Why is it called ‘cbrtl’?
Because every other GitHub org name was taken.
It comes from the C stdlib function cbrtl.
There is a some trivia to the oddly text-to-speechified name.
In older versions of ANSI C, only the first 6 characters of an identifier were considered when compiling source code.
So most standard library functions in C have odd names like strstr, strtod, alloca and so on…
Why at all?
Some of my acquaintances from other colleges have clubs, groups and spaces dedicated to open source and software development. Couple of days ago, I came across IIT Roorkee’s SDSLabs and PES Uni’s PES Open Source. After looking into it a bit more, turns out most colleges these days have their own groups for related stuff.
We thought it would be fun to have a similar group of like minded developers from our college.
Is it too ambitious? We won’t know until we don’t try.
What is it that cbrtl aims to do exactly?
Good question. We don’t have a concrete answer. That said, I’ll throw in most of what we’ve gathered from our goal so far, and you decide if you like the sound of it.
- Contributing to Open Source.
- Talks and meetups.
- Showcasing projects from individuals and teams.
- Code reviews and educational blogs (hopefully ones that haven’t been done to death before…).
What platforms are you present on?
For now, our presence is limited to Discord and the GitHub organization. Mostly because these are very solid platforms and we are tight on the number of people moderating.
What skills do I need?
Not much.
- The ability to code.
- The willingness to learn.
- Basic knowledge of Git and GitHub.
Even 1 and 3 are optional.
Where do I join?
As mentioned earlier, you can join the Discord and the GitHub organization. More info on Getting started with cbrtl and Open Source.
Is there anything I can do to help?
You can volunteer to help us keep the community thriving. We are looking for volunteers who can help with:
- Front end development: To touch up the current blog site.
- Moderation: To manage the discord server and the GitHub org.
- Code reviews: To mandate some code quality for those who demand it.
- Technical Writers: To aid in writing blog posts.
- Editors: A second pair of eyes helps catch common mistakes in writing :)
Is this an official college club?
No. This is an entirely independent student initiative that is looking for active participation. A decentralized group of like-minded programmers.
Will there be events with cash prizes?
No. And we want to be upfront about it. We want to keep this community closed to people who code because they like creating. Of course, that is not to say we discredit any other motivation you may have.
As such, we won’t conduct any competitions with cash prizes for the foreseeable future.
Other clubs (which are official) in our college do a great (citation needed*) job at that regardless.
What kinds of events can I expect?
Other than project showcases and on-demand code review sessions, we are open to other ideas.
Not as much of an ’event’ but you can expect group projects that will (hopefully) be active throughout.
I have some other questions, where can I ask?
You’re more than welcome on the mailing list, or in the discord server.