On Sat, Mar 20, 2010 at 1:39 PM, Jacob Beard <jbea...@cs.mcgill.ca> wrote: > Hi all, > > I have an idea for a Google Summer of Code project relating to SCXML, > and I wanted to post it and see if there would be any interest in it > in the Apache SCXML Commons community. > > The basic idea of the project is to create a Statechart-to-JavaScript > compiler which is optimized for developing rich, browser-based user > interfaces on the world wide web. Statecharts are well-suited for > describing certain kinds of complex UI behaviour, and the browser > environment is already a particularly challenging platform for > front-end developers to target, hence a Statechart-to-JavaScript > compiler could be a great boon for web front-end developers. I have > already done some work on both developing rich, browser-based user > interfaces using SVG and Statecharts [0], and on constructing a > Statechart-to-JavaScript compiler, which takes a statechart encoded as > SCXML, and outputs optimized JavaScript. The work of the GSoC project > would be to complete the Statechart-to-JavaScript compiler, and > enhance it to support animated, graphical debugging, such that it > would generate a graphical representation of the statechart (using SVG > or Graphviz dot), and instrument the compiled code so that it animates > the graphical representation. This could then be hooked into a live > user-interface to allow one to graphically debug their user interface. > If anyone has any questions or comments, please let me know. Thanks, > <snip/>
Thanks, this looks like an interesting proposal, and also a fitting one for a Google Summer of Code (GSoC) project (based purely on the details above). Roughly speaking, I understand you are proposing three connected pieces (correct me as needed): (a) SCXML -> JS compiler (b) browser-based graphical state chart representation (SVG or otherwise) (c) capabilities to provide graphical debugging of apps by instrumenting code from (a) and animating (b) Out of those, you may already have code for some part of (a) and/or (b). Then my first question is: Would you be willing to donate any existing code for the three items above and future code that will be developed as part of the GSoC project (if accepted) to the Apache Commons project? This will certainly involve filing an Individual Contributor License Agreement (ICLA) with the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) -- see that form [1] for details -- and may also involve filing a software grant for existing code (we'll evaluate, if existing code has more authors, they will need to be contacted too). If the answer to the above question is yes, then I can assist you in the proposal stage and volunteer as a mentor if you'd like. Further, if this is accepted, we will do most of the work on this public mailing list. However, if at any point (including now), there is anything you don't want to post on a public list (or are unsure), then you may email priv...@commons.apache.org (and I'll respond there). You may ofcourse begin using the Apache Commons resources available for preparing your GSoC proposal. For Commons SCXML, here is the JIRA project [2] and here is the wiki space [3] (there is a short registration for creating accounts for either of those if you don't already have JIRA and wiki accounts). Finally, while the document below is an ASF-specific guide to mentoring, you may find it useful as it has some examples and details about preparing and tagging GSoC proposals at the ASF: http://community.apache.org/guide-to-being-a-mentor.html Please take a look at the page above. Further, I'd suggest creating a proposal page on the SCXML wiki and providing a link in the tagged JIRA issue. Please let us know if you have any other questions. -Rahul [1] http://www.apache.org/licenses/icla.txt [2] https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/SCXML [3] http://wiki.apache.org/commons/SCXML > Jake > > [0] http://www.svgopen.org/2009/papers/36-Modelling_the_Reactive_Behaviour_of_SVGbased_Scoped_User_Interfaces_with_Hierarchicallylinked_Statecharts/ > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@commons.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@commons.apache.org
