[Adium-devl] Summer of Code '09

[Juan Manuel Palacios]

On Feb 12, 2009, at 12:58 PM, Peter Hosey wrote:

> On Feb 12, 2009, at 09:19:19, Christopher Forsythe wrote:
>> I think the difference is that when you do a SoC project, you're  
>> doing contract work, and the expectations of the end result are  
>> much higher than say, a side project you work on in your spare time  
>> while you learn how to code.
>
> Speaking of which, we should make it an explicit requirement that  
> you must know how to program Cocoa for the Mac. No learning Cocoa on  
> the fly, and no Cocoa-Touch-only programmers.


	It may sound a bit daunting and unpleasant to applicants and/or  
aspiring contributors, but since it *is* a contract job, as Chris very  
well put it, it must be made clear that:

1) Learning to code up to the point of being fluent/competent in a  
language and at least a basic set of related APIs &&
2) learning enough problem solving techniques to be able to develop an  
idea and turn it into a shipping product &&
3) learning an existing project's codebase to put 1) & 2) into  
practice for that project:

is definitely *NOT* (*STRONG* emphasis) something that can be done in  
a single summer, not by very far!

	Now, I really don't meant to discourage any aspiring contributor, in  
a way I'm one myself wrt Adium, for sometime in the future, not too  
far now, before the sun turns into a giant ice cube.. ;-) But rules  
and/or implications do need to be clear (specially when there's any  
sort of a contract involved) and those of us who didn't go to CS  
school can very well speak for the applicability of the 3 points above  
when you're doing all this "on your spare time" (sounds like I've been  
there?).

	Kudos for venturing into the world of software development / open  
source in such a brave way, but 1) and 2) above, at least, should bar  
participating in something like GSoC, in my opinion.

>
>
> And we should come up with some kind of basic competency test—maybe  
> a spec for a small app that they have to implement using pure Cocoa/ 
> Obj-C.


	This would indeed take care of 1) and 2).

	Regards,...


- jmpp