[pypy-dev] Tokyo sprint 23/4 - 29/4 announcement

Mon Mar 27 15:25:22 CEST 2006

Tokyo PyPy Sprint: 23rd - 29th April 2006
============================================================

The next PyPy sprint is scheduled to take place 23rd- 29th April 2006
(Sunday-Saturday) in Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan. We will together with
FSIJ (Free Software Initiative of Japan) aim to promote Python and
PyPy.  We therefor invite Japanese hackers knowledgeable in Python to
join our sprint!  We'll give newcomer-friendly introductions. To learn
more about the new Python-in-Python implementation look here:

     http://codespeak.net/pypy

For this sprint we are particularly interested in meeting and coding on 
PyPy together
with interested Japanese Python hackers. Please register your interest 
at pypy-sprint at codespeak.net
as soon as possible and we will help with any questions regarding 
getting started, pointing
to relevant documentation etc.

The PyPy team is curious and interested in the experience of hacking 
code for embedded devices
and would love to discuss and get feedback on optimisation efforts and 
the current state of PyPy.

Goals and topics of the sprint
------------------------------

Possible suggestions for topics are:

   - Work on gensqueak (our Squeak backend) or possibly other backends.

   - Implementing Python 2.5 features in PyPy.

   - Progress further on an 'rctypes' module aiming at letting us use a 
ctypes
     implementation of an extension module from the compiled pypy-c.

   - Writing ctypes implementations of modules to be used by the above
     tool.

   - Experimenting and improving performance of our garbage collectors.

   - Experiment with PyPy flexibility or other aspects of the 
implementation.

   - Possibly experiment with writing modules translatable for use both
     in PyPy and CPython.

   - Whatever participants want to do with PyPy or particular areas
     of PyPy (please send suggestions to the mailing list before to 
allow us to plan
     and give feedback)

Location & Accomodation
------------------------

The sprint will be held at National Institute of AIST
  (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology,
  http://www.aist.go.jp/index_en.html), Akihahabara (the technical gadget
district in Tokyo). Yutaka Niibe is our contact person there,
helping with arranging facilities. Niibe is the chairman of FSIJ and 
they have
invited us to sprint in Tokyo and we are very grateful for the help and 
interest
we have recieved so far.

The facilities we are sprinting in are located here:

     http://www.gtrc.aist.go.jp/en/access/index.html#Akihabara

The actual address is:
Akihabara Dai Bldg , 1-18-13 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-0021 Japan
Phone: +81-3-5298-4729

Hotel areas - we are recommended to book hotels in Ueno and Asakusa (old 
town),
from those areas there are only two metro stops to Akihabara. Please 
note that
hotelrooms in Tokyo are often very small.

         http://www.wh-rsv.com/english/akihabara/index.html  (nearest 
hotel to sprint location)
         http://www.greenhotel.co.jp/ochanomizu_e.html
         http://www.ohgai.co.jp/index-e.html (Ueno)
         http://www.toyoko-inn.com/e_hotel/00012/index.html (Asakusa)
         http://www.hotelnewkanda.com/   (second nearest, but no english 
page)

Here is a url for booking hotels with not too unreasonable rates (see map):
http://japan-hotelguide.com/hotels/Japan/Tokyo/index.htm

For more general tourist information about travelling to Japan and Tokyo 
- please see:
http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/
http://www.japantravelinfo.com/  (really useful information regarding 
airfares, hotels, currency, phones etc etc)

Comments on the weather: In end April it is ca 20 degrees Celsius.

Exact times
-----------

The public PyPy sprint is held Sunday 23rd - Saturday 29th April 2006.
Hours will be from 10:00 until people have had enough.  It's a good idea
to arrive a day before the sprint starts and leave a day later. 
Sometimes people
cannot stay for the whole sprint - you are welcome even if you can only stay
for a day or a few days.

Sunday: Starting at 10:00. This day is focused on getting to know PyPy 
enought to
start to participate. We will hold a PyPy tutorial and an architectural 
overview.
Planning meeting for the work to be done during the week and grouping of 
developers (pairs
or groups mixing new participants with core developers).

Dinner in the evening (Yutaka will arrange a place for us to go to).

Monday-Tuesday: Starting at 10:00 with status meetings. Possible regrouping
depending on the interest and progress of the various teams.

Wednesday: Breakday (coding is allowed although we recommend taking a 
break).

Thursday-Saturday: Starting at 10:00 with status meetings. Possible 
regrouping
depending on the interest and progress of the various teams. Ending on 
Saturday with
a Closure session - summing of the work and planning work to be done 
until the next sprint.

Network, Food, currency
------------------------

We will have access to WiFi at AIST - please make sure you have wlan 
capabilities.

Electricity outlets: 100V (adapters needed for european standard).

Currency is Japanese yen. There are Citibank cash machines that
accepts cash withdrawals from the major cards such as VISA and Mastercard.
But it is a good idea to bring cash.

Also note that cell phones (european) are not very compatible with the 
Japanese
network. There are possibilities for 3G phones to hire a phone and put 
your simcard
in there. At the airport (both Kansai and Narita) there are information 
and places
were this can be arranged (to a cost of course).

Food: well - japanese food is great (wether it is sushi, sashimi, 
tempura, sukiyaki, teriyaki....
Eating out is not that much differently prized
than any large european town. There are of course restaurants serving
other food than japanese (chinese, korean, McDonalds ;-).
Please also note that vegetables and fruit is quite expensive in Japan.

For more information - see tourist url:s above.

Registration etc.pp.
--------------------

Please subscribe to the `PyPy sprint mailing list`_, introduce yourself
and post a note that you want to come.  Feel free to ask any questions
there!  There also is a separate `Tokyo people`_ page tracking who is
already thought to come.  If you have commit rights on codespeak then
you can modify yourself a checkout of

   http://codespeak.net/svn/pypy/extradoc/sprintinfo/tokyo/people.txt

.. _`PyPy sprint mailing list`: 
http://codespeak.net/mailman/listinfo/pypy-sprint
.. _`Tokyo people`: 
http://codespeak.net/pypy/extradoc/sprintinfo/tokyo/people.html