[spambayes-dev] MSOffice plugin templates from Spambayes - Google Summer of Code?

[Jeff Kowalczyk]

I don't know how much more time there is to apply for the Google Summer of
Code program, but I think a great GSOC project could be found in the
Spambayes codebase, for an interested programmer.

The Spambayes packaging, installer, integration, pretty much every aspect
of the project - is highly impressive. It would be a real boon if there
were skeleton code projects/templates for writing generic Microsoft Office
plugins. Ideally, you'd copy the boilerplate code into a new directory,
set some configuration variables, and have a functioning 'hello, world'
plugin for the selected Office application. Developers would add their own
functionality with minimal attention to Office Plugin boilerplate,
concentrating instead on programming to the Office Object Model.

If the templates were a success, perhaps the spambayes developers would
sync up own their boilerplate code with these templates, and fold further
refinements back into the templates.

I recently encountered some legacy VBA code to groom certain data fields
in Outlook. The challenging string manipulations would have been trivial
in python, so I elected to leave the cozy confines of the VBA IDE. the
After following several useful ASPN recipes for interacting with Outlook
via python scripting, I have been completely convinced of the advantages
of leaving VBA behind in almost every situation. These Python templates
would allow a large number of developers to make improvements to legacy
Office Automation code, and increase Python exposure in the process.

Best of luck (and many thanks) if someone with the necessary skill and
time elects to take up the idea.