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Community Member Monday: Gökçe Kuler

2021-04-12

Today we’re talking to Gökçe Kuler from our Turkish LibreOffice community…

Tell us a bit about yourself!

I’m from Aydın, Turkey. Currently I’m studying in my final years at the Computer Engineering department of Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University. I’m interested in free software – and enjoy working with free software projects and learning new things aboutthemit. I met free software when I started university via my advisor Necdet Yücel.

I like playing the guitar and the kalimba. Also, I recently started painting with acrylic paints. I’m vegetarian, and actively participate in animal protection and gender equality projects.

You recently solved your first bug in LibreOffice. How did that go?

In our final years at the university, we work on a project together with an advisor. My advisor Necdet Yücel offered to work on LibreOffice as a graduation project, and then Gülşah Köse mentored me to get involved.

Firstly, I prepared my working environment – then we decided to work on an unit test instead of a bug. I completed it, and sent it to Gerrit. I was very happy when I got my first “merged” email. After that, we selected a new bug, about a dialog. I solved it too and wrote a blog post. It’s a really good feeling, to contribute to such a big free software project.

Recently, I’ve started working on a new bug in Impress and progressing with it. I will continue contributing to LibreOffice.

Do you have any tips for other people new LibreOffice contributors?

Instead of starting with a complex bug, I suggest starting with small things like a missing unit test, or they can even fix a typo. In this process, we get the opportunity to learn about LibreOffice development tools like Git, Gerrit, Jenkins etc…

In this way, the mechanisms in the project can be better understood, and self-confidence is gained to solve a bug. In addition, LibreOffice is a huge project and I think it is very important to read the project code in detail to understand what we work on.

Thanks to Gökçe for all her contributions to LibreOffice! Anyone with C++ knowledge can dive in and explore our codebase. There’s lots to learn, but we’re making it easier to get involved with Easy Hacks and channels for communication. Join us!

Community Member Monday: Rafael Lima

2021-03-01

Today we’re talking to Rafael Lima, who helps the LibreOffice project by updating its documentation…

To start with, tell us a bit about yourself!

I am a university professor in Brazil, and I teach and research optimization applied to management sciences. In my work I often need to write papers and prepare spreadsheets to analyze data, and for that I’ve been using LibreOffice for over a year now. I have been working with supply chain optimization problems such as vehicle routing, network design and facility location.

I have always been an enthusiast of Open Source, since my undergraduate days in 2001. At the time I started using Linux and most of my current research work is done using FOSS tools. The dynamics of how open source software is developed is a topic that has always caught my attention.

Outside of work, I like to spend my free time practicing sports (mostly playing tennis) and whenever I have the opportunity I like to travel to new places. And obviously, like many tech enthusiasts, I like gaming too!

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

The Documentation Team is currently working on the guides for the LibreOffice 7 series, and I am helping update and review some chapters in these guides. I have recently updated the Getting Started Guide chapters on Math and Macros.

Besides that, I have recently started writing a Macro tutorial focused on LibreOffice Calc, to help Calc users to get started with Basic programming and develop their own macros and functions. I hope to cover many aspects of Basic programming in Calc, ranging from reading and writing data from cells, formatting, dialog creation and writing extensions. If all goes well, I hope to finish the tutorial by February and release it to the community. If anyone wants to follow the development of the tutorial, it is available on my GitHub page.

How did you get started in the LibreOffice community? What was the experience like?

I started contributing to the Documentation Team after I read a blog post by TDF saying that they were looking for volunteers to help update the guides for LibreOffice 7. Then I joined the mailing list and I was welcomed and instructed by Olivier Hallot on the workflow of the Documentation Team.

After going over the Wiki and the Contributor’s Guide, I started updating the Math Guide. It was a very nice experience, because all questions I had were promptly answered by other members of the team and I was able to learn quickly how work gets done.

After finishing the Math guide I kept on contributing with other guides, mainly the Getting Started Guide and the Writer’s Guide.

Anything you’d recommend to newcomers in the docs project?

My work in the Documentation Team was my first real experience with an open source project, and it was a great opportunity to learn how open source really works. It’s amazing to see how the LibreOffice community is capable of delivering high-quality applications and documentation.

As a newcomer I was afraid I was not going to be able to tackle the complexities of such a huge project as LibreOffice. However, being a large project means that LibreOffice has a large community to support new contributors.

From a more practical standpoint, my recommendation for newcomers is to start by reading the Contributor’s Guide, and then choose one of the LibreOffice applications to which you would like to contribute. Also, join the mailing list, introduce yourself and more experienced members will be glad to explain how contributions can be made.

Many thanks to Rafael for all his contributions! And for everyone reading this who wants to build up skills for a potential career in technical writing, join our community, gain experience, and meet new people!

Community Member Monday: Steve Fanning

2021-02-15

LibreOffice has extensive documentation in many languages, thanks to the great work of our worldwide docs community. Today we’re talking to Steve Fanning, who has been working on the updated LibreOffice Calc Guide…

Hi Steve! Tell us a bit about yourself…

I live near Bolton in the North West of England with my wife and, sometimes, our adult son (he has recently been working in Australia for a year). I studied applied mathematics and theoretical physics at university and subsequently enjoyed a career mostly spent implementing and designing complex real-time software systems.

Passionate about improving the documentation for the company’s systems, I moved into specialist technical writer roles during the last few years of my employment. I retired around two years ago and now enjoy indulging in my main hobbies, which are bridge, computing, reading and coarse fishing. I guess that some readers might wonder about coarse fishing – it is angling for freshwater fish for pleasure and relaxation rather than food (all fish caught are returned to the water alive).

What are you doing in the LibreOffice project?

On retirement, I wanted to maintain and develop my technical writing skills and after some research, decided to join the LibreOffice Documentation Team. I immediately dived into the deep end, updating some of the more challenging chapters of the Calc Guide in preparation for the 6.2 issue. Since then I seem to have been digging deeper into Calc, coordinating the publication of the 6.4 Calc Guide, and updating many of the chapters for the 7.0 Calc Guide. I have also enjoyed creating an area on The Document Foundation’s wiki to describe Calc’s 500+ functions in more detail.

Why did you decide to become a member of The Document Foundation, the non-profit entity behind LibreOffice?

When the opportunity arose, I was delighted to become a member of TDF. I am hoping that it will make me more aware of the strategies of the organisation and, if appropriate, provide greater opportunity to influence those strategies. And who could resist the offer of a free @libreoffice.org email address?

What else are you working on, and is there any other area that interests you?

Currently most of my LibreOffice time is taken up supporting and mentoring Ronnie Gandhi, who is a technical writer helping us under the Google Season of Docs 2020 programme. His task is to populate many of the pages within the Calc Functions wiki area and I am reviewing his work and providing comments and other feedback as appropriate. Many of these functions are quite complex and require some research before raising comments but I am finding the whole experience very educational.

As for the future, it is hard to look too far ahead as we are all enduring the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting restrictions and lockdowns. With lots of free time on my hands, I have been grateful to have interesting LibreOffice work to occupy myself and keep my brain ticking over. In the future I hope to continue to help keep our guides up to date, continue developing the Calc Functions wiki area, and would also like to get more involved in maintaining the help system.

Many thanks to Steve for all his work, and mentoring other contributors – this all helps millions of LibreOffice users around the world! Indeed, joining the documentation project is a great way to contribute back to LibreOffice, build up skills and meet new people in the community. Join in and give us a hand!

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Community Member Monday: Felipe Viggiano and Zhenghua Fong

2021-01-25

Today we’re talking to two people who’ve recently decided to become members of The Document Foundation, the non-profit behind LibreOffice. First up, Felipe Viggiano…

Hey Felipe, tell us a bit about yourself!

Hello there! I’m writing from the state of São Paulo, in Brazil. I’m an electrical engineer and have been working with LibreOffice for several years. Despite all this time, I started to contribute only a few months ago.

What are you working on right now?

Right now I’m working with the Documentation Team, mainly on the update of the Calc Guide with the new features in LibreOffice 7.0. Working with the team has been a huge learning opportunity, and the other team members are always there for a little help when needed.

Why did you decide to become a member of TDF?

The reason I applied for membership is to try to contribute a little more to the project in other areas.

Anything else you plan to do in the future?

In the future, I would like to start contributing more with others teams, and with TDF in order to help increase LibreOffice’s success. In my opinion, LibreOffice needs to be better known – we have a great free office solution that attends the majority of the requirements of the general public, but, at least in Brazil, many people are not aware of this!

Next us is Zhenghua Fong, who works on improving LibreOffice’s compatibility with other office suites…

Tell us a bit about yourself!

I’m part of a team of three people from Fuzhou, a coastal city known for its hot springs, in the Fujian province in China. When we are not coding, we like jogging in the nearby park. Every year we have company-wide Half Marathon Run around the main campus. Around 7,000 employees compete in the run and other sporting events.

Why did you decide to become a member of The Document Foundation?

As we’re an education tech company, documents are at the core of our business. LibreOffice works great for us. Recently, we have add a whiteboard feature to our product with the help of LibreOffice Online.

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

Compatibility is the area we are working on. Because large parts of the population still use Microsoft Office-based document formats, it’s important to our users that they are able to open documents and get them right the first time.

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

Performance. We find the performance of our product has room for improvement, especially when compared against Microsoft Office and WPS from Kingsoft.

Thanks to Felipe and Fong for all their contributions! Our worldwide community is what makes LibreOffice strong – everyone is welcome to join and find out what they can do for LibreOffice!

Community Member Monday: Sarper Akdemir

2020-12-21

Today we’re talking to Sarper Akdemir, who is a passionate supporter of free software and is helping to add new features to LibreOffice…

Tell us a bit about yourself!

I live in Istanbul, where I am pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering at Istanbul Technical University. I like to hack code, cook, play bass, and rice some desktops in my free time. My primary computer is a Thinkpad X220 – such a cutie – and I use Emacs to hack on it.

On April 28 2018, Istanbul Technical University Software Freedom Club (ITUGnu) organized an event called “Free Software Summit”, which introduced me to free software. After that event, I decided to join and be an active member of the club, in the hope of learning more about free software and the hacker culture.

People in ITUGnu informed me about a summer camp called “Mustafa Akgül Free Software Camp”, which is a non-profit organization where people all around Turkey volunteer to teach attendees about free software, with courses ranging from GNU/Linux system administration to IT law.

I took a workshop there that Muhammet Kara gave called “LibreOffice Development Workshop” which got me started hacking on LibreOffice.

After the workshop, I decided to keep contributing to LibreOffice and apply to the Google Summer of Code. And I was lucky enough to get selected as a Google Summer of Code student in the past summer.

Why did you decide to become a member of The Document Foundation?

Throughout the Google Summer of Code period, hacking on LibreOffice daily was a lot of fun and at times challenging. While doing so, I got to interact and learn from the community of developers, especially my mentor Thorsten Behrens (CIB). Since being in the LibreOffice community is so rewarding, I wanted it to be official with a TDF membership – and having a say in what the future holds for LibreOffice is, of course, a plus.

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

I finished my Google Summer of Code project that introduced physics-based animation effects to LibreOffice Impress. And right now, I’m looking forward to fixing some bugs, starting from the ones related to animation effects.

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

Since LibreOffice is one of the core utility pieces that the end user looks for in a computer, I think it is also an important piece for end users to achieve freedom. Therefore, I think LibreOffice can always use more robustness, so I will be fixing as many bugs as I can in the future.

Other than that, in the near future I’m trying to organize an event under ITUGnu to help some fellow students to contributing to LibreOffice and other free software projects.

Huge thanks to Sarper for his work on the new Impress animations, and Thorsten, his mentor, for supporting him. We hope to be in the next Google Summer of Code, but in the meantime, everyone with some C++ knowledge is welcome to explore the LibreOffice source code and try some EasyHacks. We’ll be there if you need help!

Community Member Monday: Shivam Kumar Singh

2020-12-07

Today we’re talking to Shivam Kumar Singh, who has been working on new LibreOffice features as part of the Google Summer of Code…

To start with, tell us a bit about yourself!

I am a undergraduate Engineering student at the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology in Shibpur, India. Currently I am in my pre-final year, and for the last two years have been involved in development and all things tech-related. I run a programming club in my university, in which, along with my team, I educate our peers on how to start programming.

As for hobbies: I am a coin collector. I love collecting coins of various countries and anything vintage is of great interest to me. Apart from that, I am a huge anime and manga fan! You can find me on GitHub and Facebook.

Why did you decide to become a member of The Document Foundation?

I became a part of the Libreoffice community through the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2020, in which I developed the much needed Styles Inspector for Libreoffice writer (mentors: Mike Kagansky and Tomaz Vajngerl (Collabora), and Heiko Tietze (TDF)). Even before GSoC, I was a regular contributor to the core repo and had fixed plenty of Easy and Interesting hacks.

After completing GSoC, I got an invitation from Muhammet Kara to join TDF. I was completely thrilled by the invitation. Being a part of the TDF membership is more like a responsibility, and it gives a complete sense of belonging to the community, to which I was making voluntary contributions beforehand.

I feel that being a TDF member gives me a more vivid idea on where the software is actually going in the future, and how I (along with the other members) can do my part to bring the best out of the software.

What are you working on right now?

I contribute in the code base of Libreoffice. I was working on the Styles Inspector for the whole summer. The project is at a very good and very usable state now. Most of the time I monitor the bugs associated with it, sharing my views or sending patches to fix them. I strongly believe that we should not abandon our projects just when the timeline ends, or it becomes usable. Instead one should keep on polishing it until there is no mega improvement possible 🙂

Other than this, I am always around the #libreoffice-dev IRC channel, helping the other newcomers with their queries, and showing how to start contributing to the codebase.

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

I think the LibreOffice community is one the best communities someone can be a part of. People here are very welcoming to new contributors, and that’s really a big boost when trying to understand or work on a new codebase. I really want LibreOffice to expand its network and be a part of other programs like Google Code-in (which later got closed this year though) and CommunityBridge, as in that way, more people – particularly students – will be able to know about the community and the software.

I have always prioritized Open Source over commercial software. But it’s very unfortunate that in countries like India, where student and youth contribution is very high, not many people are unaware of Open Source technologies in general – and Libreoffice in particular. Everyone is paying huge sums for Microsoft Word or other suites, even though there are suites like LibreOffice available completely for free, with a lot of new and cool features.

A lot has been done and a lot still needs to be achieved. The Document Foundation’s growth has been spectacular in these past 10 years. I cannot wait to see what the team will achieve in this decade 🙂

Many thanks to Shivam for sharing his experiences! And indeed, in the LibreOffice community we try to be welcoming and accessible for all new contributors. Find out what you can do for LibreOffice, and let us know how you get on!