[C++-sig] [boost] [Python] GSoC and Python 3.0 Support

[Niall Douglas]

On 11 Mar 2009 at 13:42, Ravi wrote:

> On Wednesday 11 March 2009 12:38:55 Haoyu Bai wrote:
> > > 1. Thread safety
> > > 2. PyFinalize support
> > > 3. Easier methods to write to_python/from_python converters
> > > 4. Python 3.0 support
> > > 5. Ability to extend the fundamental PyTypeObject used by boost.python

My thread safety patch is still working to my knowledge. It sure 
would be lovely to have it officially integrated. I'd also like to 
see PyFinalize working though maybe not "complete" in the sense of a 
total cleanup (just "good enough").

I would say that any GSoC project should choose *one* of the above 
rather than try combining them. Better to do one thing well and in 
stages than many things at once (unless you have loads of spare 
time!).

I have been out of commission development-wise during the last few 
years as I have been undertaking some very time consuming academic 
study - hence I have been very quiet on here. However, I finally 
become free come this June and at long, long last I finally can 
return to my own self-directed study (but now I have a whole pile of 
bits of paper to officially say I can do what I was already capable 
of). I will certainly be updating my TnFOX library for sure anyway, 
and that means fresh Python bindings.

> > Thanks! Seems there's a lot of interesting. So would anyone willing to
> > mentor this?
> 
> Sadly, I suspect that finding a mentor will be difficult (perhaps even more 
> difficult than the actual project). Off the top of my head, the following 
> folks come to mind:
>   - Dave Abrahams
>   - Stefan Seefeld
>   - Ralf Grosse-Kunstleve
>   - Roman Yakovenko
> You might try contacting them off list or on c++-sig (cc'ed on this email).

It's not /quite/ as easy as that ... Google want a mentoring 
organisation rather than just a mentor and it has to be an approved 
one. I could volunteer as mentor but I wouldn't qualify as I don't 
come with an organisation attached. I'd need an approved organisation 
to adopt me.

> I did not mean to imply that the features I requested should be part of your 
> GSoC. Thread safety & PyFinalize support would each be worth a GSoC project 
> just by themselves, IMHO. If you will be tackling python 3.0 support, it might 
> be possible to combine it with greater support for embedding python since much 
> of the work in both aspects would be about wrapping python C API for C++ 
> programmers.

As mentioned before, thread safety is actually fairly trivial as all 
the required work is already done. There is certainly some work 
involved in writing a test suite and making my patch much more 
generic as my patch was specifically designed to be diff-friendly to 
any Boost alterations, and it doesn't make for good code. I would be 
happy to mentor this project if we can find an approved mentoring 
organisation to adopt me. It certainly would be a good GSoC for a 
student programmer.

PyFinalize() is likely just a hard slog in catching all the code 
paths you wouldn't expect. It's harder than thread safety, but doable 
as a GSoc.

Adding Python 3.0 support ... I am afraid I have no idea as I've been 
out of the coding scene for two years now, but it does sound big and 
complex. But it's something I'm interested in though I'd be not much 
use as a mentor except as in general Boost.Python programming.

So, I guess you got a bit of a mentor if you'd like. BTW, I couldn't 
start mentoring till the start of June as I have my final project due 
then. But that fits the GSoC timetable just perfect.

If you want to know more about my suitability, search this mailing 
list.

HTH,
Niall