Student Application Template
Name
- Jonathan Jackson
Contact/Email/IRC nick
(Aside from my cellphone, my gmail address is the best way of contacting me)Background:
I entered the computer science world after getting my degree in psychology, where i was very disapointed of the use of the scientific method. My interests are very theoretical. However I was fortunate enough to participate in the Honors program and write an undergraduate thesis. I fancy thinking about graph coloring and algorithms related to it. I tend to dive in the fundamental side of things: my experience is mainly in Java and Python but I also am teaching MIPS practical classes and prefer the later over Python ((Java, MIPS) > Python). I like clean, documented code, because I find it really hard to read and understand code that is not (and also understand the productivity implications of those).
Project title
- Improve the Debian mips and mipsel ports
Project details: a more detailed description.
- I would like to start by working on simpler issues to get a workpace. I would do so by choosing what seems to be the easiest bug/package to tackle. As I gain momentum, harder problems will be solved (taken from the list of known bugs). As I gain a more complex understanding of the project and its current state, I will most likely find more bugs or aspects to be improved by myself. Reaching this last stage most likely mark the transition of me becoming a fully autonomus worker on the project.
Synopsis:
- The project is about making sure a non-proprietary OS option is available to the most devices possible. Including bugless and more complete MIPS ports can only be beneficial
Benefits to Debian
- This project will make the Debian distribution more attractive to people as it will become increasingly stable. Moreover, this will also benefit the accessibility of hte product in a way, making its usage on MIPS devices more pleasant.
Deliverables:
- As described in the "Project Details", many issues and features are available to tackle. Those certainly are quantitative objectives to achieve. Moreover, it is possible that I find some bugs by myself and that would certainly add to the list of possible deliverables.
Project schedule:
- It seems there are enough issues/features to work all summer on the project. Respecting the estiamted hours for features will depend on my skills and the correctness of the evaluation of the time it would take to perform tasks.
Here is an example of what the schedule would look like:
*** These are estimates as I can't accurately predict what issue will be available to work on when I start the program ***
Week 1: Getting accustomed to the project/ Start working on a package
Week 2: Getting accustomed to the project/ Start working on a package
Week 3: Time around where the first deliverable is delevered.
Week 4: Time around where the first deliverable is delevered.
Week 5: From here I believe a deliverable every 2-3 week is realistic
Week 6: ...
Week 7: ...
Week 8: ...
Week 9: ...
Week 10: ...
Week 11: ...
Week 12: ...
Week 13: ...
Week 14: ...
Week 15: Extra week for objectives listed above or extra time for unaccounted events
Week 16: Extra week for objectives listed above or extra time for unaccounted events
I would be able to work from May to the end of August (From the end of my semester to the start of the other one (4 months))
Exams and other commitments:
- I do not plan to follow any Summer classes this year
Other summer plans:
- I do not have any major summer plans.
Why Debian?:
- Debian is a known popular organisation in the open software world and I think that their projects are at the core and center of the community. I would be motivatif for me to know that the work that I will accomplish will have a direct impact on this community.
My previous Debian contributions:
- None
Are you applying for other projects in SoC? Note that letting us know about this does not impact your chances of acceptance or rejection with us; we ask this because it helps us to resolve deduplications wherein a student is accepted for multiple projects.
- This Debian project is the only project for which I am currently applying for GSoC