On 04/12/2012 01:56 AM, Aaron Pramana wrote:
If anyone is interested in improving watchlists with grouping and usability enhancements, please let me know. I have submitted a clear and practical project proposal for the 2012 Google Summer of Code and I am seeking a mentor. I will, of course, do all of the heavy lifting (coding) to make it happen. All I need from a mentor is knowledgeable guidance and occasional assistance with debugging. Please let me know as soon as possible as the applications will be reviewed in the next few days. I really want to see this project move forward with full support from the MediaWiki development community, because the Watchlist certainly could benefit from a retrofit. My commitment to this project will extend beyond the GSoC timeframe, so support in finding a mentor will certainly pay off dividends for the MediaWiki project.
My proposal is available here: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Blackjack48/GSOC_proposal_for_watchlist_...
Thanks, Aaron Pramana
Aaron,
Vivek was able to interest iAlex (Alex Emsenhuber) in mentoring his proposal on the same topic. I am cc'ing iAlex to ask him to take a serious look at your proposal as well to decide whether he might prefer to mentor you instead.
Given that we prefer only to accept students and proposals regarding which a mentor is enthusiastic, it's of course inappropriate for me to simply assign you a mentor. I can suggest people for you to lobby, though. Siebrand Mazeland, Peter Gehres, and Amir Aharoni have mentioned their interest in mentoring this summer, and their interests at least somewhat overlap with this project. (I've cc'd them.)
Usually, when two or more proposals come in that cover the same task, one student out of the group has the best proposal by far and is the obvious choice. In this case, your proposal and Vivek's are comparable. You both have prototypes and you've both started working with the MediaWiki codebase. I can't just say "well, let's possibly admit both and pick the better work at the end of the summer" because you both plan to initially merge with trunk around July 1st. (I'll chat with a few experienced developers to see what other options there are here.) So my plan right now is: we'll evaluate both proposals, see whether one or both of the students have enthusiastic mentors, and decide whether we will accept one, or neither.