Re: GSOC project

[John Marino <dragonflybsd@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 3/21/2012 15:10, Justin Sherrill wrote:
> The primary goal of Summer of Code is to get a student learning as
> part of a group.  If a project's already started by a nonstudent, it's
> fine to work on; it will still benefit the student even if different
> code gets committed.
>
> In any case, you can edit the page to remove or modify or add projects
> as you see fit.

Yes, it's a wiki, I know.
The point was that GSOC project candidates would benefit from a 
collaboration of the DragonFly developers, not individuals contributing 
solo.

As far as primary goals, if the code isn't usable at the end of the 
Summer or at least if there's not a viable plan to get the code suitable 
for commit in the post-GSOC phase, then the project was not a success 
(in my opinion).  Either the project itself was ill-defined and not able 
to be reasonably accomplished in which case that's DragonFly's fault, or 
the student didn't achieve reasonable milestones.  The bar for entry is 
that student has a good proposal, a good plan, and hopefully can 
demonstrate a strong level of coding skill.  While gaining experience of 
working in a team is a nice benefit if it happens (seems like most of 
these projects are mentor-only interaction), I wouldn't consider that 
the main objective.

I would only want to see a student project displace developer work in 
the case that a) the developer in question is either the mentor or 
agrees to work closely with the student or b) the student has the 
credentials that inspire confidence that the project will get completed 
and written correctly.  Otherwise the most likely outcome is scrapping 
the whole thing and starting again which, as I said before, wastes 
everyone's time.  I'm sure the majority of the students want to see 
their code committed ultimately.

John