On Apr 21, 2009, at 10:42 AM, Kurt Smith wrote:

> On Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 12:01 PM, Stefan Behnel  
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Dag Sverre Seljebotn wrote:
>>> I'm very happy to report that Kurt Smith has been accepted for a  
>>> Google
>>> Summer of Code project for working on Cython/Fortran integration!
>>
>> Yep, congrats!
>
> Thanks!  And thanks to you, Robert, Dag and everyone else for
> accepting the project.  I'm pleased to see that Cython has 2 GSoC
> projects this year, too (one more than last year?).

Yep, and it looks like both are going to be big steps forward in  
terms of usability.

>>> 1) Where should the mentoring take place? Opinions on how much  
>>> should
>>> happen on this list and how much should be done in private mail?
>>> Obviously language decisions etc. must end up here in the end,  
>>> but what
>>> about day-to-day mentoring etc.?
>>
>> Depends. Trivial/basic things may go into private mail, but I  
>> would prefer
>> having most of the discussions on the list, where others can
>> help/find/learn, too. This is an open source project, so things  
>> should
>> happen in the open.
>
> I'm with you there -- we'll get a feel as time goes on, but by default
> the substantial threads would be on the list.

Day-to-day mentoring should probably be off-list, but I imagine the  
bulk of what goes on will be on-list. Maybe ask yourself if someone  
using the fortran-cython interface a year from now could possibly  
have any interest in reading the thread.

>>> One possibility is setting up a seperate Google group just for this
>>> project, if it turns out that it would be too high traffic for the
>>> mailing list but other people would like to follow the project as  
>>> well.
>>
>> Let's see about that when we notice that it gets too much traffic.
>>
>> I would lean more towards a separate cython-users list than a  
>> separate
>> sub-dev list. (I have ignored threads before, so I know I'll cope ;)

I brought the idea of a cython-users/cython-support list before, and  
there wasn't much interested. (Of course, those who couldn't handle  
the traffic of cython-devel never got the message...) If it's too  
specific to be on cython-devel, it probably make sense to have it  
just between Dag and Kurt.

>>> 2) Code and patch workflow.
>>>
>>> A relevant
>>> question though is whether we would like to ship the tool in (A)  
>>> as part
>>> of Cython or have it as an independent download. (I don't expect  
>>> it to
>>> add anything significant to download size, but Python core inclusion
>>> would be something to consider for or against here.)
>>
>> Let's decide that when we can take a look at it.

Lets not count on doing so for now at least. There are license  
considerations to consider too--f2py is GPL and as such wouldn't make  
it into Python without relicensing.

>>> When it comes to (B), the obvious thing to do is for Kurt to pass  
>>> the
>>> code to me for review and then merge it as often as we can with  
>>> either
>>> -devel or -unstable (not sure which yet, possibly both).
>>
>> Definitely not the current cython-devel, but without further  
>> detail (that
>> may become available once the project has left the initial planning
>> phase), I can't tell if it makes more sense to add another branch.  
>> Given
>> the time-frame of the GSoC, maybe even cython-unstable is too  
>> close to
>> release to add major new, unfinished features. Parts may go in  
>> earlier,
>> obviously, so a branch from which we can import stuff may make sense.
>>
>> IMHO, too early to decide.
>
> I/we should have a better grasp on this in a couple of weeks at most.

I think the best option is to have a new branch for this project.  
This at the very least will be a public, open place for people to  
look at and review the code. I anticipate it will get pulled into - 
devel or -unstable on a regular basis by Dag (and, depending on how  
things develop, hopefully Kurt will get push access too).

>>> I'm wondering though whether perhaps Kurt could just get commit  
>>> rights
>>> for the repos, under the strict understanding that he doesn't push
>>> anything which is not reviewed (for now at least). That could  
>>> take some
>>> day-to-day merges off my back and make Kurt responsible for doing  
>>> stable
>>> merges and think about the code integration schedule right from  
>>> the start.
>>
>> I wouldn't mind giving him write access, though I don't see an  
>> immediate
>> need for that. Patches will require reviews anyway, even major design
>> reviews.
>
> I have no great eagerness for write access, and I'll need to prove
> trustworthiness to get there.  I hope that at a future date after
> patches are reviewed and committed by yourselves it'll make more sense
> to grant me write access, with the understanding that I'll put up the
> patches for review first.

If you're pushing to a public repo (see above) it will be relatively  
easy for us to pull your changes over (e.g. when you're ready, you  
pull from -unstable, merge, make sure all is well, and then when  
we've reviewed your stuff we pull your changes over to -unstable).

> Honestly, my mercurial-fu isn't marvelous at the moment (I can do the
> basic things and am establishing my workflow, but if I were to mess
> something up I'd need help fixing it) and I'd like some more
> experience in the day-to-day work before being given access to
> something that matters.
>
>>> We could then use e.g. codereview.appspot.com for doing the code
>>> reviews; I would then simply give thumbs up and Kurt would do the  
>>> push.
>>
>> Looks like they didn't fix the login issue yet. It still requires  
>> a Google
>> account to comment.

Whatever works best for you two, that's what we should use.

>>> 3) Feedback
>>>
>>> There should be some kind of feedback mechanism; I expect to hear  
>>> from
>>> Kurt at least weekly over the summer unless otherwise is arranged. I
>>> expect the ticket system will serve as the status update, and  
>>> hope Kurt
>>> will make his progress visible through the ticket system (we can  
>>> use the
>>> "fortran" tag on all GSoC related tickets for instance).
>>
>> Sure. Please take care to cut down the subject of tickets to make  
>> sure it
>> has a provable result. Otherwise, it's not clear when the ticket is
>> solved.
>>
>> It's fine to have a couple of tickets that depend on each other.
>
> Sounds fine to me.
>
>>> I guess (A) would perhaps use a different tracker than (B), we  
>>> need to
>>> get back to that.
>>
>> Why? As long as we consider integrating it with Cython, I'm fine with
>> tracking the required work here.
>>
>>
>>> Some mentors require students to keep a blog about what they are  
>>> doing.
>>> Unless the Python Software Foundation makes this a requirement  
>>> I'm going
>>> to leave this one up to Kurt; if the status is dutifully reported  
>>> via
>>> tickets I'll have what I need personally, though a blog would be
>>> interesting as well.
>>
>> It would be nice, yes.
>
> I'll get one set up.  Any canonical place for GSoC blogs that  
> anyone knows of?

Thanks. Danilo, do you want to set one up for your project as well.

- Robert


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