I often found myself with a lack of motivation when it comes to working on a project. But all that changed after I showed GoPlantUML to the great people at Reddit. This post is about how an open-source project can spark a new passion for work and how I am enjoying every minute of it.

GoPlantUML is open-source software that I wrote as a training exercise. I stumbled by accident with the ast library in Golang, and I discovered that I could quickly parse Golang code. Immediately, I realized I could use it to create a diagram of my projects using PlantUML, and thus GoPlantUML was born.

This project is progressing in a way I didn’t believe it would. I did it for myself and posted a link on Reddit, and then I received lots of excellent feedback. But what’s most interesting so far about open-source projects is something that happens that really makes them worthwhile. I find that it is easier to have people suggest new features than to come up with them myself. And as I continue to work on it, and receive more feedback, I see my child growing into something bigger.

All in all, I am quite glad this idea was found useful. And people can benefit from it. I guess that’s the joy of an open-source project, planting a seed and see it grow into maturity by the help and suggestions of others.

I can’t wait to see more people involved. It is nice to see others interested in PlantUML, since I often found myself isolated in that end. Moreover, bringing that tool to more people and at the same time having fun coding is more that I can ask for right now.

Happy coding, and come join us in the joy of open-source development.