Many of our people started from code zero! (I like to joke that I am the perfect poster child for our mentoring system -- I started out thinking I would just be "the suit", and now i'm like, #4 on the list of # of patches submitted by person.)

We have dw_dev_training for the "beginning developer" community, and there is tons of information on the wiki, especially in the Getting Started page. We even offer hosted development environments (free of charge!) so you don't have to install the code yourself (which is good, because installing the code is a beast of a task) -- you can just get going.

Bugzilla is where you go to find things to work on, especially the 'effort-minor' keyword -- those are often good "starter bugs". If you post to dw_dev_training, someone will also help you find a bug that would be good to start with! There's also irc -- our network is irc.freenode.net, and we are channel #dreamwidth. Everyone in there is nice and awesome and friendly and will help you with whatever you need.

In general, if you get stuck or need more help, just holler. We do expect people to be fairly self-directed, but everyone is always quite happy to point you in the right direction to self-direct yourself!