On Thursday, 18 August 2005 04:35 pm, Jordan Dawe wrote: > I'm interested in becoming a sci developer. I've been using > gentoo to do computational oceanography for a couple of years > now, and it would be nice to know how the whole system works. > How do you sign up? How much time would it demand? The time > might be a problem--I'm tyring to finish my PhD right now, but > if there's too much to do, perhaps I could join up later...?
I will continue this discussion off-list with Jordan, but here are a few remarks about what being a developer entails and how much time is necessary. By posting on this list, other developers can correct me and add their own opinion. First of all, as George said, it is not necessary to be a Linux/UNIX guru to become a developer. Much more important is your interest in dedicating a bit of time every week to improve your favorite distribution. ;-) You do need to be reasonably familiar with the UNIX operating system and Gentoo Linux, though, and to be able to do some basic bash scripting. Familiarity with one or more scientific packages already in Portage, and willfulness to maintain them up-to-date and bug-free would be a plus. We currently have no maintainer for important packages such as GNU Octave, Maxima or the Staden Package. A problem I have with scientific software is that I find it hard to test when it applies to a field I am not familiar with. This is probably the case with everybody in the sci herd. ;-) Since we have time constraints ourselves, we understand potential recruits may only have a few hours during one day of the week to do Gentoo development, and that is Ok. However, if you don't think you will be able to dedicate at least an hour or two a week on average, I am not sure it would be profitable to invest time and efforts in the mentoring process. As soon as a developer is ready to be your mentor, an official request to hire you may be opened. You will then go through a 30-day evaluation period. During this time, you will learn about Gentoo's development policies, improve your knowledge of Gentoo (and the particulars of ebuild development for Portage), and contribute to the project. Your newly acquired abilities will then be tested by having you fill in quizzes (with the help of your mentor). Once the recruiters deem your work and your quizzes' answers satisfactory, you'll be part of the team. :-) Kind regards, -- Olivier Fisette (ribosome) Gentoo Linux Developer Scientific applications, Developer relations
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