Getting hg into GSoC 2013

[Matthew Turk]

Hi Jordi,

On Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 1:46 PM, Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso
<jordigh at octave.org> wrote:
> Hey. I'm Jordi. I'm not very active in this mailing list or in hg
> development, but you may know me by my IRC handle, "JordiGH". I am
> writing because I want Mercurial to participate in Google Summer of
> Code 2013:
>
>     http://google-opensource.blogspot.ca/2013/02/flip-bits-not-burgers-google-summer-of.html
>
> When I was at the 2011 GSoC mentor summit, there were all these guys
> wearing git shirts, which made me think, "where are my hg compadres?"
> We're under-represented.

I too am not active in hg development, but I do lurk in #mercurial
(mjturk) and have lately been chatting with people a bit more.  With
the developments of changeset evolution, the regular and steady
improvements to performance, and the impressively stable cycle of
releases with new features and refinement of existing features, I
eager to promote and encourage adoption of mercurial.  (Particularly
the awesome new features.)

>
> So! I am hereby volunteering to be Mercurial's org admin for GSoC
> 2013. I will handle the paperwork with Google and coordination of
> mentors. I need,. howoever, a backup admin. If I do my job correctly,
> the backup admin is just a figurehead and does nothing, but if I get
> hit by a bus or equivalent, Google will instead contact the backup
> admin for GSoC coordination. Can anyone volunteer to be a backup
> admin?
>
> In order to get into GSoC, we need a few things. First, we need an
> application. I couldn't find a public application for Mercurial, but
> here is the one I collaboratively wrote for Octave this year:
>
>     http://wiki.octave.org/GSoC_2013_application
>
> The actual questions may vary a little for this application, but over
> the years they have maintained fairly stable. I will be putting such
> an application in the Mercurial wiki soon for GSoC 2013.
>
> Next, we need an ideas page and something for guidance for the
> students. We already have some of those:
>
>      http://mercurial.selenic.com/wiki/SummerOfCode
>      http://mercurial.selenic.com/wiki/SummerOfCode/Ideas2011
>      http://mercurial.selenic.com/wiki/SummerOfCode/Ideas2010
>
> I will be working on these for 2013. Matthew Turk has offered to help.
> Anyone else, please help too!

I did volunteer to help, although I should note that I am *keenly*
aware that I'm not qualified to mentor core mercurial contributions,
and perhaps not qualified to identify and distill ideas for projects.
That being said, I'm happy to pitch in and do what I can, whether
that's collecting ideas, contributing text, organizing, or just
general assistance with the process.

>
> Also, we need willing mentors. Mentoring is a commitment of about 10
> hours per week. There is a small monetary incentive for mentoring, 500
> USD by November, but in the past this money has been given to SFC.
> What Google wants to see, however, is a healthy community that is
> welcoming to neophytes. It helps if the ideas page lists specific
> mentors and how to contact them.

>From an outsider's perspective, I think this is the crucial element
for participating.  I've seen a few other organizations (IPython, for
instance) decline to participate this year, simply because they could
not identify mentors with the necessary time to devote to it.

>
> As a final point, I want to address the question of Mercurial applying
> as an independent GSoC mentoring org or under the PSF umbrella. I
> think we should make an honest effort to go independent, as this will
> almost certainly give us more student slots, and from what I can tell,
> the Mercurial community is vibrant enough to mentor people. If the
> independent application fails, the above work will not go wasted, as
> the PSF can almost certainly give us a few student slots.
>
> Let's do this!

I'd like to echo Jordi's enthusiasm with a bit of a non-sequitor.  I'm
impressed by all of the improvements and functionality additions in
mercurial lately.  Watching the steady stream of patches related to
just about everything, not to mention the evolution (haha) of
changeset evolution, has been really exciting.  I'm interested in
doing what I can to promote adoption and awareness of these features.

> - Jordi G. H.
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