[Mesa-dev] Summer of Code ideas (maybe just an idea wishlist?)

[Marek Olšák]

On Fri, Mar 13, 2015 at 6:24 PM, Laura Ekstrand <laura at jlekstrand.net> wrote:
> We should try to steer people away from just writing Piglit tests for GSoC,
> unless they have a specific mentor in mind and have already talked to him or
> her.  In my experience, Piglit tests are difficult to do well because each
> one is drastically different from the others and involves cultivating a
> fairly deep understanding of the the OpenGL function in question.
>
> A project pairing a specific extension with relevant tests (like Martin and
> I have done with ARB_dsa) would be better as long as it's a fairly specific
> domain of the OpenGL spec.  That way, the student can study the spec for one
> specific set of objects or entry points and cultivate the necessary
> understanding they need to write the related tests.
>
> A lot of the emails we've gotten from students saying "I want to write 4.x
> Piglit tests" have been too broad/generic and would be difficult for a
> student to master in a summer without lots of mentoring/direction from the
> community.

We should also take into account that there are people having a degree
in or studying computer science with specialization in computer
graphics or having strong knowledge of OpenGL already. Such people are
difficult to find, but they would be very effective with very little
(if any) mentoring. Gamedev-related forums (gamedev.net, opengl.org,
etc.) should have a lot of talented people suited for this job, but
none of them are probably aware of the Mesa/Piglit GSoC.

Marek