[Python-Dev] Google Summer of Code/core Python projects - RFC

[C. Titus Brown]

Hi all,

this year we have 10-12 GSoC applications that I've put in the "relevant
to core Python development" category.  These projects, if mentors etc
are found, are *guaranteed* a slot under the PSF GSoC umbrella.  As
backup GSoC admin and general busybody, I've taken on the work of
coordinating these as a special subgroup within the PSF GSoC, and I
thought it would be good to mention them to python-dev.

Note that all of them have been run by a few different committers,
including Martin, Tarek, Benjamin, and Brett, and they've been obliging
enough to triage a few of them.  Thanks, guys!

Here's what's left after that triage.  Note that except for the four at
the top, these have all received positive support from *someone* who is
a committer and I don't think we need to discuss them here -- patches
etc. can go through normal "python-dev" channels during the course of the
summer.

I am looking for feedback on the first four, though.  Can these
reasonably be considered "core" priorites for Python?  Remember, this
"costs" us something in the sense of preferring these over Python
subprojects like (random example) Cython, NumPy, PySoy, Tahoe, Gajim,
etc.

---

Questionable "core":

2x "port NumPy to py3k" -- NumPy is a major Python module and porting it
	to py3k fits with Guido's request that "more stuff get ported".
	To be clear, I don't think anyone expects all of NumPy to get
	ported this summer, but these students will work through issues
	associated with porting big chunks o' code to py3k.

	One medium/strong proposal, one medium/weak proposal.

Comments/thoughts?

2x "improve testing tools for py3k" -- variously focus on improving test
	coverage and testing wrappers.
	
	One proposes to provide a nice wrapper to make nose and py.test
	capable of running the regrtests, which (with no change to
	regrtest) would let people run tests in parallel, distribute or
	run tests across multiple machines (including Snakebite), tag
	and run subsets of tests with personal and/or public tags, and
	otherwise take advantage of many of the nice features of nose
	and py.test.

	The other proposes to measure & increase the code coverage of
	the py3k tests in both Python and C, integrate across multiple
	machines, and otherwise provide a nice set of integrated reports
	that anyone can generate on their own machines.  This proposal,
	in particular, could move smoothly towards the effort to produce
	a "Python-wide" test suite for CPython/IronPython/PyPy/Jython.
	(This wasn't integrated into the proposal because I only found
	out about it after the proposals were due.)

	I personally think that both testing proposals are good, and
	they grew out of conversations I had with Brett, who thinks that
	the general ideas are good.  So, err, I'm looking for pushback,
	I guess ;).  I can expand on these ideas a bit if people are
	interested.

	Both proposals are medium at least, and I've personally been
	positively impressed with the student interaction.

Comments/thoughts?

---

Unquestionably "core" by my criteria above:

3to2 tool -- 'nuff said.

subprocess improvement -- integrating, testing, and proposing some of
	the various subprocess improvements that have passed across this
	list & the bug tracker

IDLE/Tkinter patch integration & improvement -- deal with ~120 tracker
	issues relating to IDLE and Tkinter.

roundup VCS integration / build tools to support core development --
	a single student proposed both of these and has received some
	support.  See http://slexy.org/view/s2pFgWxufI for details.

sphinx framework improvement -- support for per-paragraph comments and
	user/developer interface for submitting/committing fixes 

2x "keyring package" -- see
http://tarekziade.wordpress.com/2009/03/27/pycon-hallway-session-1-a-keyring-library-for-python/.
The poorer one of these will probably be axed unless Tarek gives it
strong support.

--

--titus
-- 
C. Titus Brown, ctb at msu.edu