A Better Way to Understand How Code Works
By Vishal Chavan | A spotlight on a Sprint for Internet Health project
Shina Dhingra (@shina_dhingra) is a tech enthusiast and a Mozilla Rep from Bengaluru, India. Shina was selected to join the current cohort of Open Leaders 7 with her project ‘No Comments’. No Comments is a fun and amazing project where people can work on converting code to flowcharts in realtime. It main idea behind this project is to make a seamless connection between code and the comments associated with that code, so that there is better navigation.
I interviewed Shina to learn more about No Comments and how you can contribute to the work.
What is No Comments?
No Comments is a project being developed under the Mozilla Open Leaders Program and mentored by Pranshu Khanna. We are working with designers and developers to create IDE plug-ins for students and budding developers that will convert your source code into a flow chart at real time.
Why did you start No Comments?
I work on thousands of lines of code as a Data Analyst at HSBC today, but I still don’t call myself as a coder because many times I find it difficult to understand how my code runs, how is the logic executing, etc. It would’ve been so much better if I could visualise these chunks of lines written in computer language when I was in school learning to code.
I started this project as an initiative to provide a better foundation to all the students who have just transitioned from textbooks to coding IDEs, so that they can understand the logic behind what they code, visualise it in a better way than the old-school comments, and to help them code confidently!
Is there a current working prototype? If yes, can you share a link or resource?
It’s under development — we are working on building prototypes for multiple languages.
Here’s the link to its GitHub Repo to keep you updated with our progress : https://github.com/shinadhingra18/No-Comments
What challenges have you faced working on this project?
Here are a few challenges I faced while working on this project : Anxiety, managing work and life and the project, more anxiety, convincing myself to convince people that the project is good enough.
How I got through these challenges? All the credit goes to my mentor, Pranshu. He helped me understand why it’s okay to have anxiety, that I shouldn’t pressure myself with a long to-do list but take baby steps and make small daily goals and to just get through them.
I worked on his suggestions and assigned myself tiny goals everyday and rewarded myself on its completion.He also helped me prioritize my tasks for the project which gave me a clearer picture of what is to be done and kept me from being anxious.
What kind of skills do I need to contribute to your project?
For development contributions : You need to know how plug-ins work, need to know any one of the languages like, C, Python, Java or JavaScript.
For non-coding contributions: You need to know about Technical Documentation.
How can others contribute your project?
Any help with the code, the idea, or any feedback is a contribution to NoComments.
If you wish to contribute code, we are focusing on languages like C, Python, Java, JavaScript.
Other areas of contribution that do not particularly require a technical skill set are: Testing the prototypes, documentation, talking about the project, etc.
How has the Open Leaders program helped you with your project?
The One-to-One mentorship really helped me envision this project better. My mentor helped at every step when I faced any roadblocks or had doubts on how to convert my idea into an open source project. The Open Leaders curriculum was very well framed for everyone to learn, build and collaborate on their project. The alternate weekly assignments set for each cohort to participate were helpful to understand various aspects of leadership while working on open projects.
What meme or gif best represents your project?
Join us wherever you are during the month of May at Mozilla’s Sprint for Internet Health to work on many amazing open projects! Join a diverse network of scientists, educators, artists, engineers and others in person and online to hack and build projects for a health Internet.
This post by Vishal Chavan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
