Hoping to be part of GSoC 2024

[Ilmari Lauhakangas]

On 4.3.2024 5.08, Jonah Janzen wrote:
> Hi there! My name is Jonah, and I'm a Canadian engineering student. I 
> recently found out about Google Summer of Code, and after doing some 
> more reading about it, it seems like a wonderful opportunity that I 
> would love to be a part of. As a longtime user of LibreOffice, it's high 
> on my list of organizations I want to give back to, and hence I'm 
> reaching out to you today to start a conversation about doing so.
> I've been programming since I was 8 doing everything from amateur 
> gamedev to competitive programming. This past year, I worked as a web 
> developer building a full-stack application with C#/Blazor, and I've 
> also made occasional contributions to FOSS like Godot and LMMS.
> 
> There are a couple of ideas that I would be most interested in working 
> on, which I'll list below:
> _UNO Rust Bindings
> _
> I have vague familiarity with the Rust language and the ideas behind it, 
> but I have little hands-on experience with it.
> My initial thoughts about this idea are that it would almost certainly 
> involve the use of the CXX.RS <http://CXX.RS> utility, and that I would 
> hope to be able to auto-generate as much of the code as possible, by 
> using the public API specification.
> I have a strong desire to get more familiar with Rust, and I love 
> working on low-level backend stuff so this would probably be my top choice.
> 
> _Forgejo Migration (my own idea)_
>  From the perspective of a newcomer to the project, between Gitiles, 
> Gerrit, Bugzilla, Jenkins, etc., the different parts of LibreOffice 
> development feel disjointed and initially challenging to grasp. I 
> sincerely don't mean to cause offense, and I don't come across as 
> abrasive rather than reflective.
> What I would propose is to move the LibreOffice repository, issue 
> tracker, code review process, and CI all onto the Forgejo platform. This 
> would offer a more centralized experience for all aspects of project 
> management that I think would make core developers' lives much easier, 
> and provide another, more superficial benefit: young (and occasionally 
> foolish) individuals like myself are used to the GitHub style of Git 
> server, and things like Gitiles tend to feel outdated and 
> unapproachable. Forgejo would provide a more familiar UX that would ease 
> the process of onboarding new contributors.
> Gitea is another possibility, because it seems to be more active and 
> it's used by high-profile projects like Blender, although it's owned by 
> a for-profit now. I've also heard about OneDev, but don't know as much 
> about it.
> 
> Since this is my own idea, there are a couple potential challenges I'm 
> not sure about that I'd appreciate input on:
> - This would require transferring account data, and I understand that 
> you might not be willing to entrust me with the power to access that.
> - I would like for my GSoC project to be 350 hours, and I don't have an 
> estimate for how long this would take. I guess we could tack on other 
> stuff under the migration umbrella as well, like a shift from IRC to 
> Matrix, for example.
> 
> _LibreOffice Theme_
> Although I'm personally not as interested in this idea, it seems like it 
> would offer a significant leap forward in LibreOffice's UI capabilities, 
> and might make the software more appealing to a lot of people. If you 
> think this would do the most good for the project overall, then I'd be 
> glad to take it on for that reason. I would want to consider what the 
> best way to store custom styles is (CSS? XML? and so on), and how this 
> can be integrated as tightly as possible with the way Mozilla themes are 
> used, so that the new setup can do all the same things.
> 
> ---------------------------------
> I would really appreciate feedback on what you think the best of those 
> ideas (or any others) might be for me to work on. I would also be 
> curious to know how much interest from other GSoC applicants you have 
> had thus far, and whether I would have a significant chance of being 
> accepted if I actually were to work on a proposal. If the answer to that 
> is yes, then I will start working on an easy hack as soon as possible, 
> and collaborating with potential mentors to shape my proposal.
> 
> Thank you so much, and I hope to work with you soon!

I have invited you to an interview.

Ilmari