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Becoming a Programmer

At the moment, we need programmers experienced in:

  • Python - for Quickshot
  • Tex/LaTeX - for "Getting Started with Ubuntu 10.04"

If you want to help with TeX, contact Kevin Godby: kevin AT ubuntu-manual DOT org

To help with Quickshot in python, you’ll have to create a Launchpad account, join the Quickshot team and download the source files in our branch. We’ll walk you through the process here.

Creating a Launchpad Account

  1. Go to https://launchpad.net and click "Register" in the top-right corner of the page
  2. Fill in your details

    Now you need to create an SSH key. Instructions taken from here.

    1. Install OpenSSH. On Ubuntu, you can install OpenSSH by opening your terminal and typing:
    2. $ sudo apt-get install openssh-client
    3. Once OpenSSH is installed, stay in the terminal and type:
    4. $ ssh-keygen -t rsa
    5. When prompted, press Enter to accept the default file name for your key.
    6. Next, enter then confirm a password to protect your SSH key. Your key pair is stored in ~/.ssh/ as id_rsa.pub (public key) and id_rsa (private key)
  3. Now you need to upload the public portion of your SSH key to Launchpad:
    Open your public key in a text editor and copy its contents to your clipboard. The public key file has the extension .pub. For example: id_rsa.pub

  4. Visit your SSH keys page.
  5. Paste your public key into the text box and then click the Import public key button to continue.

Joining our team

  1. Go here.
  2. Click on "Join this team."
  3. Note: Quickshot developers is a restricted team which means you’ll need to be approved by an administrator. Join us in #ubuntu-manual on irc.freenode.net and introduce yourself and say you want to be accepted into the Quickshot developer team.
  4. You should subscribe to the mailing list as well.

Downloading the bzr branch

You will need to install bzr. Run these commands in a terminal to install bzr and configure it.

  1. Install bzr:
  2. $ sudo apt-get install bzr
  3. Configure bzr with your name and email:
  4. $ bzr whoami "Your name <email@domain.com>"
    To check that bzr knows who you are, run:
    $ bzr whoami
    If it has worked, it should return your name and email address. Now we need to download the Quickshot branch.

    1. Create a new directory in your home folder called Projects.
    2. $ mkdir ~/Projects
    3. Change into that directory in a terminal window:
    4. $ cd ~/Projects
    5. Once you are in your Projects directory, run this command to download our branch:
    6. $ bzr branch lp:quickshot
    7. Bzr will now download the project files. This may take a few minutes depending on your connection speed.