Developer interview: Christina Rossmanith

In this developer interview we talk someone who started with helping out other developers by translating comments in the code from German to English.

“Translating of comments brings me across different parts of the code, so I get a feeling for LibreOffice.”

LibreOffice can only exist since people are working on it: so please ! tell us a bit about yourself.

In what other software projects have you been involved ?

None, this is my first project.

What do you do when you’re not working on LibreOffice ?

I’m working in the field of medical image processing (part time), bring my four daughters up,
play volleyball / coach volleyball girls, play flute, read, cook …

When do you usually spend time on the project ?

In the evening, and in the morning if I’m not in the office.

Which is your preferred text editor? And why?

Emacs and vi – I’m used to them

OK, Emacs and vi, more tools I would expect with a full time hacker, than with someone who does volleyball, music, cooking, family life. So how, or why did you get used to Emacs and vi?

🙂 I studied computer sciences with a minor in medicine. Sometimes we were forced to use vi. At least if you don’t have a XWindows environment (some terminal) you have to use vi or something similar. One of my favourite mugs at home is the one with a vi quickreference as a decor 🙂 Bought it at a booth of a LinuxTag (linux day) in Karlsruhe.

Ah, that explains it to me. And how did you hear about LibreOffice ?

Linux Magazine.

Why did you get involved ?

I always had the idea to contribute to an open source project. And now as the youngest children get older (now all >= 3) there is a little more spare time. Finally the easy hacks list in the wiki shows items which make it easy even for beginners to contribute.

What was your first contribution to LibreOffice ?

Translations of German comments. Maybe it sounds a little boring, but you come across different parts of the code, and start to get a feeling for LibreOffice.

What was your initial experience of contributing to LibreOffice like ?

Even the smallest contribution is honored.
Git however, was driving me crazy and I’ve started with a fresh clone more than once. In the mean time I’ve learned that “git reset –hard” is a good friend, how to reorder commits and push selectively.

What have you done since then ?

Removed some commented lines of code.
Got the license to push translations directly (and of other contributors as well).
Asked some questions (learned that on irc questions like “Is someone there willing to answer my question” are not welcome), found patient people answering them.

What do you think was your most important contribution to LibreOffice so far ?

First months I had no features added and no bugs removed, but helped translating which helps other developers to understand coding.

How will that improve things for users?

Not directly, but really new is that few days ago I did send in my first bug fix 🙂

What is your vision for the future and/or what would you most like to see improved ?

I’m not sure, but I think, DICOM images are not supported yet. Maybe someday…

And DICOM images are ..?

DICOM stands for Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine. The standard comprises a protocol for image transfer and an image format as well. Of course we can convert the images to jpg/png whatever. I fear my time is too limited at the moment to implement a DICOM import. But you have to have plans for the future 🙂

Thanks for your time and commitment to the project 🙂