At a Glance:
- Involved in open source since: 2020
- Works for: University of Macedonia
- Eclipse Foundation contributor since: 2023
- Involved in: Eclipse OpenSmartCLIDE
- Committer to: Eclipse OpenSmartCLIDE
- Eclipse Foundation committer since: 2023
- Fun fact: As a child, he would always ask his parents for technology he could take apart and then reassemble. He could always take them apart but could never seem to get them working again.
Can you tell us a bit about your background as a developer?
I first started writing code at about 17 years old, so before I started university. I ended up getting involved with open source through my university, the University of Macedonia, though it happened in a bit of a strange way. At the time, there really wasn’t any open source element to the university courses. But two software engineering professors invited me to join their group, which participates in national and international R&D projects. My journey as a research software engineer had begun.
This group was part of a grant proposal for the Horizon 2020 research and innovation program to start a software project called SmartCLIDE. SmartCLIDE ended up becoming an open source project later in 2022, so that was my first experience with open source. It actually just wrapped up recently in May but was passed to the Eclipse Foundation earlier this year.
How long have you been a committer at this point?
Technically, for less than a year. But I’ve been involved with this project since the beginning, and all the initial developers involved automatically ended up becoming committers once the project ended up at the Eclipse Foundation. So, I’ve been working in a committer-type capacity for almost three years now.
How have you found that experience?
My first real encounter with the community was in 2022. The project had just moved to open source and I decided to attend EclipseCon, which was held in person.
I was really surprised and impressed by the community and the level of engagement. I wasn’t expecting there to be so many people there who were not just excited about what they were working on but excited to help others in the community. It really drew me in and made me want to get more involved. The community really feels like a family.
It’s also interesting for me that, alongside my mentorship opportunities as a committer, I get to advise other graduate students and help them with their work.
What are your goals as a committer?
I would definitely like to get involved with other projects. Thus far my experience has all been in the Eclipse OpenSmartCLIDE project, and I’m very curious to speak with some more experienced people in other projects and learn from them. I’m still not sure exactly which projects I’m going to get involved with, but I am interested in Eclipse Theia. Since SmartCLIDE is based on Theia, that feels like a pretty natural choice.
Any advice for someone considering becoming a committer?
As a committer, you have a lot of responsibility, but in a good way. You’re making decisions that will have a significant impact on the project and the type of code that’s going to be in it. You can’t simply approve every pull request, so you have to be constantly exercising your judgement.
This makes being a committer a great learning opportunity, especially if you’re a younger developer. Not only does it help you write and evaluate code, but it’s a great way to get to know other committers and the rest of the community, as well as other Eclipse projects for that matter.
So, don’t be afraid to get involved. It’s a great learning opportunity with a wonderful community, and it’s even rewarding for the project itself. Even if your suggestions and work don’t ultimately end up being used, I can say as a committer it’s rewarding just to see someone post an issue or make a pull request, because it means that someone else is interested in this project and my work.
And, if you can, find a mentor like Philip Reimer. He’s a great guy and he’s been a great mentor to me.