GSoC 2019 : No idea about Macports

[Mojca Miklavec]

Dear Ravi,

(Resending the email since it didn't reach the mailing list in my
first attempt.)

Marcus already addressed the most important points.

On Wed, 6 Mar 2019 at 14:14, Ravi Rathee wrote:
>
> I want to apply for summer internship in MacPorts but I dont know anything about it.
> I am a good programmer in C,C++,Java,Android Programming, Ruby and Python.
> But I have no experience in TcL.

Almost none of our students have previous experience with Tcl, so it's
perfectly ok as long as you are willing to learn it; it's much more
important to be passionate about the software itself (be an active
user to understand the needs etc.)

That said, we have various options:

- Tcl is only required for core programming. There are plenty of tasks
to pick from.

- If you happen to be a big Ruby fan, you could work on automatic
conversion of gem packages to MacPorts packages, for example, or
improve any aspect of how ruby packages work with our ecosystem. The
best way to start would probably be with
    https://fosdem.org/2019/schedule/event/package_software_with_upt/

- If you love Python (& web tools), there are a couple of independent tasks:
  - Django-based app to collect statistics (the project started as
last year's gsoc, but the student left gsoc due to other obligations)
  - Various improvements of Buildbot which is used for our continuous
integration, but mostly for creating binary packages.

C++ knowledge is very helpful in resolving various issues with various
ports, but there are many software packages to pick from, and you
would likely not be coding in C++ exclusively. You would need to know
what software you would like to work with.

> I have read the basic GSoC documentation at your site but I couldn't understand the project ideas.
>
> I have no idea how to proceed from here. Please guide me so I can make a great Proposal.
> Also I am curious to know what are my chances of selection, if I start learning today. I really want to work in MacPorts.

Chances of selection depend in the first line on the quality of your
proposal and whether you demonstrate sufficient skills and enthusiasm
to pull the project through and ideally stick with the project long
after the GSOC is over.

Mojca