From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Nov 14 01:40:02 2014 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher AECDH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 68F4E376; Fri, 14 Nov 2014 01:40:02 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-wg0-x235.google.com (mail-wg0-x235.google.com [IPv6:2a00:1450:400c:c00::235]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-RC4-SHA (128/128 bits)) (Client CN "smtp.gmail.com", Issuer "Google Internet Authority G2" (verified OK)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id EDBBB79F; Fri, 14 Nov 2014 01:40:01 +0000 (UTC) Received: by mail-wg0-f53.google.com with SMTP id b13so18213570wgh.26 for ; Thu, 13 Nov 2014 17:40:00 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=mime-version:sender:date:message-id:subject:from:to:cc:content-type; bh=ERVdAnQ2p+YzJIOZIUCzbLP3BM9C0Y+IFUkZBk+/oCM=; b=Ihh5R4SDOWklentsE0YMd0nGwMzNHAZaouPXrhUN0WCH0u1NKtjIbtqW7eYuq8xXUv UxIa1dhxqyk1GCeH7Otx5AOPSNNrnCv2X1+BAXl4IsRxr40hFnsWTRBYxJhiIQkDaFpw wL51wuWYsLpXGddrcmhrtqRKRSeWFxtCxFKSXCkvTHtXTAV5vfQ3tJnnzG3zaINCvmZY 1QzOGyUtnTP/+rM6wDGoNTwIwfgwYFgKInWu2i3pSQm3FXh40Yqg8/9oeHJpyataT+um rcrn/B3HVwmfb3vrbLFCHWvR6yxhMwci94gL1vw0D5RQU6gb7BZCsEjH2hePoAMW+y0k pHJA== MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Received: by 10.194.110.161 with SMTP id ib1mr9485384wjb.78.1415929200339; Thu, 13 Nov 2014 17:40:00 -0800 (PST) Sender: rizzo.unipi@gmail.com Received: by 10.194.19.9 with HTTP; Thu, 13 Nov 2014 17:40:00 -0800 (PST) Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 17:40:00 -0800 X-Google-Sender-Auth: nKWFoKJddQ3JUgIt_68XbOAJ7xc Message-ID: Subject: comments on code-in tasks for FreeBSD (Re: FreeBSD + Google Code-In 2014 = we need ideas.) From: Luigi Rizzo To: "Wojciech A. Koszek" Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.18-1 Cc: "freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org" , FreeBSD CURRENT , Alan Somers X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.18-1 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 01:40:02 -0000 On Thu, Nov 13, 2014 at 5:06 PM, Wojciech A. Koszek wrote: > On Mon, Nov 10, 2014 at 01:56:27PM -0700, Alan Somers wrote: > > On Sun, Nov 9, 2014 at 8:59 PM, Wojciech A. Koszek > wrote: > > > Hello, > > BTW, FYI: > > We didn't make it this year. > > Judging by the GSoC 2014 Reunion, there is a lot of seasoned Orgs which > treat GCIN very seriously, so I think if we plan to participate, it'll be= a > lot of effort to compete with them > > Anyway: thanks for the tasks which were submitted. I will put them in Wik= i > for the reference, > =E2=80=8Bhi, i meant to send this email before but given the outcome this seems a good time to prepare for next year. I have been looking at tasks to submit (especially coding, but not just those) and looking at other organisations who participated in past years, i believe that FreeBSD (with its C- and kernel- centric environment) is a poor match for code-in, specifically due to the young age and predictable lack of expertise of most of the participants, and the small size of the tasks. In my view, most of the documentation tasks listed in the wiki https://wiki.freebsd.org/GoogleCodeIn/2014Tasks are not approachable by students -- they require experience and knowledge of compilers, subsystems and development techniques that are unlikely to exist for teenagers. When it comes to programming tasks, again the list has entries simply beyond the ability of the students. First three tasks: "static analysis for kernel locking", "static analysis of kernel conventions", "profile libc++". These are important tasks, but they just do not belong here. As a rule of thumb i would say that anything that is in the list should not take more than 2-3 hours/half a day to an experienced developer, be accompanied by a detailed description on what to do and how, and by a commitment from the mentor to review it. Also, if we want to suggest some coding task, it is important that we can give students a preloaded OS image with all the tools and repos they may need for their work, otherwise they end up spending a lot of time setting up the environment and possibly making mistakes in the process that prevent a correct completion of the work. Sure we ship with compilers and make, but we miss svn/git, an embedded snapshot of source and ports tree, and now that we can, also a bhyve or qemu example to help them testing kernels. Finally, we should shift the approach from "something we need" to "something can be a useful exercise for the students" even if it replicates features that already exist in the OS. That might perhaps lead to smaller, better and easier to define tasks with a better chance to be completed. Lacking any better idea (which I don't have because as i said i think FreeBSD just is not a good match for this competition), we could take some specific bug reports, and provide details and hints for solutions. But please nuke the current list -- it is completely inadequate for the code-in candidates and misleading for whoever wants to suggest new tasks. Again i am not saying that the projects suggested there are not important, just belong somewhere else e.g. gsoc. =E2=80=8Bcheers luigi =E2=80=8B > > Wojciech > > > > > > > This year we'd like to participate in the Google Code-In 2014. This i= s > > > Google Summer of Code, but for younger people: age range is 13--17. I= f > > > you're one of them, we highly encourage you to apply! > > > > > > ***This year coding tasks are possible, so feel free to add those*** > > > > > > To submit idea which you'd like to see done in GCI, visit: > > > > > > http://bit.ly/FreeBSD_GCIN2014 > > > > > > Regardless of who you are, please use the form to submit ideas. Don'= t > add > > > stuff via Wiki, since this year we'll do direct import of all ideas > from > > > Google Forms. > > > > > > To see tasks from previous year that are yet to be copied to Google > Forms: > > > > > > https://wiki.freebsd.org/GoogleCodeIn/2014Tasks > > > > > > Thanks to GCI in the previous years, we gained one more FreeBSD > developer. > > > We'd like to partcipate this year too. We need: > > > > > > 1) ideas. > > > > > > How about converting various utility functions to use libxo? I think > > that's within the grasp of a high-schooler. > > > > > > > > > > 2) mentors > > > > > > 3) participants. > > > > > > Just like in previous years we'll decide whether we're ready. > Deadlines: > > > > > > --- > > > November 12, 2014 - The 10-12 Mentoring organizations are > announced for > > > Google Code-in 2014 and the orgs can start entering their > tasks into the > > > Google system (the tasks will not be viewable to students > until the contest > > > opens on Dec 1). > > > December 1, 2014 17:00 UTC - Google Code-in 2014 contest open= s > for students > > > January 19, 2015 17:00 UTC - Google Code-in 2014 student work > ends > > > --- > > > > > > MORE INFO: > > > > > > [0] http://www.google-melange.com/gci/homepage/google/gci2014 > > > [1] gci-mentors@googlegroups.com > > > [2] > https://developers.google.com/open-source/gci/resources/mentor-and-orgadm= in-info > > > > > > -- > > > Wojciech A. Koszek > > > wkoszek@FreeBSD.czest.pl > > > http://FreeBSD.czest.pl/~wkoszek/ > > > _______________________________________________ > > > freebsd-current@freebsd.org mailing list > > > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-current > > > To unsubscribe, send any mail to " > freebsd-current-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" > > -- > Wojciech A. Koszek > wkoszek@FreeBSD.czest.pl > http://FreeBSD.czest.pl/~wkoszek/ > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-current@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-current > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-current-unsubscribe@freebsd.org= " > --=20 -----------------------------------------+------------------------------- Prof. Luigi RIZZO, rizzo@iet.unipi.it . Dip. di Ing. dell'Informazione http://www.iet.unipi.it/~luigi/ . Universita` di Pisa TEL +39-050-2211611 . via Diotisalvi 2 Mobile +39-338-6809875 . 56122 PISA (Italy) -----------------------------------------+-------------------------------