July 20th is my birthday.

I was disappointed today when my pre-ordered cake wasn't delivered due to a lack of ingredients. Fine. But I refuse to let this ruin my birthday. If I can’t have my cake, why not make an open-source cake myself and share it with the world instead?

Started

I sent a tweet:

The idea is simple: If anyone shares a link to their open-source Rust project here, I can contribute a pull request. In return, they could wish me a happy birthday.

So there are three requirement:

  • Open-Source. Of course, right? How else could I share my cake if the project is private?
  • Rust. I’m familiar with rust and enjoy coding with rust. This allows me to identify improvements and implement them quickly—I don't want to keep friends waiting.
  • Drop Links. I'd like more friends to get involved so that I can receive more "happy birthday" messages. I hope you'll forgive these little personal wishes of mine.

Progress

I knew it might be happy, but I didn't realize it could be this joyful.

Over a hundred people liked my tweet, and nearly 50 people wished me a happy birthday through various channels. This year, I received the most birthday wishes ever! Additionally, I gathered 12 projects and tracked them in Happy Birthday for 2024.

Baking

Alright, let me start baking cakes. Birthday cakes need to be sweet. I want to avoid adding complex features and extensive modifications that could prolong the baking process and make it difficult for everyone to enjoy.

For each project, I first skim the layout to determine its stage and decide what contributions are needed. I aim to submit at least one PR per project, but may contribute more depending on my interest and findings.

I finally baked my cakes with 33 issues or PRs. I hope all the project maintainers will be happy to receive them!

Finally

During my birthday dinner, my wife surprised me with a cake she prepared! We enjoyed it together. What a wonderful birthday!

I hope all of you have a fantastic day as well. Goodbye.