Hello,


We have been blessed with quite a few strong proposals, actually more than mentors (unlike last year).

If anyone here is willing to mentor a D project, please let let us know. We're looking for competent and established community members who are willing to guide a student through the hoops of a real project.

Mentoring a GSoC project on D is a great way to make a lasting positive impact on the language. It is hard but rewarding work. Please consider applying, and ask here any questions you might have.


Thanks,

Andrei

"Andrei Alexandrescu" <SeeWebsiteForEmail@erdani.org> wrote in message news:jm1n44$2ian$1@digitalmars.com...
> Hello,
>
>
> We have been blessed with quite a few strong proposals, actually more than mentors (unlike last year).
>
> If anyone here is willing to mentor a D project, please let let us know. We're looking for competent and established community members who are willing to guide a student through the hoops of a real project.
>
> Mentoring a GSoC project on D is a great way to make a lasting positive impact on the language. It is hard but rewarding work. Please consider applying, and ask here any questions you might have.
>

I feel like a hypocritical flake for saying this mere days after affirming my commitment to my HaxeD/Goldie projects over in the thread "Goldie Parser Generator. Haxe language definition."...But unless there are strong objections (doubtful), I'd be willing to put those projects on a summer hiatus to mentor a DWT, wxD or Android (or *maybe* even iOS) project for gsoc since I'm convinced those *are* more important to D.

Here are the reasons a *better qualified mentor than myself* should step up:

    - I haven't actually used DWT or wxD yet. I've never used wxWidgets
either, and it's been ages since I touched SWT.

    - I'm very new to Android/iOS development myself, and haven't yet tried
the existing "D on Android/iOS" stuff. Or [the modern incarnation of] GDC or
LDC at all for that matter.

    - I've barely even touched druntime, other than the little bit involved
for this trivial core.time pull request:
https://github.com/D-Programming-Language/druntime/pull/188

    - I'm awful at scheduling and gauging timeframes longer than a few
hours.

Here's why I might at least be better than nothing:

    - I'm not likely to overstate my qualifications for this ;)
    - I'm an active, committed, longtime member of the D community.
    - I'm not afraid of writing non-code when needed (really is a skill you
have to work at).
    - I've been planning to eventually start using SWT or wxD anyway, and I
have at least *done* GUI stuff before, via Win32 and C#'s WinForms.
    - I *am* going to be doing Android/iOS development this summer anyway
(albeit in C++), and have already gotten started (via Marmalade).
    - I've contributed to other D projects besides my own ones: Such as DVM
and RDMD, and a little bit with Phobos (And I feel fairly comfortable with
Phobos code.)
    - Back in college, I spent some time as a computer science tutor for the
freshmen.
    - On my last big "real world" project, I was the
primary-programmer/tech-lead, but we also had a student intern programmer I
worked with.

On Tuesday, 10 April 2012 at 16:28:52 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Mentoring a GSoC project on D is a great way to make a lasting positive impact on the language. It is hard but rewarding work. Please consider applying, and ask here any questions you might have.
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Andrei

My main conserns are,

I don't have any experience in truely managing a project with goals.
Many things will go over my head

But it would probably be great learning and start for getting this experiance. And for others interested in reading more:

http://en.flossmanuals.net/GSoCMentoring/what-makes-a-good-mentor/

I think evaluation could be challenging to decide what criteria would create failure. Does the evaluation form ask questions that make this choice easier?

I'll consider submitting an official request.

On 2012-04-10 23:30, Nick Sabalausky wrote:

> I feel like a hypocritical flake for saying this mere days after affirming
> my commitment to my HaxeD/Goldie projects over in the thread "Goldie Parser
> Generator. Haxe language definition."...But unless there are strong
> objections (doubtful), I'd be willing to put those projects on a summer
> hiatus to mentor a DWT, wxD or Android (or *maybe* even iOS) project for
> gsoc since I'm convinced those *are* more important to D.

Cool. I'm always here to help with DWT, but not as a mentor.

-- 
/Jacob Carlborg

"Jacob Carlborg" <doob@me.com> wrote in message news:jm3eka$2cgr$1@digitalmars.com...
> On 2012-04-10 23:30, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
>
>> I feel like a hypocritical flake for saying this mere days after
>> affirming
>> my commitment to my HaxeD/Goldie projects over in the thread "Goldie
>> Parser
>> Generator. Haxe language definition."...But unless there are strong
>> objections (doubtful), I'd be willing to put those projects on a summer
>> hiatus to mentor a DWT, wxD or Android (or *maybe* even iOS) project for
>> gsoc since I'm convinced those *are* more important to D.
>
> Cool. I'm always here to help with DWT, but not as a mentor.
>

That would be great. In fact I meant to add that if I mentor one of those things, then due to my inexperience with those specific projects, it would be perfect if there were an "inside man" (ideally the project's primary maintainer(s) or at least someone intimately familiar with the project), that could act as a "sub-mentor" of sorts, or really I guess a "technical contact": Ie, not a formal mentor, but reliably available for under-the-hood questions about the project and getting up-and-running with it.

Of course, I'm new to the whole GSOC thing, so I don't know if that even makes any sense...? Maybe that *is* a key aspect of the mentor's role in the first place? But from the GSOC docs, I get the impression that the mentor role is much more than that.

On 4/10/12 4:30 PM, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
> But unless there are strong
> objections (doubtful), I'd be willing to put those projects on a summer
> hiatus to mentor a DWT, wxD or Android (or *maybe* even iOS) project for
> gsoc since I'm convinced those *are* more important to D.

Thanks Nick! This is a great offer. The timing is a bit unfortunate because by the time I sent this last call for arms, student applications were already closed.

The slot allocation has ended (I'll send results with a separate post) and we have enough mentors for the projects granted, but definitely let's start preparing earlier on for project ideas on the likes of DWT/wxD/Android.


Thanks,

Andrei

On 4/10/12 10:13 PM, Jesse Phillips wrote:
> I think evaluation could be challenging to decide what criteria would
> create failure. Does the evaluation form ask questions that make this
> choice easier?
>
> I'll consider submitting an official request.

Thanks Jesse. Once we choose this year's projects, feel free to apply as a co-mentor to ease into things.

Simpler yet, just let me know if you want to be on the project mailing list (I'll create a mailing list for each approved project). This suggestion applies to everyone.


Andrei

"Andrei Alexandrescu" <SeeWebsiteForEmail@erdani.org> wrote in message news:jm59i3$mr9$1@digitalmars.com...
> On 4/10/12 4:30 PM, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
>> But unless there are strong
>> objections (doubtful), I'd be willing to put those projects on a summer
>> hiatus to mentor a DWT, wxD or Android (or *maybe* even iOS) project for
>> gsoc since I'm convinced those *are* more important to D.
>
> Thanks Nick! This is a great offer. The timing is a bit unfortunate because by the time I sent this last call for arms, student applications were already closed.
>
> The slot allocation has ended (I'll send results with a separate post) and we have enough mentors for the projects granted, but definitely let's start preparing earlier on for project ideas on the likes of DWT/wxD/Android.
>

Understandable. And just as well I suppose: since I'll be dealing with Android/iOS soon, with some luck maybe I'll be able to find some time to lend a hand on that front anyway. Seeing as I'll be doing it in C++, god knows I'll certainly have the motivation for it! (At least it's not some super-dynamic non-systems thing like PHP or AS2 though...)

I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the final list of GSOC projects whenever those get decided.