The whole process of contributing to an open-source community was an interesting one and definitely a challenge, as I had never done something like this before.
Throughout this whole process, I realised how hard it is to be a beginner in the open source world. Of course there are easier projects to code for, and easier issues, but it is still something out of a beginner’s comfort zone. Open source contribution is not similar to coding for yourself at all. One of the biggest challenges I have faced while contributing was the unclarity of the issues. When I write code for my projects, I know exactly what I want and what the reasoning behind it is. I feel like the issues in the Strudel repository were not clear. After talking to me, I think the author realised the issue was not worded very well, as he changed it now. Even after he made those changes, the issue still is not too understandable.
The feedback he gave me after i pulled the request https://github.com/tidalcycles/strudel/pull/570, was kind of complicated as well. I did not realise what he exactly wants. Also, the fact that he asked me to consider talking to Indian classical musician was a bit much as well, as he knew I was an university student who has never contributed before and that I have no experience.
Something I would have done differently and that I learnt now, is that I should have taken advantage of how active the community is. I should have messaged the discord channel more and I should have asked the author what he exactly wants from that issue. He was a very fast replier as well, after I sent the request it took him very little time to reply to me. I should have clarified with him from the beginning what he wants and maybe have a longer discussion on how the issue should be solved and how the code should be implemented.
Another problem I faced while contributing was the lack of comments in the code. It took me a long time to find the respective code parts in all of the files and folders. More comments in the code would add more clarity.
Overall, this was definitely a huge learning experience for me. I have learnt a lot about open source communities and how contributing works. I think open source communities are an amazing thing to be a part of. I learnt that communication is the key to solving an issue and that you have to pay attention to every detail (like how I could have avoided the pull requests failing if I had implemented vitest from the start). I learnt a lot and I was very happy to get more understanding in how Strudel actually works.
After university deadlines, I do want to try and implement the function he was talking about as I am very motivated to solve that issue. I think the best way to go about is to talk to the author a bit more, ask for his advice and see how he would want the solmization to work.