Forem: Afees Oduola

How to start open-source contribution as a new developer

Afees Oduola — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 15:26:22 +0000

One of the ways to collaborate, sharpen your skills, and build your portfolio is through open-source contribution. This article will focus on open-source projects. Open-source projects are publicly available for anyone's use, modifications, and enhancements. These projects can be a code base or documentation. If you are starting your career and wondering how to use your new skills, this article is for you.

To completely benefit from this article, you must have a basic knowledge of git and GitHub.

In a few steps, I will take you through how you can start contributing to open-source projects today.

Forking the repository

On identifying an open-source project on Github, fork the repository (repo as often called) by clicking on Fork. You can only replicate a GitHub repository on your own repo using Fork.

After clicking Fork, another page pops up. Click on Create fork.

You now have that same repo in your list of repositories on GitHub. This is what it looks like:

Cloning the repository

Until now, you only have the project on your remote repository. It’s time to have it on your local machine.

Click on Code, then click the double-square box beside the HTTPS URL to copy.

Navigate to any directory where you would like to have this project cloned on your computer, right-click on an empty space on the screen, and click on Git Bash Here.

A command window pops up; type git clone, then paste the HTTPS URL you copied earlier and click enter.

Note: You can’t use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+V to paste the URL; you must right-click and select the paste option

You must wait for the cloning to complete. This may take up to several minutes, depending on the folder size. A folder with the repo name will appear in your chosen directory during cloning. Allow the process to complete.

Opening the file in VS code and making contributions

Open the file in VS code. It’s a good practice to always create your own branch while working on an open-source project. By creating your own branch, the project lead will be able to compare your contribution with the main or master branch. This practice allows for a cleaner and more reliable open-source collaboration.

Before working on the project, use the git pull command to update your local repository. This is to update the local repository in case other contributors have made some changes between the time you fork the repo and the time you want to contribute.

Create your branch, make contributions, and push to GitHub.

Creating a Pull request(PR)

On pushing to GitHub, this is what you get:

Click on compare & pull request from the previous.

Alternatively, click on Pull requests

Click on New pull request

In the new line box, type what you did (changes you made). You can also leave some comments. Click on Create pull request

Wrapping up

You just learned how to boost your confidence by collaborating and contributing to open-source projects. With your newly acquired skills, you can start contributing to open-source projects. Your contribution can be as little as editing a READ.md file. You can search Google for open-source projects and start contributing today.

What is Object Reference in JavaScript

Afees Oduola — Thu, 20 Apr 2023 12:03:56 +0000

If you are yet to get a full grasp of object reference in JavaScript, this article will break it down for you. Object are regularly used by developers and thus, its usage needs to be properly understood.

Primitive data types

Primitive data types (undefined, null, string, number, boolean and symbol) are usually passed as values. In contrast, objects are passed as reference. This thin difference can have a lot of effect in your code if misused at any point in the code block.

Let's quickly have a look at how strings are passed for example.

Looking at the image, the variables fName and firstName both consist of a string John. This also means that fName and firstName are equal. Looking at this in code:

let fName = "John"
let firstName = "John"

console.log (fName === firstName) // true

Therefore, we can conclude that primitive data types are value-based such that if values are equal then the variables will also be equal. We used string as an example in the above code block, you can also try other primitive data types.

Object reference

As opposed to primitive data types, objects are reference-based which means that object properties are passed to variables by reference.

The object properties are stored in the computer memory. These properties can only be accessed through a reference. You can view reference as the door to a stored property in the computer memory. From the image, one would think that obj1 should be equal to obj2. Let's look at this in a code:

const obj1 = {
           fName : "Doe"
                       }

const obj2 = {
           fName : "Doe"
                        }

console.log (obj1 === obj2) // false

The above code snippet gives a false boolean result, because the reference to the object properties are different. You can also see this scenario as two persons with the same name "John" with a lot of physical resemblance but they are from different family background (reference).

If you change the value of obj1, then you realize that obj2 doesn't change:

const obj1 = {
           fName : "Doe"
                        }

const obj2 = {
           fName : "Doe"
                        }

obj1.fName = "Afees"

console.log ( obj1.fName ) // Afees
console.log ( obj2.fName ) // Doe

Object reference copy

If you then go ahead to copy a reference from one variable to another, then you have also copied the object properties.

In code:

const obj1 = {
           fName : "Doe"
                        }

const obj2 = obj1  // obj1 reference copied to obj2

console.log (obj1 === obj2) // true

By changing the properties of obj1, you have also changed the properties of obj2:

const obj1 = {
           fName : "Doe"
                       }

obj1.fName = "Afees"

console.log ( obj1.fName ) // Afees
console.log ( obj2.fName ) // Afees

Finally, variables might be equal or unequal depending on whether they share the same reference or not. However, the properties in the computer memory (if they are the same) will always be equal when compared. For example:

const obj1 = {
           fName : "Doe"
                        }

const obj2 = {
           fName : "Doe"
                         }

console.log ( obj1 === obj2 ) // false
console.log ( obj1.fName === obj2.fName) // true

Wrapping up

In this article, we have been able to explicitly captured the concept of reference and reference copy for JavaScript object. The more you use object in your code, the better your understanding of object reference. Happy coding!!!