What after the Pull Request Challenge?

Ever since Neil Bowers decided he would stop the "PullRequest Challenge" at the end of the year 2018 in this blog, I have been thinking over time what next after. He even wrote a blog about his ideas.

I am kind of addicted to this phenomena by now. I can't think of life without it. I then noticed someone called, Kıvanç Yazan, taking the initiative. He even setup a website PullRequest Club. Unfortunately I haven't seen much activities lately. Luckily he is giving talk at "The Perl Conference", Glasgow in Aug 2018, where I am also one of the speakers. I hope to meet him and discuss about the future of "PullRequest Challenge".

Few days ago, I had an email from Gabor asking if I am interested in "Remote Pair Programming" with him. I didn't waste a second before accepting his offer. We finally managed to sit together one weekend and submitted a PR #1450 at the end, which got merged and released few days ago. At the end our pair programming session, Gabor asked me if I am keen to join others for the same kind of session. Of course, I said "Yes". Then few days later, I had another email from him asking if I am happy for him to recommend my name to others for remote pair programming. I said, Yes, again without any delay.

All these conversations with Gabor, gave me an idea that would let me carry on what I love the most, submit PR. I am thinking of starting a new mission globally, where I would offer one hour session every month to anyone interested in pair programming with me on project related to Perl on first-come first-serve basis. I am targeting mainly newcomers with no previous experience from country like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh etc but not limited to these countries only. If demands are higher than my expectations, I might offer two sessions every month. The idea behind is to bring in new people to contribute to CPAN ecosystem in general. Who knows one day they will be addicted to this idea like me. My only concern is how am I going to spread my ideas to my targeted audiences. Any suggestions would be highly appreciated.

Recently a guy called Ankit Pati from Pune, India, an aspiring CPAN Author, contacted me on LinkedIn and wanted to learn from my experiences. This is encouraging and good signs for the future of Perl.

I am keeping my fingers crossed.

6 Comments

Hi Mohammad! Thanks for your blog.

I am working on pullrequest.club, but I don't have much to show yet. I'm planning to have an invite-only version up by July. And a public one by December, so that PR Challenge can keep going.

I will probably put it on GitHub and accept contributions.

I will be talking about PRC in both Salt Lake City and Glasgow, and looking forward to meet you there! We might also apply for a BOF for "Pull Request Challenge".

I really hope the PRC will continue in some form. For me it's a easy way to give something back to the community.

I wont be able to be the driving force behind next years PRC, but I would like to help. So, let's all meet in Glasgow :-)

People can always help with Perl.com: GitHub Issues :)

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About Mohammad S Anwar

user-pic CPAN Contributor. Co-editor of Perl Weekly newsletter. Run Perl Weekly Challenge @PerlWChallenge. Father of 3 angels. Indian by birth, British by choice.