Getting hg into GSoC 2013

[Sean Farley]

Matthew Turk writes:

> 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.

I'm in as well! Since I'm still a student, I'll look into applying and
if that doesn't work, I'll still be willing to help out.