Outreachy & Node.js

Outreachy is an amazing initiative providing underrepresented communities in tech an opportunity to get involved in FOSS. Participating organizations vary with each call. It is a unique opportunity to contribute to organizations like Mozilla, Wikimedia, Fedora, Linux kernel, GNOME, amongst many others.

The application process is highly collaborative and its main component are the initial contributions to the project of choice, with the help of the mentor and the community. I had a blast during the application process and highly recommend it to those who are curious to understand how important projects and software are designed, created and maintained; and who want to seriously up the ante when it comes to their programming skills.

I learned about the Outreachy at the awesome NYC-based Recurse Center this spring (another ‘I cannot recommend it highly enough’ choice). I’m beyond thrilled to have become the Outreachy grantee in the December 2016 - March 2017 round working on Node.js. Being both Javascript and C++ fan with deep interest in complex systems, Node.js was a natural choice for me. These pages were set up to document the learnings and the contribution process.

“Improving the vm module in Node.js core”.

Node.js uses V8 as its JavaScript runtime– every Node.js release ships with a specific V8 version. The new 5.5 V8 API supports more of the ES6 syntax in comparison with its predecessors (think e.g. Object.defineProperty), which allows for removing some of the deprecated functions and workaround solutions in the current version of Node.js core. In particular, vm, a sandboxed V8 instance, will benefit a great deal from the upgrade, which is my focus in the coming weeks.

Looking forward to seeing the project evolve and get implemented. Exciting!