[GSoC] Container proposals by Ishan and Christian

[Andrei Alexandrescu]

On 4/3/11 5:06 PM, Jens Mueller wrote:
> Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
>> 1. Both seem to be quite fresh on D, so they'll need close coaching
>> at least in the beginning.
>>
>> 2. Both students seem unfamiliar with the STL, which is a difficult
>> skill to acquire in a short time frame and is quite recommended for
>> working on D's containers.
>
> Both valid points. I'd like to help. But how do I know that I'm familiar
> with the STL? It's containers and generic algorithms glued together via
> iterators. I've read Effective STL and used the STL but I have never
> looked at an implementation of the STL. On rare occasions I dived into
> GNU STL to figure out what was going on.

That would be "STL internals". If you've used the STL systematically 
then it can be assumed you're familiar with it.

> Regarding the former: They should start reading your book, if they
> haven't. What do you mean by coaching? Looking at their code and giving
> feedback?

More than that: guiding the next step. That would entail understanding 
the high level issues quite well.

>> With an expanded containers project we could (assuming all goes
>> smooth) benefit of a host of solid containers by fall. The thing is
>> that would definitely require very intensive mentoring. I'd probably
>> be a mentor, and I'd need at least one to be comfortable about
>> putting this option on the table.
>
> Can you express intensive monitoring in hours per week from your
> experience?

I don't have experience as a GSoC mentor, but I assume it should be 
doable in addition to a normal job. The main challenge is having the 
background.


Andrei