Emacs developers help wanted for Purdue University's Hack the Anvil

Emacs developers help wanted for Purdue University's Hack the Anvil

[Joshua Branson]

 Hello Emacs developers! 

	I'm a recent Purdue University graduate, and fellow emacs hacker!  I'm emailing you, because I could use your help this weekend!  Purdue University (in West Lafayette IN) is organizing this awesome hackathon: http://hacktheanvil.com/ (March 6-8). 50 companies are coming to give away various prizes for the best and coolest apps/games/hardware hacks. The companies are also going to be sending talented developers to help the 400 Purdue students develop an app/game or use a cool API. So, that's why I'm planning on giving away a $20 prize (plus candy) to the hacker/team that makes a really cool emacs minor mode in the 36 hours that they hack, and if a hacker needs help on an emacs hack, I can answer their question. But, there's one problem...

	I'm not a great emacs hacker (I know, woe is me   ).  I've only made 2 emacs minor modes and contributed only a small code snippet to web-mode. Plus, I'm not an expert lisper, BUT if I am going to give away this prize, I'd like to be able to answer some really hard/deep questions about emacs lisp. Here's your mission, should you choose to accept it:  Would use be willing to dig deep this weekend? Can you set aside 2-4 hours (or more if you really want to.  I won't complain.) between Friday March 6th 7pm and Sunday 11am (central time) to skype with me or a Purdue hacker this weekend at the hackathon, if we have questions about how to hack an emacs minor mode?

	To be more specific, you probably won't have to answer too many questions. Most of the hackers find out how to do stuff on their own and rarely ask for help, because we're a proud bunch of nerds.   So if you do decide to help, you'd probably be able to sit by the computer and watch a movie or tv show, until someone comes and asks me a question that I don't know to answer.  Also, you can pick the hours that you want to help, because I don't expect you to get up at 1am to help answer a question. 

	
    Thanks,

    Joshua Branson

P.S. I'm sorry I'm asking you to do this so close to the event, and I hope you'll forgive me. Also, I'm not sure if this is the best list to be sending this email to. Should I send this email to the emacs-devel mailing list as well?

Re: Emacs developers help wanted for Purdue University's Hack the Anvil

[Vaidheeswaran C]

On Wednesday 04 March 2015 07:05 AM, Joshua Branson wrote:

> Should I send this email to the emacs-devel mailing list as well?

Get in touch with #emacs IRC folks.

Invite them to "sticky up" the hackathon event in the chat board.

On the day of the event, participants can log in to #emacs IRC channel
or the #emacs lurkers can check in to the channel that you
specifically create for the event.

Re: Emacs developers help wanted for Purdue University's Hack the Anvil

[Thien-Thi Nguyen]

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() Joshua Branson <jbranso@purdue.edu>
() Tue, 03 Mar 2015 20:35:34 -0500

   [Anyone willing] to skype with me or a Purdue hacker this
   weekend at the hackathon, if we have questions about how to
   hack an emacs minor mode?

I think you will obtain better results on IRC.  Probably you
discourage some potentially serious helpers by using Skype,
which is not universally accessible, and furthermore, is not
Free Software.

Of course, in a 1:N situation, mischief could scale just as well
as help (and be more difficult to detect, deflect or reject), so
maybe that's not such a good idea.  OTOH, the N_helpful might be
able to autonomously counter or filter the N_mischievous, or at
the minimum provide entertaining banter to take the edge off the
competition-induced stress.  Like they say, you put N experts in
a room, you get N! "concensus outcomes" on how to proceed.  :-D

-- 
Thien-Thi Nguyen
   GPG key: 4C807502
   (if you're human and you know it)
      read my lisp: (responsep (questions 'technical)
                               (not (via 'mailing-list)))
                     => nil

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Re: Emacs developers help wanted for Purdue University's Hack the Anvil

[Thien-Thi Nguyen]

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() Thien-Thi Nguyen <ttn@gnu.org>
() Wed, 04 Mar 2015 12:33:55 +0100

   N! "concensus outcomes"

Drat, that should be N!/2 due to symmetry (from "concensus").  :-/

-- 
Thien-Thi Nguyen
   GPG key: 4C807502
   (if you're human and you know it)
      read my lisp: (responsep (questions 'technical)
                               (not (via 'mailing-list)))
                     => nil

[-- Attachment #2: signature.asc --]
[-- Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 197 bytes --]

Re: Emacs developers help wanted for Purdue University's Hack the Anvil

[Emanuel Berg]

Joshua Branson <jbranso@purdue.edu> writes:

>  Hello Emacs developers!
>
> 	I'm a recent Purdue University graduate ...

Ha ha ha! Unheard of!

But of course, ask as many questions you'd like,
that's what the list/newsgroup is for.

Also, get on IRC (e.g., with ERC) and join forces with
#emacs on irc.freenode.net port 6667 were there a
bunch of proud nerds as well.

Other than that, why don't you simply learn how to
make a minor mode before the event?

Besides, such competitions are - I don't know.
Something!

-- 
underground experts united

Re: Emacs developers help wanted for Purdue University's Hack the Anvil

[Joshua Branson]

    Thanks for the speedy responses folks!

        And as I said in my previous email, I have made two emacs minor
modes (one is evil-dvorak, which is available on melpa), but I'm just
not an expert emacs hacker.  And I probably won't become one before the
event.

       Anyway, I did not think to get on #emacs IRC to ask questions, so
I'll be sure to use that for the event! Thanks so much for that suggestion!

         However, IRC is a bit less than ideal.  Asking questions on IRC
is ok, but not great.  Every other sponsor at the event (ie: Apple,
Wolfram, pebble, MS, twilio, among others to name a few) will have a
seasoned developer present.  So if someone wants to use pebble's API,
they will get a quick speedy response from someone who knows exactly
what they're doing.

        So I would prefer to talk to some emacs developers via skype (or
some alternate program), because skype is soooo much faster at
communicating than IRC.  Is anyone willing to be on skype for a few
hours this weekend?

    Thanks,

    Joshua

Re: Emacs developers help wanted for Purdue University's Hack the Anvil

[Emanuel Berg]

Joshua Branson <jbranso@purdue.edu> writes:

> And as I said in my previous email, I have made two
> emacs minor modes (one is evil-dvorak, which is
> available on melpa), but I'm just not an expert
> emacs hacker. And I probably won't become one before
> the event.

If you want to be an expert, start acting like one
right now. To begin with, no expert says he isn't an
expert. Others can tell you that, or the equivalent,
if you give them reason to.

> However, IRC is a bit less than ideal. Asking
> questions on IRC is ok, but not great. Every other
> sponsor at the event (ie: Apple, Wolfram, pebble,
> MS, twilio, among others to name a few) will have a
> seasoned developer present.

It doesn't really matter what the others have. You
must cope with what you have (or can, and will have).
Remember, a warrior thinks neither of victory nor
defeat. Battle many as you would have one, and the
lonesome warrior as you would have an army!

> So I would prefer to talk to some emacs developers
> via skype (or some alternate program), because skype
> is soooo much faster at communicating than IRC.

The best way to communicate technology and in
particular code is by mail, or, by extention, mailing
lists or Usenet/NNTP (which is virtually same as mail,
only public). I suppose IRC is the second best way,
only that's a wide gap in between.

-- 
underground experts united