GSoC 2015 update

[James Aylett]

On Tue, Mar 29, 2016 at 11:43:04AM +0100, Olly Betts wrote:

> Meanwhile, if you've applied to us you shouldn't just sit and wait for
> the announcement.  We select the students we think are likely to make
> a success of their projects, and you can improve the confidence we have
> in you by working on a patch (or if you're already working on a patch,
> by pushing through with it and getting it merged).

I'll just add briefly on this: it's vastly easier to push through a
smaller patch than a larger one, which is why we recommend taking a
bite-sized project (and, in GSoC itself, why we encourage students to
complete and have reviewed sub-projects as they go rather than
building up months of work).

Don't worry about a patch being too small, either! If it fixes a bug,
or makes a small improvement, then it's worth getting reviewed and
merged. Almost every patch for every OSS project requires at least
some changes, even with lots of experience, and we'll feed back and
try to help you through the process in a way that means future
contributions will be easier.

There are some notes and tips in our draft developers guide which may
help, particularly the section about contributing
(https://xapian-developer-guide.readthedocs.org/en/latest/contributing/index.html).
It's by no means perfect though, so please let me know if it's
confusing, or if anything doesn't work for you.

J

-- 
  James Aylett, occasional trouble-maker
  xapian.org