Fireworks, Fun, and First-Time Contributions

Hey, amazing developers out there! This one’s for you—the geniuses who code up a storm but never think about contributing to the stuff you use daily. Let me take you on a little journey that might just inspire you to dip your toes into the world of open-source contributions, especially for projects you’re passionate about.

So, picture this: You've probably seen those cool LED display panels on Instagram, right? The ones that flash personalized messages, show off your latest achievements, or count down to your next big event. Well, my son got one, and it's now a permanent fixture in our living room. It displays everything from funny quotes to the weather and other nifty widget-type things. But one day, he asked me if I could make a New Year's countdown app for it. I had no clue you could even build custom apps for this thing, let alone that most of the apps were built by the community!

We started brainstorming, and before long, we had a vision. It seemed "simple" enough at first. There was already an app with pixel fireworks that shot up and exploded—super cool. We thought, why not have the New Year’s countdown scroll across the screen with those fireworks in the background? Easy, right? Well, not quite. But I was up for the challenge.

Now, I’d never worked with Pixlet or .star files before, but years of software and systems engineering have taught me that the best way to learn is to dive in and start tinkering. I’m not talking about copy-pasting code like a script kiddie, but truly understanding the style and common functionality—these are your building blocks for tackling the more complex stuff.

So, I rolled up my sleeves and dove into the codebase. What I found was a well-documented process for contributing and building apps. Sure, I hit a few bumps—like the .devcontainer configuration not installing Pixlet correctly—but after figuring it out, I opened an issue with the details on how to fix it, and it was quickly corrected. The whole experience was a pleasant introduction to the ecosystem of apps that had already been built.

Armed with this newfound knowledge, I got to work on the New Year’s Countdown app. The fireworks algorithm was already figured out, so that was my starting point. I integrated the skeleton of that functionality into my app, and then tackled the message scrolling, which, to my surprise, was easier than expected.

The end result? You can check it out here:
New Year’s Countdown App

And if you’re interested in getting one of these LED panels to install my app on (or just to have some fun with), I’m not affiliated with them and don’t get any kickbacks, but it’s a cool product that my son and I had a blast with: Tidbyt.

Now, as a maintainer of an open-source app on a device that sits in my living room, I have to say this: If you’re a younger developer, contributing to something like this can be a game-changer. It’s a great way to build confidence in your skills, get something tangible to show for your work, and maybe even discover a new passion. Plus, if you can share the experience with someone else, it’s ten times more fun.

So, here’s my final thought: Get out of your comfort zone. Tackle fun projects with others, learn from them, and don’t take yourself too seriously. If you improve just 1% every day, that’s 365% in a year. After three years, you’ll be 1,095% better than when you started. Math is cool, building cool stuff is even cooler, and when you love what you work on, you’ll never work a day in your life. Godspeed and best of luck out there. It’s a buggy world, but someone’s got to fix it!