if I'm the person that is asked to review or work on something) that means a little more than just posting 15 ideas in a thread.
  
  Let's take the media manager for example... I'm quite reluctant to fix that personally as I doubt my design skills would help make the user experience better. Now if some UI designer would send me a link to a video walk through of a html mockup that shows me something that is so much better, let's just say you have my attention.Yeah, I can translate stuff into use cases and maybe even have the design skills
• Has a "let's make it happen!" instead of a "damnit why doesn't this exist or work yet you people suck and need to fix it" attitudeI definitely have the let's make it happen attitude

Thanks Mark! Awesome reply! I was afraid I would be more of a burden than a help but I guess without trying, I'll never find out.

Regards,
Tom

IMO if you have the chops to find a bug and report detailed steps to reproduce the bug, along with potential solutions and/or valuable feedback, even though you may not be the core contributor that fixes the bug, it likely would have never been look at without you taking the initiative.

Sometimes all developers need is input from the perspective of a common user with little familiarity to the experience they are being presented. If you code something no matter how hard you try it's impossible to view your work from this perspective. To revamp the Manager for MODX 3, I think this sort of thing is going to be right up there in level of importance to finding experienced coders. Really I do, a lot of the current Revolution Manager gripes are a result not taking this "step back" perspective in terms of User Experience.

That said even though I've logged several bugs, and bug-the-heck out of core developers I wouldn't consider myself a core developer, maybe a core contributor. I'm working towards becoming more of one, but building and fixing MODX sites and working on releasing Extras has been keeping me really busy.

I do see MODX 3 as a chance, for everyone, to step up and make it what it should be.

Awesome thread folks. Mark I think you nailed it. You don't have to be a coder to be a super-valuable contributor.