[FFmpeg-devel] Contributing to the project?

[Ronald S. Bultje]

Hi George,

On Wed, Jun 10, 2015 at 11:26 AM, George Boyle <george at thebuds.net> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I was wondering what is the best way to begin getting involved in
> contributing to ffmpeg/libav*? I've been a big fan of the project for
> years. I've been an observer on the mailing list, and have closely read
> the guidelines on the website, so I have a fair idea of how the
> development/review process works.
>
> I am a software developer with 5 years experience, mostly in Java
> (specifically web services, REST APIs among other things), but I do have
> a reasonable knowledge of C as well. I have an interest in audio/video
> codecs and formats, but little expertise and no experience in that area.
> However, I am eager to work hard and learn quickly, with minimal
> disruption, on any task that might be suitable.
>
> I don't want to be a burden on people's time, as I know everyone is busy
> and that you already engage in training and mentoring programs, but if
> there were some low priority tasks or tests to be written that would
> help me get my feet wet, I'd be very grateful to be pointed in that
> direction. Alternatively, if there are other channels I should engage
> with first, or upskilling I should do prior to contributing (e.g. a
> particular area of the code to study), advice to that effect would be
> very much appreciated too.


It would also be helpful if you could identify what you would like to be
doing, i.e. do you have any particular aspect that you find particularly
exciting or intriguing and would like to learn more about? E.g. you might
like one of video codecs or audio codecs or muxing formats more; you might
prefer decoding algorithms, encoding algorithms or optimizations more; you
might be more interested in the fundamentals of any one of those (either by
fixing algorithm bugs/extending algorithms to handle wider aspects of
existing formats, or by writing new codecs/(de)muxers from scratch), or
initially learning more through testing techniques (code coverage, fuzzing).

(That sounds like a lot, but it helps point you in a particular direction
if we know where you'd like to go.)

Ronald