[GSoC][RFC] Proposal: Improve consistency of sequencer commands

From: Rohit Ashiwal <rohit.ashiwal265@gmail.com>
Date: Mar 22, 2019, 15:11 UTC
Message-ID: <20190322151157.9550-1-rohit.ashiwal265@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <CAL7ArXqkVfrnQWYFDYdwMGkZjHCwzyQX4pbKCo=KCzy-zJiRBw@mail.gmail.com>

Hey People

I am Rohit Ashiwal and here my first draft of the proposal for the project titled: `Improve consistency of sequencer commands' this summer. I need your feedback and more than that I need help to improve the timeline of this proposal since it looks very weak. Basically, it lacks the "how" component as I don't know much about the codebase in detail.

Thanks Rohit

PS: Point one is missing in the timeline from the ideas page[0], can someone
    explain what exactly it wants?

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                  Improve consistency of sequencer commands
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About Me ========

Background ---------- I am a sophomore at the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee[1], pursuing my bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Engineering. I was introduced to programming at a very early stage of my life. Since then, Ive been trying out new technologies by taking up various projects and participating in contests. I am passionate about system software development and competitive programming, and I also actively contribute to open-source projects. At college, I joined the Mobile Development Group [MDG](2), IIT Roorkee - a student group that fosters mobile development within the campus. I have been an active part of the Git community since February of this year, contributing to git-for-windows.

Dev-Env
-------
I am fluent in C/C++, Java and Shell Scripting, otherwise, I can also program
in Python, JavaScript. I use both Ubuntu 18.04 and Windows 10 x64 on my laptop.
I prefer Linux for development unless the work is specific to Windows.
VCS: 	git
Editor: VS Code with gdb integrated

Contributions to Open Source ============================ My contributions to open source have helped me gain experience in understanding the flow of any pre-written code at a rapid pace and enabled me to edit/add new features.

List of Contributions at Git:
-----------------------------
Status: Merge in next revision
git/git:
[Micro](3): Use helper functions in test script.

Status: Merged
git-for-windows/git:
[#2077](4): [FIX] git-archive error, gzip -cn : command not found.

Status: Merged
git-for-windows/build-extra:
[#235](5): installer: Fix version of installer and installed file.

The Project: `Improve consistency of sequencer commands' ========================================================

Overview -------- git-sequencer was introduced by Stephan Beyer <s-beyer@gmx.net> as his GSoC 2008 project[6]. It executed a sequence of git instructions to <HEAD> or <branch> and the sequence was given by a <file> or through stdin. The git-sequencer wants to become the common backend for git-am, git-rebase and other git commands. The project was continued by Ramkumar <artagnon@gmail.com> in 2011[7], converting it to a builtin and extending its domain to git-cherry-pick. As of now, there are still some inconsistencies among these commands, e.g., there is no `--skip` flag in `git-cherry-pick` while one exists for `git-rebase`. This project aims to remove inconsistencies in how the command line options are handled.

Points to work on:
------------------
    - Add `git cherry-pick --skip` 
    - Implement flags that am-based rebases support, but not interactive
	  or merge based, in interactive/merge based rebases
    - [Bonus] Deprecate am-based rebases
    - [Bonus] Make a flag to allow rebase to rewrite commit messages that
	  refer to older commits that were also rebased

Proposed Timeline
-----------------
    + Community Bonding (May 6th - May 26th):
        - Introduction to community
        - Get familiar with the workflow
        - Study and understand the workflow and implementation of the project in detail

    + Phase 1  (May 27th - June 23rd):
        - Start with implementing `git cherry-pick --skip`
        - Write new tests for the just introduced flag(s)
        - Analyse the requirements and differences of am-based and other rebases flags

    + Phase 2  (June 24th - July 21st):
        - Introduce flags of am-based rebases to other kinds.
        - Add tests for the same.

    + Phase 3  (July 22th - August 19th):
        - Act on [Bonus] features
        - Documentation
        - Clean up tasks

Relevant Work ============= Dscho and I had a talk on how a non-am backend should implement `git rebase --whitespace=fix`, which he warned may become a large project (as it turns out it is a sub-task in one of the proposed ideas[0]), we were trying to integrate this on git-for-windows first. Keeping warning in mind, I discussed this project with Rafael and he suggested (with a little bit uncertainty in mind) that I should work on implementing a git-diff flag that generates a patch that when applied, will remove whitespace errors which I am currently working on.

Availability ============ My vacations start on 7 May and end on 15 July. The official GSoC period is from 6 May to 19 August. I can easily devote 40-45 hours a week until my college reopens and 35-40 hours per week after that. Im also free on the weekends and I intend to complete most of the work before my college reopens.

Other than this project, I have no commitments/vacations planned for the summer. I shall keep my status posted to all the community members on a weekly basis and maintain transparency in the project.

After GSoC ========== Even after the Google Summer of Code, I plan on continuing my contributions to this organization, by adding to my project and working on open issues or feature requests. With the community growing continuously, I feel responsible for all the projects Im a part of. Having picked up a lot of developing skills, my major focus would be to develop mentorship skills so that I can give back to this community by helping other people navigate around and reviewing their contributions.

[0]: https://git.github.io/SoC-2019-Ideas/ [1]: https://www.iitr.ac.in/ [2]: http://mdg.iitr.ac.in/ [3]: https://public-inbox.org/git/20190303122842.30380-1-rohit.ashiwal265@gmail.com/ [4]: https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/pull/2077 [5]: https://github.com/git-for-windows/build-extra/pull/235 [6]: https://public-inbox.org/git/20080607220101.GM31040@leksak.fem-net/ [7]: https://public-inbox.org/git/20110403172054.GA10220@kytes/