Beyond the Code: What I Learned from My First KDE Junior Job
Today, I learned something crucial in my Season of KDE journey by submitting a “Junior Job” for Lokalize. While the code change was small, the lesson I learned about professional maintenance was huge.
The Mistake: “Just Merge It”
My task was to remove an obsolete reference to ‘Techbase’ in the source code. In my rush to finish, I made a classic beginner mistake: I pushed multiple commits to fix a small syntax error (a messed-up bracket!) without cleaning them up.
The Feedback
One of the maintainers, Johnny, gave me feedback that I’ll carry with me throughout my career. He explained that while the code might work, the Git history needs to be clean for the developers who come after us.
Advice from Johnny
“In a few months, if there is an issue or something to understand, and someone will read the history, they will be happier with a good message.”
Final Thoughts
This experience taught me that in a massive project like KDE, communication is key. It’s better to ask “why” first than to guess and leave a messy trail in the history.