I'm always thoroughly impressed with how complicated and knowledgeable the people who work on these topics are.
I don't even use the product, but I love reading the Dolphin blog [0] because they write about fairly complicated topics in a way that's pretty approachable, and it always makes me appreciate how much I don't know about these topics.
While I feel like it would be difficult-but-not-impossible to be a contributor to say, the linux kernel (this is probably me grossly oversimplifying the process), I think I could spend the next year diving into graphics programming and basic hardware topics and still not contribute in any meaningful way to a project like Dolphin.
Articles like this and the Dolphin blog definitely make me realize how much I don't know.
The difference is domain knowledge, it takes time. You might feel that way about kernel because the high level concept of resource management is pervasive in programming. So you might feel you can easily dive into it, but it will take you equally long to say port the kernel to a new architecture/write drivers for a new platform.
I'm always thoroughly impressed with how complicated and knowledgeable the people who work on these topics are.
I don't even use the product, but I love reading the Dolphin blog [0] because they write about fairly complicated topics in a way that's pretty approachable, and it always makes me appreciate how much I don't know about these topics.
While I feel like it would be difficult-but-not-impossible to be a contributor to say, the linux kernel (this is probably me grossly oversimplifying the process), I think I could spend the next year diving into graphics programming and basic hardware topics and still not contribute in any meaningful way to a project like Dolphin.
Articles like this and the Dolphin blog definitely make me realize how much I don't know.
0: https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/