Re: Developing- Where to Start

From: Stefan Beller <sbeller@google.com>
Date: Sep 14, 2015, 22:15 UTC
Message-ID: <CAGZ79kbiFvm-C3MdED5Jja3b_S+WY1CR3iNQJ7MYcKjnZG4Nxg@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <CAP8UFD1NSAKsJDrav6dBF=92Ba9KY-MVtEydQPqfpSNrReSArw@mail.gmail.com>

On Mon, Sep 14, 2015 at 2:30 PM, Christian Couder <christian.couder@gmail.com> wrote:

Show 14 quoted lines

> Hi,
>
> On Mon, Sep 14, 2015 at 10:42 PM, Breanna Devore-McDonald
> <Breanna.S.Devore-McDonald.1@nd.edu> wrote:
>> Hello all,
>>
>> I'm a third year Computer Science student at the University of Notre
>> Dame, and for the final project of my Data Structures class, my group
>> and I have to find a way to contribute our (hopefully) newly-found
>> data structures and optimization knowledge to a well-known open source
>> project. We thought Git would be a great project to work on, but we
>> have no idea where to start. Can anyone offer ideas or parts of the
>> code that we could possibly help with? (a problem that is data
>> structures-related would be extremely helpful!)

One problem focused around data structures may be rewriting the git bisect internal algorithm. Currently git bisect uses an O(n^2), but there are better algorithms available such as [1]

[1] https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hzF8fZbsQtKwUPH60dsEwVZM2wmESFq713SeAsg_hkc/edit?usp=sharing
  The algorithm presented in that doc came up in a discussion
  between some Git developers, I just wrote it down. Maybe it's
  understandable.

That said, usually the tests in git bisect take the most time, so it is an internal optimization related to data structures, whose impact is estimated to matter only a bit. Also I would estimate the project to rewrite git bisect to be quite a lot of effort.

Show 8 quoted lines

>
> The Git project often participate in the Google Summer of Code.
>
> This year we used the following resources to help potential GSoC
> students get involved in developing Git and find a project to work on:
>
> http://git.github.io/SoC-2015-Microprojects.html
> http://git.github.io/SoC-2015-Ideas.html

Yeah the microprojects are awesome to get into Git development! Also look at http://git-blame.blogspot.com/p/leftover-bits.html for smaller projects.

Show 19 quoted lines

>
> A GSoC wrap up has been written recently in Git Rev News edition 7:
>
> http://git.github.io/rev_news/2015/09/09/edition-7/
>
> Earlier this year students from Ensimag (Grenoble, France) also
> contributed to Git and a small wrap up is available in Git Rev News
> edition 5:
>
> http://git.github.io/rev_news/2015/07/08/edition-5/
>
> I hope this will help you get started in your Git development journey.
>
> Best,
> Christian.
> --
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