The main page is at SummerOfCode2012. This page contains the available projects, all the the projects should follow the following template:
Title of the project
Description of the project: At least 8-10 lines describing what the project is about; it is really important to have a good description if you want to attract students who are interested by the idea. This does not need to be a very technical description, but something that stirs interest and is complete enough to allow a student to judge whether s/he wants to work on the particular project or not. It does not need to be a complete road map either and does not need to explain all the tiny details and whatnot -- the mentor can tell that to interested students, or they can work out the exact details together.
Confirmed Mentor: Name of the mentor
How to contact the mentor: (mail, IRC, etc)
Confirmed co-mentors: It is not compulsory to have co-mentors, but it is a good idea. Secondary mentors do not need to be as knowledgeable as the first one in the project, but they should be available to help the student if s/he is stuck and the main mentor is busy / not available.
Deliverables of the project:
Desirable skills: Skills that the student has or is willing to develop. Remember, the students do not have as much experience as the mentor.
What the student will learn: At least 2-3 lines telling the students the skills they develop and how they will improve Debian. Do not focus on the technologies rather use something that could motivate the prospective student to take your project.
clang support for build services
The idea of this project is to extend the Debian infrastructure to be able to build packages with clang instead of gcc/g++. clang has some advantages over gcc/g++ like better error messages and better warnings.
Even if the short/mid term goal is not to replace gcc/g++, building packages with two compilers improves the detection of C/C++ or Objective C errors, which in turn helps improve the quality of the distribution, even if the packages continue to be compiled with gcc/g++.
Confirmed Mentor: Sylvestre Ledru
How to contact the mentor: sylvestre@debian.org
Deliverables of the project:
- Build services modified to be able to use clang instead of gcc/g++
- Integration into the Debian infrastructure (buildd.d.o, and similar services)
- Time permitting, a fully clang-built Debian installation
Desirable skills:
- A reasonable knowledge of Debian packaging, or willingness to learn it fast.
- Familiarity with chroots
- An interest in build tools and infrastructure
What the student will learn:
- The student will learn how to use clang, and how to make use of the features it provides over gcc/g++
- The student will learn more about the Debian build-related infrastructure and software, such as sbuild and the buildds.
- As a consequence of the above, the student will also learn about the subtle bugs that crop up when using a different compiler, and ways to debug or otherwise handle them.
Sample of a potential outcome
One of the outcome could be, for example, a new column (or suite) for the buildd pages (example https://buildd.debian.org/status/package.php?p=llvm-3.0)
Add your project here