Re: GSOC Project ideas

On Fri, Mar 18, 2011 at 4:20 PM, Hyrum K Wright <hyrum_at_hyrumwright.org> wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 18, 2011 at 3:00 PM, Mark Phippard <markphip_at_gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Fri, Mar 18, 2011 at 3:51 PM, Ivan Zhakov <ivan_at_visualsvn.com> wrote:
>>> On Fri, Mar 18, 2011 at 22:46, Mark Phippard <markphip_at_gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> Something that came up on the list recently was adding support for
>>>> pipelined commits via ra_serf. Would this make a good GSOC project?
>>>> It seems like the kind of "engineering" challenge that might appeal to
>>>> a student.  I have no idea if it is too big or small for GSOC.  For
>>>> example, I have no idea if this is something that can be done with
>>>> just changes to our client or if it also requires modifying
>>>> mod_dav_svn.
>>>>
>>> I don't think that's a good idea for GSoC project, because
>>> ra_serf/serf currently not so stable and developing new feature can
>>> destabilize it completely.
>>
>> With this planned to become our new default in 1.7, I am going to
>> pretend I did not read this :)
>>
>> This work should all happen on branches anyway and we need to get a
>> lot less averse to doing work on branches.
>
> We can discuss the general merits of branches vs. trunk at some point,
> but for GSoC, I'd like to see as much of the work on trunk as
> possible.  One of the goals of the program is to encourage new
> contributors, and seeing their work go onto trunk is much more likely
> to achieve that end than seeing it languish on a branch forever.
>
> I'm *not* saying we give people a pass and grant them carte blanche to
> trunk just for being an SoC student, but we ought to think about how
> to help get them there as fast as possible.

We either need to have students work on branches or we need to not
participate this year. It is not like students are going to sign up
to help us complete 1.7 so what other choice do we have?

Working on trunk is no panacea that guarantees a student is going to
get quality review. I do not even see where it would make sense for a
student to be on trunk (depending on the task). The real issue is
that we probably do not have anyone able to devote the time to be a
mentor this year and so maybe we should just not participate?

-- 
Thanks
Mark Phippard
http://markphip.blogspot.com/