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I am more into C/C++. But many of my seniors here in college ask me to learn Java if I want to contribute to an open source project.. I'm in dilemma. what to do? Can't we do a design project in C/C++?

Peter Mortensen
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Vaibhav
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  • duplicated: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1865243/is-it-necessary-to-learn-java-for-contributing-to-an-open-source-project And should really be community wiki – Faruz Dec 08 '09 at 07:33
  • Is this a specific project? The answers are going to be vastly different depending upon that context. – Matt Dec 08 '09 at 07:36

9 Answers9

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There are plenty of open source C and C++ projects - as well as loads in virtually any other language you can come up with.

Of course it's never a bad idea to learn another language, but don't feel too constrained by "only" knowing C and C++.

If you want to contribute to a specific open source project which is written in Java, of course, that's a different matter... but if you're trying to find C and C++ open source projects, some of the major hosting sites support querying by project language, I believe. For example, you can look at Google Code C++ projects and SourceForge projects tagged C++.

Jon Skeet
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is it necessary to learn java for contributing to an open source project?
@: No

what to do??
@: Do whatever you are passionate with

Can't we do a design project in c/c++??
@: Of course you can, lots of non-java projects out there

o.k.w
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Select an interesting C or C++ project and contribute to it. For example look at Tortoise SVN - it's in Visual C++, it's widely used, it's actively developed and its authors accept any useful contributions.

sharptooth
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Yes, you could contribute in areas like documentation/setup/deployment issues if not.

Peter Mortensen
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abmv
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Not unless you want to participate in a Java project, and then again, you can learn it pretty quick if you know C++.

David Rodríguez - dribeas
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It would only be necessary to learn java if the open-source project you want to contribute is in java. There are so many open-source projects in c/c++ as well. The great example is Linux

Himanshu
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If you are good at c/C++ there are plenty of OS projects in c/c++. They are also fair amount of project in Dot Net and c#. Contribute where you are strong...

Dani
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It up to you in which domain you would like to be an expert, so select an open source project based on your interests and start contributing to that domain which would definitely help you in future.

You should also have the fundamental knowledge of other technologies so to learn a new thing is always good.

Peter Mortensen
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Ashish
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It up to you in which domain you would like to be an expert, so select an open source project based on your interests and start contributing to that domain which would definitely help you in future.

You should also have the fundamental knowledge of other technologies so to learn a new thing is always good.

Peter Mortensen
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Ashish
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