Hello,
Mods - not sure if this is the right place in the forum to post this, so feel free to move it to a more appropriate location.
I've been a part of FlightGear since 2010 and the forum since 2013. Over the past few months I have made the leap of faith from being an end-user (with a few liveries produced here and there) to a more active content contributor (working on a few planes, openradar routes, airport layouts, etc).
However, I'd like to get involved (or at least try to) with core development and I'm not sure where to begin. I've signed up to the developer mailing list for a start. Is this the main/only channel of communication for core devs, or is there perhaps an IRC channel / mumble server in addition to it?
I would appreciate if someone could point me in the right direction to where I can "learn the ropes"... or perhaps there is someone who could introduce me to the system used by core developers, provide a basic outline of the code base, or anything else that could help me get started. I understand that it's not going to be easy to contribute from the start and that it may take several months to understand a significant amount of the codebase before I understand it enough to contribute.
My background, if it helps: While I am only a few years older than the FlightGear project itself, I have been programming in Java for 7+ years a web/mobile development related languages and frameworks for almost 3 years now. I currently am studying computer science at university and am working 2 professional software jobs (to pay for the ridiculous uni fees). My experience with C++ is limited, and I understand that this is the main language used for the project (correct me if I'm wrong), but I am more than willing to invest more time into improving my knowledge of the language.
I am also happy to help with any web-related dev requirements.
Best,
Phil
(MD-GRK)