Google code-in 2019 rewind

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The original post is available at wikipedia: wikipedia:Ajuanca/Google_Code_In_2019_rewind

Introduction

I don’t know where to start. That’s the exact same feeling I had about a month ago when I signed up for the contest. I think the best thing I can do is a recap. I hope this is going to be useful. Please pardon me in advance, as neither my English nor my writing ability is the best.

Everything has a beginning

The truth is, I don’t remember how I discovered the contest. The only thing I know is that when I found it, registration was closed, so I wrote a reminder. This reminder popped up on my phone on October 29, 2019.

On that day, the organizations were announced, although at that point I wasn’t clear on which one I was going to choose (to be honest, I didn’t know exactly how the contest worked yet).

That was when I decided to practice in order to be prepared. The first week was fine. I practiced Java exercises because it is a language I feel confident with (I suggest the Google courses on Udacity). The next week, I proposed designing a web page (HTML, JS, and CSS) for one of the organizations, Liquid Galaxy. The development of that page extended and ended up merging with exams, so the practice I had planned started to slip away until the day the contest opened—at which point I hadn’t even finished the page.

We’re in

My conclusion (apart from how messy I am) is that there’s no need to practice beforehand. The day finally arrived: December 2, 2019. I signed up on the web (looks like they finally finished the site) and entered the requested data. It redirected me to the dashboard, which had a simple structure that made navigation easy.

You can’t request any activity until a parent agrees to the policies, so I leaped from my chair and ran to get them to read it. The next day, I was allowed to start. I went to the organizations tab and started reading a bit about them. The main reason I chose Wikimedia was that I knew it. It’s true that others seemed familiar, but not in the same way as Wikipedia, the main page used for school work. I also discovered some new ones, like Public Lab, that looked very interesting.

When I clicked Wikimedia, I saw the main languages. What’s Lua? Luckily, I saw that one of the activities was “Hello World” and an important number of mentors were listed, so I knew I was going to receive a lot of help. I requested it. I don’t remember how long the activity was (let me check)… The same day. The truth is that I didn’t realize how quick it would be. Obviously, Lua looked nice to me (I think it was something like one task per day), so I moved on to the next, Lua 2. After a few others, I left what we can call the “comfort zone” and selected another language.

Some Clarifications

At this point, and before answering some questions in the Google chat (open for mentors and competitors), I can give you a better idea of the general mechanics of the contest. Some things that aren’t explicitly written are:

Let’s continue

Before this project, I got back to Lua. It is worth noting that of the 12 activities I’ve done, 9 belong to Lua. 7 of them were just introductions, so they weren’t very difficult.

I don’t want to flatter, but…

I would like to express a massive thanks to everyone involved: to Google for the contest itself and to Wikimedia for appearing as an Organization. Obviously, I am grateful in a much closer way to all the mentors that oriented me for more than a month. I don’t know if you are aware (I hope someone is reading this) of the important role you play.

Thanks, among other things, for your time (and patience). I want to express gratitude for the quick responses and friendly manner. I must make a special mention of Taylor, because he was one of the main mentors for Lua; therefore, I was like one of his ‘pupils’. I found his responses about Lua very detailed and easy to understand. Like the rest of the mentors, he encouraged me to think and rethink.

I would like to give thanks in the chat (I’m very grateful and I’m not sure they know it or are aware of their hard work), but once the revision deadline is finished, you can’t communicate with them anymore—another aspect to take into account. Just in this article, there’s one implementation of what I’ve learned (look at the dates).

And now what?

I’m still impatient for the results. I know that I’m not going to win because of the low number of activities I have done, but while I have been writing this article, I’ve seen the amazing work done by others. For sure, I’ll participate next year.

Next time, I will try to solve real problems with real implementations, like the ones I did outside Lua. They were the ones I was thinking of completing, but I chose the easy way (and now I regret it). This first participation has taught me how Wikimedia really works. I wasn’t aware of the so-many things you have to consider, the really big quantity of projects involved, and the extensive number of people involved (amazing).

Next year I will try to apply the concepts I learned—about the organization, the architecture of Lua (applicable to other languages), and other things (like the proper use of GitHub or starting a local server on my computer).

And who knows? Maybe in two or three years I can be one of the mentors, although by then I should have learned a lot more.

Thanks for reading the article. I hope it has been useful, and if you’re one of the people that has made this possible, let me say it again: Thanks!!