Re: GSoC application

[Gregory Casamento]

I have made updates to the project ideas page.  I have removed things
which have already been completed by myself or by others recently and
done some minor reorganization (some things which were listed under
GAP should have been listed under Misc for the main project).

GC

On Thu, Mar 11, 2010 at 11:31 AM, David Chisnall <theraven@sucs.org> wrote:
> I've started writing a draft for a GNUstep Ecosystem (GNUstep, GAP, Étoilé - 
> any other projects that want to be included, speak now) GSoC application.  
> There are bits missing, so contributions are welcome.  I'm happy to mentor 
> and I'll be the administrator / backup if no one else wants to do it (but I'd 
> be very happy if someone else did it - Adam?).
>
> The deadline is tomorrow evening, so we probably need to finalise this quite 
> soon,
>
> David
>
> - Describe your organization.
>
> GNUstep began as a project to implement the OpenStep specification.  Since 
> the release of OS X, it has continued to track changes made by the descendant 
> of OpenStep: Cocoa.
>
> The GNUstep Ecosystem encompasses a group of projects that use GNUstep at the 
> core.  This includes GNUstep itself, which provides implementations of the 
> Foundation and Application Kit frameworks from Cocoa.  On top of this are the 
> GNUstep Application Project (GAP) and Étoilé.
>
> The GNUstep Application Project aims to create a complete suite of GNUstep 
> applications.  GNUstep itself is a toolkit and suite of developer tools, not 
> a desktop environment.  GAP aims to provide all of the applications that are 
> expected of a modern desktop environment.
>
> The Étoilé Project aims to produce a modern desktop environment, based on 
> services and composite documents, rather than following the traditional 
> application model.  Étoilé is built on top of GNUstep and its dynamic 
> behaviour is made possible by the core features of GNUstep.
>
> There is some overlap between the three projects, with a number of 
> individuals contributing to all three.  Code also moves between them, for 
> example the Objective-C 2 compatibility framework that was developed as part 
> of Étoilé was recently merged into GNUstep.
>
>
> - Why is your organization applying to participate in GSoC 2010? What do you 
> hope to gain by participating?
>
> {Why are we participating?  Because we want students to write code, 
> obviously, but I presume that they can work that much out for themselves...}
>
> This year, we find that there are several active contributors to GNUstep and 
> related projects who are still students.  The GSoC would permit some of these 
> to work full-time on their chosen projects over the summer.
>
> We are submitting a joint application because improvements to one part of the 
> GNUstep ecosystem benefit all of the other parts.
>
> - Did your organization participate in past GSoCs? If so, please summarize 
> your involvement and the successes and challenges of your participation.
>
> GNUstep has participated in the Google Summer of Code twice before as a 
> single project.  The existing Key-Value Observing implementation in GNUstep, 
> which allows automatic notification of changes to object properties, was 
> contributed as part of the GSoC program.
>
> Some of our other projects have been less successful.  In particular, we had 
> problems with non-US students' term dates not meshing well with the GSoC 
> programme.
>
> - What license(s) does your project use?
>
> GNUstep is released under the LGPLv2 or later.  Applications hosted by GAP 
> use a variety of licenses, with GPLv2 or later being common.  Étoilé 
> generally uses more permissive licenses, with the 3-clause BSDL being most 
> common and some parts using the LGPLv2 or X11 licenses.
>
> - What is the URL for your ideas page?
>
> {GNUstep wiki page, Étoilé open projects page, GAP?}
>
> - What is the main development mailing list for your organization?
>
> GNUstep Developer <gnustep-dev@gnu.org>
>
> What is the main IRC channel for your organization?
>
> irc://irc.freenode.net/#gnustep
> silc://silc.etoileos.com/etoile
>
> - Does your organization have an application template you would like to see 
> students use? If so, please provide it now.
>
> {Do we have one?}
>
> - Who will be your backup organization administrator?
>
> {I'm happy to do this if someone else wants to be the main one (please!), 
> otherwise I can be the main one and someone else can be the backup}
>
> - What criteria did you use to select these individuals as mentors? Please be 
> as specific as possible.
>
> Mentors are selected as individuals who are both familiar with the code, 
> having contributed to the relevant parts in the past, and who are willing to 
> mentor.  The maintainer of the relevant bit of code will always be either the 
> mentor or a backup mentor.
> {We probably need to say more - suggestions?}
>
> - What is your plan for dealing with disappearing students?
>
> {We don't have one and we need one}
>
> - What is your plan for dealing with disappearing mentors?
>
> The mentors have been chosen from people who have been contributors to the 
> projects for several years, and so it is considered unlikely that they will 
> disappear for any reasons other than illness or injury.  To safeguard against 
> this possibility, we will assign two mentors to each student and encourage 
> students to participate in IRC/SILC channels and on mailing lists, so that 
> they can receive support from the community as a whole, rather than just 
> their mentors.
>
> - What steps will you take to encourage students to interact with your 
> project's community before, during and after the program?
>
> {Ideas?}
>
> - What will you do to ensure that your accepted students stick with the 
> project after GSoC concludes?
>
> This year, we intend to favour students who have already contributed to the 
> project - even if only in the form of suggestions on mailing lists - and so 
> have shown some interest in the project.
>
>
>
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-- 
Gregory Casamento - GNUstep Lead/Principal Consultant, OLC, Inc.
yahoo/skype: greg_casamento, aol: gjcasa
(240)274-9630 (Cell)