Google SoC 2008

[Randall Wood]

On 2/29/08, James Berry <jberry at macports.org> wrote:
> I'm writing to attempt to gauge interest in whether and how MacPorts
>  should participate in Google Summer of Code (GSoC) for 2008. See http://code.google.com/soc/2008/
>  .
>
>  You might be inclined to address any of the following questions:
>
>   - Do you feel MacPorts should participate in GSoC 2008?
>   - Are there particular MacPorts projects you'd like to suggest?

I have another possible MacPorts project:

The MacPorts port should be the source for updating a user's MacPorts
installation.

Currently the MacPorts port is used to build the .dmg installer for
MacPorts that is used for the initial installation of MacPorts, and
port uses the "selfupdate" mechanism for maintaining the MacPorts
installation. The selfupdate mechanism is (at least not documented as
such) not accessible through the MacPorts API and does not use the
MacPorts mechanisms for maintaining ports. I guess this is for
historical reasons and to make the installer simpler.

I would like to see "sudo port sync ; sudo port upgrade MacPorts"
achieve the exact same results as "sudo port selfupdate" and suggest
that the .dmg installer should be some sort of temporary bootstrapping
installation of port with all its supporting libraries that installs
the MacPorts installation in /opt/local, /Library/Tcl and wherever
else it needs to park itself and registers those items in the
repository just like any other port.

Sorry about the over-caffeinated early morning ramble, I'll revisit to
clarify, but I think that could be a neat project.

>   - Are you willing to be a GSoC mentor?
>   - Would you be interested, as a student, in participating in a GSoC
>  project for MacPorts?
>
>  GSoC pays students a wage for the summer to work on open source
>  projects, and also a stipend to the project for each student project.
>
>  If interested, we need to move very quickly. As the Google GSoC FAQ
>  says:
>
>         "We'll begin accepting applications from open source mentoring
>  organizations on Monday, March 3, 2008; we'll stop accepting
>  organization applications on Wednesday, March 12th."
>
>  Your feedback is welcome
>
>  James
>  _______________________________________________
>  macports-dev mailing list
>  macports-dev at lists.macosforge.org
>  http://lists.macosforge.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/macports-dev
>


-- 
Randall Wood
randall.h.wood at alexandriasoftware.com

"The rules are simple: The ball is round. The game lasts 90 minutes.
All the rest is just philosophy."