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On Sat, Jun 25, 2005 at 11:56:05AM -0500, David Yip wrote:
Hello all,
First, I apologize if this message is misdirected. I've seen Summer of Code-related topics in this list before; however, I also know that John Cliff is the point of contact for SoC proposal discussion, but I'm not sure if he is also involved in mentor assignment.
Yup, this is the right place to ask! :-)
With that said, I'm interested in how mentor assignment will occur -- will there be a separate list, one-to-one correspondence, or some other method?
Ted had been the mentor for inkboard previously; he's been pretty busy lately (moving, etc.) but he would be the logical person to mentor your project if he's available. If not, he'd still be an excellent resource regardless. Simarilius and I will work out who will be your mentor, but please get in touch with Ted to get the low-down on how things stand currently.
Regarding how to do the discussion, I have an idea... read on. ;-)
My project proposal involved the integration of Inkboard's code with Inkscape's main trunk, along with a few extensions to the idea. I would like to clarify required and optional deliverables and agree upon scheduling, etc.
One of the issues that I saw in the previous inkboard development, that I would love to see you address is that the work was pretty 'disconnected' from the rest of the Inkscape team. The discussion was done external to the normal Inkscape channels, and the code was hosted out of a separate CVS. Of course, this was due to the necessity of the way their project was structured, so this was completely understandable. However, it's meant that the inkboard capabilities aren't available in Inkscape itself; the code is external from the inkscape codebase, and the Inkscape team lacks understanding of the code.
Thus, a key issue for you to help us solve is to remove this disconnect. I think the best tactic for achieving this is to start integrating the inkboard code into the inkscape codebase proper, and to spark discussions with other developers as you go. Hopefully, this will stimulate other developers to review the code and help you in stabilizing it and merging it with Inkscape proper.
Now, the main thrust of your proposed effort is geared around stabilizing the inkboard functionality and turning it into something ready for production. I can suggest a technique for achieving this.
Years ago I was developing an online game server with some other folks, but there were a number of stability issues, and we lacked a lot of rather simple features, and the more coding that went on, the more unstable the software seemed to get.
Finally, I decided to organize weekly meetings in the game server itself, according to the "eat your own cooking" philosophy.
The first meeting was a disaster. Lots of people had trouble getting the client working, the server crashed within minutes, and we wasted the entire hour just trying to sort out what was wrong.
By the next meeting, though, people had sorted out a lot of the issues. The server spent more time down than up, and some people couldn't connect at all, but we were able to do much of our meeting in the server.
By the third meeting, the server software had mostly stabilized. By the fourth it was robust, and developers had started adding a lot of convenience functions into the client.
Given your system administration and networking background, I think you would be very effective at using this same tactic for inkboard. Set up and administer a copy of inkboard. Arrange a weekly 1-hour get-together on Inkboard and invite your mentor and any interested users and developers to attend. Use it as an opportunity to teach others how to install and use inkboard, and as a way to solicit ideas, bug reports, and feedback on getting the code integrated. Keep an eye out for bugs or misbehaviors and record all that you can find, and strive to eliminate them by the following meeting.
Bryce