Since my first pull request (PR) wasn’t too complicated I decided to take a baby step for my second PR and go bigger for my third PR. For my second PR, I assisted in the pySearch application again. I learned to write a test in python. I chose this as my second so I can prepare myself to write a webcrawler for my 4th release, this gave me the chance to get more familiar with Python.
As mentioned, I decided to start my third pull request where I (bravely) choose a larger project to work on than I ever did before. I searched though Prettier and found an issue I wanted to work on. I initially misread the issue and thought there was a problem with how Prettier was functioning. I then researched the tag assigned to the issue it was waaaay similar than I thought. It was labeled websitearea which meant the problem was there in the website folder. After some research I found out that the CSS was resetting the <b> tags in the code and I just had to change some CSS properties.
Prettier was taking much more time than I thought. I struggled for a few days trying to set up the environment. Firstly, my computer was not recognizing yarn commands even though I installed it and it took me a couple hours to fix. Then I ran the commands that were listed in the CONTRIBUTING.md document with no trouble. It took me more time to figure out how to run the website because I never build this type of application and couldn’t find anything about it in the contributing document. I googled “how to run Prettier” and you can imagine the results I was getting (haha). After actually browsing Prettier’s github I found the commands to get the website running locally in the website folder’s Readme. I thought I was done with the trouble, but it just started.
For some reason I could not build the project due to a vague error. I thought it was my computer and tried cloning and running it on another and same error. I then took the recommendations from Slack and tried the git terminal and still no luck. I was stuck on this for a few days and almost gave up as I was looking for easier issues to tackle for the deadline. I decided I invested enough time and even if I am late I wanted to see it through.
The next day (today), I deleted the app and re cloned it and followed the steps again and did not work in my terminal. I decided to try it again on the git terminal and it started working! I honestly don’t know why or what changed. I have narrowed down the css file that is effecting the specified portion of the website (the blogs) and have tried a few fixes such as putting in b{font-weight:bold!important} and deleting the b tag as a selector and it did not work.
I am currently working through this issue, but it has taught me a few things.
- I learned to be more patient.
- Not to shy away from asking for help.
- I learned not to give up.
ShreenasOpenSource 