Google Summer of Code, tips for students

I've had quite a few queries about the project ideas for Google Summer of Code on the Lumicall and Debian project pages and I'm publishing some notes here to help people get the best chance of participating, while also helping people's expectations.

Firstly, Google is responsible for administering the program and payments, they have the last word on which projects and students participate and free software developers like myself have no direct control over this. In other words, while I would encourage students to make contributions to free software projects to familiarize themselves with the way we work, I can not promise that this will automatically lead to selection. If you are a student, do go ahead and feel free to comment on or make contributions to projects, this helps mentors to see your capabilities very quickly, but don't do any more than you would have done if the GSoC program didn't exist. In any case, building up a portfolio of work that is visible on sites like github does help your employment prospects in the long run. If a development manager is looking at 100 CVs for a job vacancy, and one of them has a strong portfolio on github or Debian, there is a good chance that one person will get an interview - although it doesn't guarantee they get the job.

Where to start?

If you are a student and you are already heavily involved in some free software project then you probably don't need to read the rest of this. The reality is that GSoC is meant to help bring more people into the free software community and this means we need to help people get their foot in the door. That is what I am addressing here, with examples from my own possible projects.

When I went through university in the 90s, there was a very strong UNIX culture in our computer science department and the wider engineering faculty. There were also winds of change, for example, a new dean who wanted to change everything to Windows and a central IT management agenda to abolish campus computers and force students to carry and maintain their own laptops. Around the world, every campus has a different approach. I was fortunate to have UNIX topics like the vi text editor, shell programming and even LaTeX taught as a formal part of the course, students coming after me may have missed those opportunities. I understand that some students have not encountered these concepts at all today. That said, most mentors have a fairly wide tolerance for these things: it is not expected that students know these things, rather, it is an opportunity for you to start learning them whether it is part of your course or not.

The key concept here is to be a self-starter: it is not what you know, but your enthusiasm to go and try the things you don't know. That is the very thing you can start doing now, even before the program commences. Doing this will definitely help you identity the areas of free software and Debian that you are most likely to get excited about, and that will lead to a successful project.

Some general ideas to get started

If your campus hasn't taught UNIX in a formal sense, please familiarise yourself with the basics. While some companies do have more jobs working with other platforms, and some campuses have sadly tried to adapt their courses to prepare students for that limited subset of companies, all the best jobs I've had involve UNIX or Linux. I've never worked for a hedge fund that didn't use Linux. Hollywood uses Linux, NASA does too, but learning Linux is not rocket science. Basic things to understand include the vi text editor, shell scripts and using a command line tool for version control, preferably git. As you will be the system administrator of your own desktop or laptop, it's essential to understand some basic concepts like volume management too.
If you need to run some Windows software (some courses do require that), use VirtualBox or a similar solution to run both Windows and Linux on your computer or laptop. The VirtualBox documentation is very good and will help you start quickly. My own laptop runs Debian 7 (wheezy) as the main operating system, and I have Windows and Solaris in VirtualBox for some business applications.
My own course included a project that involved downloading the open source GNU make program, writing a patch and testing it. If you've never done something like that, please try. Instead of downloading a project tarball, these days you will typically clone the project's git repository. Even if you only make some trivial change that you will never share, it is good to prove that you can compile and successfully execute something like this.

Some specific ideas for my own projects

For Lumicall or Android development, just work your way through the build instructions that are published for all contributors. Trying the f-droid build instructions is also a good way to start.
For any of the Debian projects, please make sure you have installed Debian 7 (wheezy) on a desktop, laptop or virtual machine. Just follow the installation guide
Once you have installed Debian, try installing whichever one of my packages interests you. Try to configure and use it. Prove that the package works in a normal installation. Look at the log files. Run the test cases.
Next, try obtaining the source code and building the package. Debian makes it very easy. Here is an example for reSIProcate, the same works for any other package. As root:
```
# apt-get update
# apt-get build-dep resiprocate
```
will obtain all the necessary build tools. Then, as a normal user:
```
$ mkdir ~/src/resiprocate
$ cd ~/src/resiprocate
$ apt-get source resiprocate
$ cd resiprocate
$ dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -j12
```
In a few minutes, you should find the packages (*.deb files) are created.
Now, you could try making some small change to the package and compiling it again. Verify that your change works.

If you've successfully got to this point, then there is every chance you will be able to successfully complete a GSoC project. If you struggled along the way, that is OK too, the important thing to do is to engage with the community and learn how to ask for help. The Debian GSoC wiki provides some excellent ideas about engaging with the project using IRC chat and mailing lists. It is also very worthwhile trying to find a local group or a free software event that Debian is attending near you and spending a few hours with people who can look at any problems you have and give you quick solutions.