Hi everyone! I’m Mayank, a student currently enrolled in the Computer Programming and Analysis (CPA) program. Over the last few semesters, I’ve discovered my passion for cloud computing and back-end development, which has led me to gain hands-on experience during my co-op terms at the Ministry of Transportation. There, I worked primarily with Azure and Microsoft Power Platform, sparking my interest in exploring larger technology ecosystems.

This semester, I’ve chosen to dive into Open Source Development, a course that I believe will broaden my understanding of the software world. My curiosity in open source was ignited last semester after taking the Cloud Computing Principles (CCP) course, which inspired me to understand how large-scale projects operate and thrive. My fascination with open-source technologies became even stronger after watching a TED Talk by Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux and Git. He spoke about how open-source collaboration fueled the development of Linux, a project that has become fundamental to the tech industry. As someone aspiring to work with cloud and back-end systems, I’ve come to realize that open-source contributions shape the technologies we use daily.

What truly attracts me to open-source development is the idea of global collaboration. Thousands of developers work together to improve, innovate, and resolve issues, making software more robust and accessible for all. I find it inspiring that anyone, regardless of their background, can contribute to projects that power our digital world.

Goals for this Term

During this term, I’m hoping to hone my skills as a contributor to open-source projects. My primary goal is to work on large-scale web development projects, applying what I’ve learned in cloud computing and backend development while contributing to something meaningful. By the end of this term, I want to not only learn how open-source projects operate but also actively participate in improving these projects. Additionally, I’m excited about the possibility of seeing my work become a small part of a much larger system that is used by the software development community.

Forking Playwright

As part of learning how to fork on GitHub, I researched the trending repositories and decided to fork Playwright by Microsoft. Playwright is a powerful web testing framework that allows developers to automate browser testing for various web applications. What drew me to Playwright was its relevance to the web development community. Being able to test and debug web applications efficiently is an essential part of development. I also noticed that Playwright had a lot of open issues, meaning it’s a project that needs active contributions. Furthermore, most of the codebase is written in TypeScript, which I have some experience with, making it a perfect fit for my current skills.

Link to Playwright repository - https://github.com/microsoft/playwright

I'm really excited for exploring open-source world and I will keep on updating my learning journey in the upcoming blogs.