Re: GSOC Project

[Gavin Smith]

On 1 March 2016 at 19:25, Akila Wicky <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I am a Computer Engineering undergraduate of University Peradeniya. I am a
> foss geek.I love opensource projects but still i haven't got chance to do a
> contribution to this community.

Thanks for the interest. I don't know whether it's better to reply on
the mailing list or in private, but some of the advice I read about
GSoC mentioned talking on mailing lists, so doing it on the mailing
list is probably fine.

Please try to use correct spelling and grammar in your emails. For
example, this is a glaring error:

> foss geek.I love opensource projects

Should be a space after the full stop, like

>geek. I love

Using good grammar like this shows attention to detail.

> I am so passionate with the project Keyboard-centric UI in JavaScript for
> GNU HTML documentation. I have some good idea with UI designing. I think i
> can do this project with good efforts.

The pronoun "I" should always be capitalized, so "i" is never correct.

I appreciate that English is not your first language and don't expect
your grammar to be perfect, but basic use of punctuation should be
easy to get right, and indicates that you may be capable of creating
quality work.

> And also i have a idea.Can we implement voice recognition APIs in this this
> documentation by this we can have a very good user interaction.

In principle, yes. If you wanted to make a proposal with voice
recognition, what I think would make the proposal successful would be:
* More information about how the voice recognition would be used by a
user of documentation. What would they say to use the system?
* How would it be implemented: for example, are there libraries
available under free licences that can be used for processing voice
input.

> I like to know what paths do i follow to make this project successful.

What I'd like to see is more detail. For one thing, evidence that you
understand what the proposal is all about. I suggested to another
person who was interested in Google Summer of Code that rewriting the
proposal in your own words could show that you understand it. Specific
ideas for how you would go about implementing it would be useful. It
would be good if you could add to the proposal by saying why you think
parts of it are good or bad ideas. It's okay if you think parts of it
are bad ideas; what we really need is to make a proposal that you, I
and the other mentor (Per Bothner) can agree would likely lead to
useful work being done.

What we can't do is break down the task into tiny, idiot-proof steps.
We need you to show some degree of creativity and initiative. That
said, you are not expected to figure everything out yourself, and if
you find parts of the existing source code hard to make sense of,
please feel free to ask for help. (I've struggled myself with
understanding parts of Texinfo's source code.) The same goes for how
different parts of the system fit together conceptually. The main
thing is that you show you are making an effort and that you are
capable of understanding explanations, and that you'll be able to use
whatever guidance we're able to give to build your own understanding
and develop the software.