Re: Projects for the Google Summer of Code

[Kyle]

Dear Guix,

 I have been reading on this list of Andreas struggles updating python packages as an outsider to that community. If python programmers are not sticking around, then that may be sign they could use more help.

Python provides access to an unparalleled amount of functionality which greatly empowers users of free software. I want that functionality in Guix for everyone to benefit from. No one person can do it all themselves. There needs to be a healthy community.

I personally would love to see more support for helping scientists port their existing workflows from conda environments to actually reproducible containers, e.g. meeting them where they are and giving them more options for working with older versions of python3.

One idea might be to write a conda importer which looks at the versions of software in the resulting environment and tries to make feasible package variants of make a manifest which matches the existing conda environment as close as possible. Simon thought often the python version usually didn't matter, but it makes users a lot less woosy to stick with software combinations they have already tested.

Another idea would be to create a python package for working with Guix more directly from inside their preferred language environment instead of through the shell. I also wouldn't mind it if such a thing existed for R as well. Both python and R extensively interface with C. On the R side there is an RcppGuile proof of concept package for example. Maybe there could be a project around curating a standard non-bash interface of guile scripts for these and other interactive languages? The rational is that users in these ecosystems often don't have much familiarity with shell programming. Learning both shell and scheme at the same time can be very intimidating and demands a large upfront effort before the value case is clear.

As an enthusiastic beginner, I want to help as much as I can to make Guix better, but I  am not an expert. I just wanted to throw those ideas out there for you real experts to consider and maybe translate into more interesting technical goals you think would help the python community (and other communities) become more engaged.

Cheers,
Kyle

On February 26, 2023 2:38:36 AM EST, Pjotr Prins <pjotr.public12@thebird.nl> wrote:

To follow up on Gábor: we excited to announce that the GNU project is
selected as an organisation for the Google Summer of Code (GSoc). GSoC
attracts talent and we have some people in our group who came in
through that route! I have done 10 years of GSoC and it has paid off
in my projects. You can still add ideas to:

https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:Guix/GSoC-2023

Currently only pukkamustard's project is listed, feel free to add
more. You can register/login yourself. Make sure to add below
information - title, email, hours etc. Tasks can be challenging - you
get more interesting applicants that way. Also add simple tasks, that
helps attract learners in Lisp, for example.

The overall GNU project proposals, including GNU Mes, are listed at:

https://www.gnu.org/software/soc-projects/ideas-2023.html

People are already inquiring, so today is a good day to add your idea.

When it comes to mentoring, in my experience it takes a few hours a
week that have a decent ROI. Before GSoC starts we'll have a get
together to share experiences and ideas.

Pj.

On Fri, Feb 24, 2023 at 07:21:51PM +0100, Gábor Boskovits wrote:
Hello Guix,
Here follows a short summary on where we are regarding the internship
programs.
GSoC:
This year the GNU Project was applying again for GSoC, and
we got the word yesterday that the GNU Project was accepted.
Thanks to Jose E. Marches for taking care of this.
This basically means that we should have a look at our ideas page,
and run a quick health check on the proposals, enriching them with
the following information where needed:
(quoted from the mail on the summer of code list)
  + Title, and description.
  + Skills required.
  + A mentor with an email address.
  + Whether it is a 175 hour or a 350 hour project.
  + Difficulty: easy, medium or hard.
  + CLEAR contact method for interested students.
From now to March 19, be ready to be contacted by contributors, in
whatever contact means you specified in your ideas page.  Starting in
March 20, contributors will start submitting their proposals through
the
program website.
(end quote)
Next week I am on holiday, so I asked Pjotr Prins to take over the
initial
coordination tasks until I am back on 6th of March, 2023.
Outreachy:
Coming up with a working solution for funding here is far from trivial.
Thanks to Andreas Enge and Simon Touriner now all stakeholders are
involved and
we are working on a solution. I don't want to bore the list with the
details
here, and I will send an update once we have an agreement on how to
handle it.
Thanks to everyone who is helping this effort.
Best regards,
g_bor