Community Member Monday: Ritobroto Mukherjee

Tell us a bit about yourself!

I live in Delhi, India, where I’m working my way towards a bachelor’s degree in IT with a focus on network security at Netaji Subhas University of Technology.

My journey into programming began with QBASIC in school, sparking a love for coding. Since then, I’ve explored everything from game development to operating system internals, embedded systems to mobile apps – anything that catches my interest. My hobbies include learning random science-y things, binge-watching sitcoms, and working late nights only to fall asleep in the middle of the next day 😛

Before the Google Summer of Code (GSoC), my open-source experience was mostly limited to personal projects. Now, I’m much more comfortable filing bug reports, submitting patches, and engaging in code reviews. I also feel more confident in discussing problems and solutions with people I consider far more knowledgeable than me.

What are you working on in the LibreOffice project right now?

I recently completed upgrading the .NET Bindings for UNO as part of GSoC 2024.

Currently, I’m on a short hiatus for exams and personal projects, but I’ve been chipping away at the next item on my future work checklist: adding support for in-process bridging, thus enabling LibreOffice extensions to be created with the new .NET Bindings.

Why did you choose to join the project, and how was the experience?

Since switching to Linux a while back, I’ve almost become dependent on the LibreOffice suite to get me through university, having used it for everything from assignments to presentations. The chance to give back to this amazing project, to gain the experience of participating in GSoC, and to tackle a complex .NET and C++ project all at once was too good to pass up.

My experience with the LibreOffice community has been nothing but positive, especially with my mentors, Mr. Hossein Nourikhah and Mr. Thorsten Behrens. Their guidance, paired with the freedom they gave me to make my own decisions on the bindings, was integral to the project’s success.

Anything else you plan to do in the future? What does LibreOffice really need?

I’m planning on continuing the .NET Bindings project. While the core of the bindings was completed in time for GSoC, there’s still more features, documentation, and examples to work on.

Additionally, I believe LibreOffice needs more documentation, especially for legacy code. Much of my GSoC time was spent understanding the existing bindings before I could start work on the new ones. Using what all I’ve figured out, I want to try and help the Docs team document the bindings better. I might also consider working on introducing more languages bindings in the future.

Big thanks to Ritobroto for all his contributions! Everyone is welcome to join our community, build new skills, and help to make LibreOffice even better for the whole world 😊