Introduction to hacking #MediaWiki

One of the innovations at #Wikimania was a session during the hackathon where MediaWiki was explained to programmers new to the code. The origin of this session was because people with no experience asked if they were welcome.

As we like to welcome everybody, it was felt a good idea to reach out to these people and spend some time explaining the magic behind our software.

As MediaWiki is getting older, it also becomes increasingly difficult to understand. Yes there is documentation and, yes a lot of effort goes into the documentation. It is however quite different if you have to find your way on your own or if you are taken gently by the had and introduced into all the vagaries of our software.

This session was a success. In the end two thirds of the participants had actually done some work. If anything, this is the kind of session that is worth repeating.
Thanks,
      GerardM