My first bitcoin PR \ stacker news ~bitcoin

My first bitcoin PR github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/27232

4829 sats \ 28 comments \ @ek 9 Mar 2023 bitcoin

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388 sats \ 6 replies \ @ek OP 9 Mar 2023

Posting this to let everyone know that contributing to bitcoin can be small changes like this or just reviewing code.

Don't be intimidated!

46 sats \ 2 replies \ @DarthCoin 9 Mar 2023

This is the way! Well done.

50 sats \ 1 reply \ @ek OP 9 Mar 2023

Thank you, you saying "well done" means a lot since you are usually (understandably) so fucking toxic lmao

153 sats \ 0 replies \ @DarthCoin 9 Mar 2023

12 sats \ 1 reply \ @rax0m 9 Mar 2023

My first pull request was smaller :)

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @ek OP 9 Mar 2023

Proof it haha

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @jonatack 11 Mar 2023

"Just reviewing code" is actually what is most desired (along with finding and fixing user-facing or critical issues).

203 sats \ 2 replies \ @bitcoinnym 10 Mar 2023

Authoring code is nice and all, but reviewing code like you did on #26899 is what should be celebrated. Reviewers are the real heroes.

24 sats \ 0 replies \ @jonatack 11 Mar 2023

This.

2 sats \ 0 replies \ @ek OP 10 Mar 2023

Haha thanks, I guess posting "My first bitcoin review" didn't sound as catchy

Also, I am not sure if that was my first review

31 sats \ 5 replies \ @kristapsk 9 Mar 2023

This was my first Bitcoin Core PR (was a result of me debugging my scripts that use bitcoin-cli). https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/13032

0 sats \ 4 replies \ @ek OP 9 Mar 2023

I see you are a maintainer now. Nice! How long did it take?

(I assume you are a maintainer because you approved my PR)

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @kristapsk 9 Mar 2023

No, I'm not a Bitcoin Core maintainer. Anybody can ACK or NACK commits in a PR after code review / testing (and the more people do this, the better). Maintainers are the only ones who can merge them at the end. But they are not supposed to use these rights if there are a lot of NACKs or not enough ACKs for more complex code changes.

https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @ek OP 9 Mar 2023

Yes, I know about the ACKs and NACKs. But I don't see an approve button. So I thought you have some special rights:

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @kristapsk 9 Mar 2023

Ahh, no, that's just what GitHub writes if you select "Approve" instead of "Comment" at "Files changed > Review changes".

https://imgur.com/gGktFJ3.png

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @ek OP 9 Mar 2023

Ah, I see haha

19 sats \ 0 replies \ @mf 9 Mar 2023

9 sats \ 1 reply \ @jx 12 Mar 2023

Cool. Followed you on GH!

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @ek OP 12 Mar 2023

Haha thanks!

9 sats \ 1 reply \ @duvel 11 Mar 2023

Fantastic! How did you manage to do your first pr? What were the necessary steps you had to take?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @ek OP 12 Mar 2023

As mentioned in the PR, I reviewed some code before and then found something which I thought could be improved.

Before contributing, I was intimidated since my C++ skills aren't really that great. But I thought this can change over time.

So when I decided I really want to contribute to bitcoin, I first read some articles like this one from @jonatack. I also lurked on Bitcoin PRs to see the process in action and joined the Bitcoin PR review club twice. (It's every Wednesday at 17:00 UTC on IRC but I always forget about it lol)

I also cloned the repository and checked out the code to get familiar with it. I haven't run the test suite yet, though.

But as @jonatack and others mentioned: Just start by looking over existing PRs and try to understand what they are trying to change! Reviewers are definitely needed the most.