Re: Outreachy round 16 | Applying to Debian
On Sun, Mar 11, 2018 at 2:16 PM, Andreas Tille <andr...@an3as.eu> wrote: > Dear Rupal, > > thanks for your introduction and your interest in the Debian Med project. > > On Sun, Mar 11, 2018 at 01:17:41AM +0530, Rupal Jain wrote: > > ... > > In addition to just sounding cool, the work looks challenging too. Being > a > > total beginner to Debian packaging or concepts along this line, the > project > > surely has a good learning curve for me. > > The Debian Med project as quite some record in teaching packaging (as > you are writing below). To get you starting for the GSoC project we > should start with this soon. > That's great. To confirm, by "teaching" you're referring to MoM program, right? You can let me know what time suits you when we can schedule our first discussion. We'll try to keep it as early as possible. Any medium suits me. > > > 1. First and foremost, I have subscribed to your mailing list (have also > > cc'ed it here as I have read that you guys prefer to keep most of your > > conversations public, which does make sense to me). > > Very good - so I just write to the list (as per Debian list policy). > > > 3. I have gone through this > > <https://debian-med.alioth.debian.org/docs/policy.html> policy document > as > > I saw that you have redirected many individuals to this document as an > > essential reading. I got to know about Debian Pure Blend, motivation and > > aim of the "Debian Med project", and also reading like, "Developers > > reference" and "New Maintainers guide", although I couldn't understand > the > > technical portion too well. > > It seems you did quite well in studying the available documents. :-) > > > 4. I also came across the *MoM *program here > > <https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMed/MoM>, I want to be a part of it and > in > > the process of learning Debian packaging during MoM, I can also make > > appropriate contributions to the project for Outreachy. > > Very good. :-) > > > 5. On this <https://blends.debian.org/med/tasks/> tasks page, it shows a > > whole list of Debian Med packages, so is there a particular package on > > which I will be working on in the beginning or is it still to be decided? > > In principle I prefer if you might have used some software in your own > work that is not yet packaged since you know the software. Since in > your current state of education you might not have stumbled upon such a > candidate you can pick freely from the list according to your interest. > Yeah, you rightly mentioned that as per my current exposure I haven't used any such software in my work yet. In our last sprint we started developing a new list about packages that > are in Bio-Linux but not in Debian[1]. As a random pick I would think > that cap3[2] might be simple enough for a start. Disclaimer: I have > not done a single look into the source at all. The most frequent > blocker for this kind of software is a missing license - feel free to > have a look here. It's cool with me. We can start with any med package with which you're smooth and comfortable teaching me. And, which is the link that you're referring for license? Couldn't get it. > > > 6. Is this <https://www.debian.org/distrib/> the right link for me to > head > > towards setting up Debian environment? > > Yes. > > > I have just looked up to the internet to know what do we *mean *by > > packaging in Debian, to get a gist of what is there to be done, but this > > gave me a very broad view/glimpse of what it means, but only > *theoretically. > > Many Linux distributions consists of a set of prebuilded binaries in > ready to install archives that are featuring metainformation about > dependencies between each others - so called packages. There are two > wide spread packaging formats: The Debian format which is used by Debian > and its derivatives (Ubuntu, Mint and lots of others) and the Redhat > package format which is used by RedHat, SuSE and others. These packages > are allowing one click installation and maintenance of very complex > software systems. The job of a Debian maintainer is to download a > package source and create some files in a predefined directory debian/ > that contain the needed information to build the Debian package. How > this is done is explained in the newbie documentation you have mentioned > in your initial mail. I hope this is some sufficient information what > "packaging" might mean. > The sense of the Debian Med project is to package free software that is > relevant in life science and medicine. For instance the packaging of > this software enables sett
Outreachy round 16 | Applying to Debian
Hi, Andreas. Hi, Molly. I am Rupal Jain, a 3rd-year undergrad studying at IIIT Delhi, India. I am majoring in Computer Science and minoring in Computational Biology. I am applying to Outreachy 2018 round 16. I am particularly interested in the "*Quality assurance for biological applications inside Debian project*". A little background of mine: I have been into programming since class 11th. Have been coding primarily in C, C++. Also, have done projects in and have a good understanding of Matlab, Python, and Java. I am a decent and confident coder having written decently complex codes since my college days. I have a fair understanding of Operating Systems, and strong in data structures and algorithms, and their analysis and design. I'm a newbie to the world of open source. which is the prime reason why I'm applying to Outreachy i.e to get a head-start. And so that FOSS doesn't sound alien to me anymore. :P The prime reason as to why I am interested in Bioinformatics project inside Debian is that, I am Computational Biology enthusiast. I have been involved in the field since past one year and have done/doing relevant courses at my institute and doing projects in them. *Relevant courses I took/taking*: Quantitative Biology, Computational Neuroscience, Chemoinformatics, Network Biology, Network Science. Alongside, I am also doing research projects in these domains as a part of my courses. *Self-learning*: Mathematical models in Biology. Studying it by myself as I'm fascinated with the mathematical logic and aspect behind most of the things I study. Due to this exposure, I could resonate so well with this project under Debian. *And*, I am excited to learn about bioinformatics from a whole new aspect with Debian. In addition to just sounding cool, the work looks challenging too. Being a total beginner to Debian packaging or concepts along this line, the project surely has a good learning curve for me. So, I'll just list the things I have gone through and am aware of and other trivial stuff and what question I have: 1. First and foremost, I have subscribed to your mailing list (have also cc'ed it here as I have read that you guys prefer to keep most of your conversations public, which does make sense to me). 2. I went through the archived conversations through the mailing lists for GSoC/Outreachy program to know what questions did past applicants have, what you answered them and also, to see whether there are already many potential applicants for this project and whether you have finalized one of them to be an intern, etc. 3. I have gone through this <https://debian-med.alioth.debian.org/docs/policy.html> policy document as I saw that you have redirected many individuals to this document as an essential reading. I got to know about Debian Pure Blend, motivation and aim of the "Debian Med project", and also reading like, "Developers reference" and "New Maintainers guide", although I couldn't understand the technical portion too well. 4. I also came across the *MoM *program here <https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMed/MoM>, I want to be a part of it and in the process of learning Debian packaging during MoM, I can also make appropriate contributions to the project for Outreachy. 5. On this <https://blends.debian.org/med/tasks/> tasks page, it shows a whole list of Debian Med packages, so is there a particular package on which I will be working on in the beginning or is it still to be decided? Because based on names of meta packages, I feel more interested in some packages more than other (broad fascination with themes), but I'm sure you'll know it better that which one I should be working on. 6. Is this <https://www.debian.org/distrib/> the right link for me to head towards setting up Debian environment? I have just looked up to the internet to know what do we *mean *by packaging in Debian, to get a gist of what is there to be done, but this gave me a very broad view/glimpse of what it means, but only *theoretically. *But to get into actual coding and building packages and understanding the *workflow*, without which there wouldn't be much of a point to go on solving bugs, I'll need help (as a beginner would do). Like MoM program, maybe. I am not sure if I am late in contacting you as the deadline is 22nd March for submitting contributions. Although, the contributions we make after that (till the results are announced) might also be counted. Let me know what you think. --- Thanks and regards *Rupal Jain*2015081 CSE undergrad(3rd year) | IIITD
