Have you ever encountered something like this?
(Note: #r denotes a collapsed region of code)

public class MyBulkyClassThatDoesALot
{
    #r Private fields
    #r Constructor
    #r Another constructor
    #r Public properties
    #r Public methods
    #r Private methods

    #region Validation

    // meanwhile, somewhere on line 20485
    public ValidationResult Validate()
    {
        ValidationResult result;
        CheckThatSomethingHolds(result);
        CheckThatSomethingElseHolds(result);

        if (this.somesituation)
        {
            CheckSituationDependentCondition(result);
            CheckSituationDependentOtherCondition(result);
        }

        ...
        // Somewhere on line 20585
        CheckLastThing(result);
        return result;
    }

    private void CheckThatSomethingHolds(ValidationResult result)
    {
        if (this.somecondition)
        {
            result.AddError(new ValidationError("Condition X failed"));
        }
    }

    private void CheckThatSomethingElseHolds(ValidationResult result)
    {
        if (this.somecondition)
        {
            result.AddError(new ValidationError("Condition Y failed"));
        }
    }

    private void CheckSituationDependentCondition(result)
    {
        if (this.somecondition)
        {
            result.AddError(new ValidationError("Condition SituationDependent1 failed"));
        }
    }

    // Are you tired of scrolling yet? Good, because this is how whomever reads this code shall feel in real life ;)

    private void CheckSituationDependentOtherCondition(result) { ... snip }

    // A sigh of relief when you reach the last one
    private void CheckLastThing(ValidationResult result)
    {
        if (this.somecondition)
        {
            result.AddError(new ValidationError("Condition Z failed"));
        }
    }

    #endregion Validation

    // And then, of course, there is a lot of code after this. If you're unlucky, there wasn't even a #region around all the Validation methods and you have to hunt them down one by one because they are scattered through the code.
}

Don’t worry, you’re not the first one to end up with this. Often, it started as a single validation rule that was just implemented directly in the class to be validated. However, there are some things to look out for.

As mentioned before I’ve been meaning to do some more software development. I’ve written a small WordPress plugin recently and also decided to find an Open Source C/C++ project to contribute to. I’ve found that the community around Mozilla Firefox is approachable and responds quickly to questions. Their build environment was characterized as convoluted by one of the developers in the #introduction IRC channel, but frankly I had it up and running under both Windows and Linux in under an hour, which is highly encouraging for anyone who is new to the project.