[gsoc15] Attn: We need 2015 mentors and project ideas for Boost!
Dear Boost community, We are now within one month of the beginning of Google Summer of Code 2015! Last year's GSoC furthered the continuing success of the Boost GSoC programme with the first ever Boost funded extension to a GSoC project (that being Boost.Hana by Louis Dionne mentored by Joel Falcou, congrats to both of them on passing an exceptionally tough selection process), and over $50,000 of Google funding brought to Boost in 2014. We also sent three representatives to last year's mentor summit, including one student whose entire expenses the Boost Steering Committee very generously covered. As part of filling in our application for 2015, we must supply to Google a list of potential GSoC mentors and potential GSoC projects for summer 2015. There are a number of changes to how we design project ideas for students this year intended to improve the GSoC experience for both students and mentors, so please examine the ideas page which outlines those changes at https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/wiki/SoC2015 and if you have any questions or concerns about those changes, please ask now rather than just before the GSoC deadline. If you think yourself able to mentor a student doing some work on Boost this summer, *please* consider adding a description of the proposed work item and your name to the list. Last year we acquired eight slots from Google and had to disappoint two mentors and students, we hope with the improved selection process we can get back to the ten annual slots we once had. If you want to know more about mentoring a Google Summer of Code funded student work before you nominate yourself, please feel free to ask on the main Boost developers mailing list boost@lists.boost.org. Thank you in advance for your time. Niall Douglas (Boost Google Summer of Code admin) Boris Schäling (Boost Google Summer of Code admin) --- Boost C++ Libraries Google Summer of Code 2014 admin https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/wiki/SoC2014
As part of filling in our application for 2015, we must supply to Google a list of potential GSoC mentors and potential GSoC projects for summer 2015.
Like last year, I would like to mentor a project about implicit methods for odeint. I still think this would be the most valuable addition to odeint and it opens the door for much more applications. The Project description is already there from 2014.
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On 29 Jan 2015 at 21:31, Karsten Ahnert wrote:
As part of filling in our application for 2015, we must supply to Google a list of potential GSoC mentors and potential GSoC projects for summer 2015.
Like last year, I would like to mentor a project about implicit methods for odeint. I still think this would be the most valuable addition to odeint and it opens the door for much more applications. The Project description is already there from 2014.
The GSoC ideas submission process has been changed this year. I'll take the liberty of converting your 2014 idea to the 2015 project idea format, but be aware that without results from a programming competency test a candidate cannot be rated as preferentially chosen over the others. If you can add a suitable programming test to the idea, that would be great. Thanks, Niall --- Boost C++ Libraries Google Summer of Code 2015 admin https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/wiki/SoC2015
The GSoC ideas submission process has been changed this year. I'll take the liberty of converting your 2014 idea to the 2015 project idea format, but be aware that without results from a programming competency test a candidate cannot be rated as preferentially chosen over the others. If you can add a suitable programming test to the idea, that would be great.
We already have a programming test and we used it last year. I can easily adapt the test for this year.
On 30 Jan 2015 at 7:06, Karsten Ahnert wrote:
The GSoC ideas submission process has been changed this year. I'll take the liberty of converting your 2014 idea to the 2015 project idea format, but be aware that without results from a programming competency test a candidate cannot be rated as preferentially chosen over the others. If you can add a suitable programming test to the idea, that would be great.
We already have a programming test and we used it last year. I can easily adapt the test for this year.
That's great. Given the popularity of Math projects, you might wish to consider not making public the test until applications have closed. That might let you issue the same test to all safely. If so, simply say on the ideas page that a test will be issued of X hours estimated duration once GSoC student applications have closed. Thanks Karsten. Niall --- Boost C++ Libraries Google Summer of Code 2015 admin https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/wiki/SoC2015
2015-01-30 3:51 GMT+04:00 Niall Douglas
The GSoC ideas submission process has been changed this year. I'll take the liberty of converting your 2014 idea to the 2015 project idea format, but be aware that without results from a programming competency test a candidate cannot be rated as preferentially chosen over the others. If you can add a suitable programming test to the idea, that would be great.
I'd be glad to mentor the Boost.Document project from last year: https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/wiki/SoC2014#Boost.Document Niall, would be the following "Programming competency test" OK: {{{ Implement a generic wrapper around one of the existing Office suits. Wrapper must have the following methods: struct format { enum type { PDF, }; }; void open(const filesystem::path& path); // opens a document void export(const filesystem::path& filename, format::type format = format::PDF); // exports a document in specified format `export` function must be able to export in PDF format at least. Other formats support is welcomed. Prototypes that are able to work with different Office suits will be highly appreciated. Prototype must be submitted with unit tests and build notes. Submission of the programming test should be via copying and pasting the parts you wrote into the end of the proposal you submit to Google Melange. }}} -- Best regards, Antony Polukhin
On 30 Jan 2015 at 13:53, Antony Polukhin wrote:
I'd be glad to mentor the Boost.Document project from last year: https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/wiki/SoC2014#Boost.Document
Great news.
Niall, would be the following "Programming competency test" OK: {{{ Implement a generic wrapper around one of the existing Office suits. Wrapper must have the following methods:
struct format { enum type { PDF, }; };
*class* enum type ...
void open(const filesystem::path& path); // opens a document void export(const filesystem::path& filename, format::type format = format::PDF); // exports a document in specified format
`export` function must be able to export in PDF format at least. Other formats support is welcomed. Prototypes that are able to work with different Office suits will be highly appreciated.
You need to link to the relevant programming API documentation for at least Microsoft Office. I'd also verify that Office can export in PDF format, that may not be guaranteed for older Offices. I'd also link to some tutorial document on programming Office with C++ rather than .NET. I also think asking them to program portable C++ against raw COM is a big ask for GSoC. If you can allow them only the VS2015 compiler which has the await keyword already, that ought to hugely simplify their task. They can use C++ lambdas as resumable functions as event handlers (I make the big assumption that that works in VS2015 with Office COM).
Prototype must be submitted with unit tests and build notes.
Submission of the programming test should be via copying and pasting the parts you wrote into the end of the proposal you submit to Google Melange.
I might add a little bit about what unit testing you want. Perhaps "testing of at least three different input file types e.g. doc, ppt, xls". Under the Office COM API that actually would triple their workload, so maybe just doc, docx, odt. Think of the programming competency test as very similar to student tutorial coursework. It needs to be spelled out in detail with links to documents telling them how to do it. Lots of hand holding. Also, for a brand new library I would strongly consider implementing the problem yourself beforehand to test its suitability for students. You might find it a lot harder than expected, or weird gotchas appear which might make students be scared off from your project idea. If you know about those you can frame the task better. Most students mainly lack confidence, even small road blocks can put them off completely. Niall --- Boost C++ Libraries Google Summer of Code 2015 admin https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/wiki/SoC2015
Niall, I think the old idea of a boost::devector container would be a very use contribution. It's a bit like std::deque, but with much more control over the buffers. It should be described in one of the old GSOC pages. regards Thorsten
participants (4)
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Antony Polukhin -
Karsten Ahnert -
Niall Douglas -
Thorsten Ottosen