Coding and Gardening

Warning: metaphors ahead! May be inappropriate or stretched.

Reading through student proposals for Google Summer of Code yesterday, I took a break from sitting in front of a keyboard to get some gardening done. We've had a few windstorms since I last raked, and with spring beginning, a few weeds have been popping up as well.

One of the issues I've been reminding almost every student about is unit testing. The other is documentation. These are practices which are seen as not fun, not creative.

Raking isn't seen as fun or creative either! Nor is hunting and digging the wily dandelion. But I rake away the dead branches and fir cones, and snag those dandelions because later in the season, my healthy vegetables and beautiful flowers not only flourish without weeds, but look better without litter around them. In addition, we chop up the branches and cones, and use that as mulch, which saves water and keeps down weeds. The dandelions go into the compost pile and rot into richer soil to help transplants be healthy. In other words, the work I do now pays off in the future.

The same is true of writing unit tests, commenting your code, and keeping good notes for user documentation as well! These are habits to build, not onerous tasks to be put off for tomorrow. Your unit tests will serve you well as long as your code runs anywhere. The same is true of your commented code. And finally if you code is user-facing, user documentation is what lets people use it!

So students, please remember to put those necessary bits into your proposal. This along with good communication with your mentor and the entire team are absolutely crucial for a successful project, so bake these into your plans.

GSoC: How can I improve next year?

For those students who are disappointed with a rejection email, here are some common mistakes and strengths we noticed. Keep these in mind to strengthen your proposal next year.

Common Mistakes:

• Did not follow directions
• Did not subscribe to and use the mail lists, IRC channels, attend team meetings, etc.
• Did not submit a final, complete proposal
• Misunderstood the project's scope, or failed to include writing documentation and tests throughout the coding period
• Poor timeline: unrealistic, or lack of implementation or time detail
• Did not take mentors' proposal feedback into consideration, or submitted too late to get input
• Did not link to commits to the KDE codebase
• Had no engagement with the community
• Demonstrated no knowledge of the KDE community's needs

On the other hand, some students have active since many months, or even a year.

Accepted Students:

• Showed extra effort, thought, and time spent on making a great proposal
• Submitted a complete draft soon after applications opened. Some even asked for feedback before that
• Improved each draft iteration with mentor feedback
• Demonstrated areas of growth and collaboration, through linked commits
• Engaged on mail lists and chat
• Engaged with the community past the submission deadline
• Detailed timeline included time for code review, unit testing, and writing documentation throughout the coding period
• Included all features planned to improve and/or implement the project
• Marked clear deliverables
• Included all other commitments, and adjusted timeline based on absences

There is no need to wait around for GSoC deadlines to get started or continue in any open source organization, including KDE.

This year, KDE had great student engagement and a good level of commitment for all students so even if you followed all of these points, you may still have gotten a rejection email. We realize that this can be discouraging. However, we did our best to pick the students whom we think can fulfill the project's needs, and continue along in the future as KDE developers.

We really appreciate all the effort and thank you for applying to KDE. Our community covers the world, and we're here to help you get started in open source development at any time. In fact, if you are interested in being mentored and do not need funding, we'll be rolling out Season of KDE in a couple of months.

KDE has been selected as a Google Summer of Code 2016 mentor organization

Welcome, all interested students!

Students, please read https://community.kde.org/GSoC before beginning to create your proposal. KDE works in teams; find a team working on software you would love to help create, get to know them, familiarize yourself with the codebase, and start fixing some bugs.

Don't forget to join the Student list.

Mentors are presenting their ideas for students here; remember this is only a starting place for your proposal. Most of your communication should be in the team's preferred channels, but ask general questions in #kde-soc on freenode IRC, or KDE-Soc Telegram group.

Support Randa 2015

Weeeee! KDE is sponsoring Randa Meetings again, this time with touch. And you can help making KDE technologies even better! This exciting story in the Dot this week, https://dot.kde.org/2015/08/16/you-can-help-making-kde-technologies-even-better caught not only my attention, but my pocketbook as well.

Yes, I donated, although I'm not going this time. Why? Because it is important, because I want Plasma Mobile to succeed, because I want my friend Scarlett* to have a great time, and because I want ALL the devels attending to have enough to eat! Just kidding, they can live on Swiss chocolate and cheese. No, really: the funds are needed for KDE software development.

So dig deep, my friends, and help out. https://www.kde.org/fundraisers/kdesprints2015/

*(And somebody hire Scarlett to make KDE software!)

Students, Google Summer of Code is coming, but not quite yet....

We've been seeing more and more questions about GSoC and how to get involved.

GSoC 2015 will be happening, but it is not yet time for orgs to even apply, much less be accepted. So we have no ideas page as yet for GSoC 2015.

That said, the best way to have your GSoC proposal accepted is to join
a team NOW and work with them on triaging and fixing bugs, and working
on old and new projects. As you work with your team members and the
codebase, you will be learn how to create a proposal which fits the needs
of the project, and also find willing and able mentors willing to guide you. Remember, mentoring is hard work. Probable mentors want to choose students they can trust to complete their proposal successfully.

The time to prepare for GSoC is now -- but it is not the time for
creating proposals yet. The important part of GSoC is embedding
yourself into your chosen project.Your energy can transform a project
from one lacking a spark into one brimming with enthusiasm. Go for it!

How to join a team:

• Find the best list(s) and subscribe, and scan the archives.
• Join the relevant IRC channels and hang out there All The Time.
• Search the forum for areas/posts where you can help out.
• Start searching https://bugs.kde.org for bugs which you can test, and fix.
• Learn how to propose your code changes to Reviewboard.

Other ways to prepare yourself:

• Read the KDE Developers manual and prepare your development environment.
• Read the GSoC Student Manual.
• As you work your way through the documentation, please fix errors you find, or update it. Remember, documentation is part of the code we provide to both other developers and users.