Re: Google of Summer of Code '17

[Gavin Smith]

On 23 January 2017 at 21:10, Per Bothner <address@hidden> wrote:
> Would the texinfo project consider being part of this year's Google Summer
> of Code?

I'm in favour of it as long as I don't have to do much work.

> I've been working on my "roadmap" and I think two separate projects are
> worthwhile:
>
> (1) Add new output formats --xhtml and --epub to makeinfo.
>
> The EPub format (used by ebookreaders) is basically just xhtml in a zip
> file,
> so it makes sense to do them together.  I think it makes for a logical
> format for distributing and installing documentation.
>
> (2) JavaScript for info-style navigation, including search.
>
> I'm working on JavaScript that lazily loads one iframe per node,
> which enables whole-document searching.  It's not ready for use yet,
> but it should enable a good starting point for project (2).
>
> The goal is for (2) to be used in conjunction with the output of (1),
> but if we get two students, the student working on (2) can start
> development using xhtml files from the epub version of the Kawa manual.

Good ideas.

Sounds good to me.

> I can be the primary mentor for (2).  For (1) I can help with the
> requirements and o=testing, but I would need a co-mentor who is
> comfortable with Perl and the makeinfo internals.

The main thing is that someone is willing to spend time on it. If they
don't understand the makeinfo code they could spend time studying it.
If they find that difficult, I could give hints, maybe like "find out
which function does a particular thing and when is it called", or
"which parts of the source code do you think you would change to
implement a feature?"  I don't want to be in the position of the
student needing me to make changes to makeinfo for them to do their
work. They should make any such changes themselves.

>
> This is admittedly a bit thin on details.  I hope to have both an
> updated roadmap (including specific GSoc project proposals), as well
> as updated JavaScript code by the end of the week.  But I though I'd
> throw this out as a preliminary proposal. What do you think?

The main worry is whether the student's work is any good and whether
it creates more work for other people to fix the student's work.