Google Summer of Code 2023 Inquiry

[Spencer Skylar Chan]

Hello Guix,

I'm a computer science major at University of Maryland and I'm 
interested in contributing to Guix through Google Summer of Code.

I've done bioinformatics research on RNA sequences using R, Python, and 
Bash. I have some experience with Racket, Rust, C, and Java as well.

I've been running the Guix package manager with Arch Linux on my work 
computer for 1 year and Guix system on my non-work computer for 1/2 
year. I've contributed some package upgrades to Guix with this email, 
and several more anonymously.

Here are some project ideas that I am considering for my proposal:

- Creating Guix manifests from `conda env export`

This was proposed in a prior email. Guix has speed and reproducibility 
benefits over Conda, and this project would ease the Conda user's 
transition to Guix.

- Project: Robustify long-term support for Reproducible Research

This was listed on the 2023 GSoC page. Besides being interested in time 
travel, sometimes I find that Conda does not retain old versions of some 
packages, so ensuring robustness for Guix packages would be great.

- Translating Snakemake to Guix Workflow Language (GWL)

This is not exactly related to Guix, but I have written some Snakemake 
workflows and my first impression of GWL is that it looks much cleaner 
than Snakemake. A workflow translator would help the Snakemake user 
transition to GWL.

Are there any issues to look at to start exploring these topics?

Thanks,
Skylar