Online hackathon ?

Online hackathon ?

[Cyril Roelandt]

Hey!

Some people at the GHM seemed to be interested in packaging stuff in 
Guix. Should we have a hackathon soon (1 or 2 weeks) where we could help 
people on IRC for a whole week-end ? Do you think many people might be 
interested ?


Cyril.

Re: Online hackathon ?

[Alex Sassmannshausen]

Sounds like a great idea.

2 weeks time would be better for me, but what do others think?

Alex
On Tue Aug 27 23:51:18 2013 Cyril Roelandt <tipecaml@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hey!
> 
> Some people at the GHM seemed to be interested in packaging stuff in 
> Guix. Should we have a hackathon soon (1 or 2 weeks) where we could help 
> people on IRC for a whole week-end ? Do you think many people might be 
> interested ?
> 
> 
> Cyril.
> 

Re: Online hackathon ?

[Nikita Karetnikov]

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> Some people at the GHM seemed to be interested in packaging stuff in
> Guix. Should we have a hackathon soon (1 or 2 weeks) where we could
> help people on IRC for a whole week-end ? Do you think many people
> might be interested ?

I like the idea.  I think there should be a low-hanging-fruit-list, so
people won’t lose focus.  What should be packaged that’s not too tricky
for newcomers?

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Re: Online hackathon ?

[Bastien]

Hi Cyril,

Cyril Roelandt <tipecaml@gmail.com> writes:

> Some people at the GHM seemed to be interested in packaging stuff in
> Guix. Should we have a hackathon soon (1 or 2 weeks) where we could
> help people on IRC for a whole week-end ? Do you think many people
> might be interested ?

I'd be interested.

-- 
 Bastien

Re: Online hackathon ?

[Ludovic Courtès]

Cyril Roelandt <tipecaml@gmail.com> skribis:

> Some people at the GHM seemed to be interested in packaging stuff in
> Guix. Should we have a hackathon soon (1 or 2 weeks) where we could
> help people on IRC for a whole week-end ? Do you think many people
> might be interested ?

Good idea!  A two-week notice sounds better.  I can arrange to help out
on IRC outside of work hours, CEST (I may be traveling between Sep. 9
and 11, but I should be available on IRC.)

Ludo’.

Re: Online hackathon ?

[Ludovic Courtès]

Nikita Karetnikov <nikita@karetnikov.org> skribis:

>> Some people at the GHM seemed to be interested in packaging stuff in
>> Guix. Should we have a hackathon soon (1 or 2 weeks) where we could
>> help people on IRC for a whole week-end ? Do you think many people
>> might be interested ?
>
> I like the idea.  I think there should be a low-hanging-fruit-list, so
> people won’t lose focus.  What should be packaged that’s not too tricky
> for newcomers?

I think there’s a verrrrry large choice of things to package ;-), so we
can let people choose.  Then savvy people can tell them whether it’s
going to be too difficult, etc.

WDYT?

Ludo’.

Re: Online hackathon ?

[Cyril Roelandt]

On 08/28/2013 03:02 PM, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> Nikita Karetnikov <nikita@karetnikov.org> skribis:
>
>>> Some people at the GHM seemed to be interested in packaging stuff in
>>> Guix. Should we have a hackathon soon (1 or 2 weeks) where we could
>>> help people on IRC for a whole week-end ? Do you think many people
>>> might be interested ?
>>
>> I like the idea.  I think there should be a low-hanging-fruit-list, so
>> people won’t lose focus.  What should be packaged that’s not too tricky
>> for newcomers?
>
> I think there’s a verrrrry large choice of things to package ;-), so we
> can let people choose.  Then savvy people can tell them whether it’s
> going to be too difficult, etc.
>
> WDYT?
>

People at the GHM knew what they wanted to package. I know Amirouche 
(who's been on #guix for a few weeks) was trying to package skribilo. I 
think we should let them package what they want.

It'd be great to decide what __we__ should package for the next release, 
though :)

Cyril.

Re: Online hackathon ?

[Ludovic Courtès]

Cyril Roelandt <tipecaml@gmail.com> skribis:

> On 08/28/2013 03:02 PM, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
>> Nikita Karetnikov <nikita@karetnikov.org> skribis:
>>
>>>> Some people at the GHM seemed to be interested in packaging stuff in
>>>> Guix. Should we have a hackathon soon (1 or 2 weeks) where we could
>>>> help people on IRC for a whole week-end ? Do you think many people
>>>> might be interested ?
>>>
>>> I like the idea.  I think there should be a low-hanging-fruit-list, so
>>> people won’t lose focus.  What should be packaged that’s not too tricky
>>> for newcomers?
>>
>> I think there’s a verrrrry large choice of things to package ;-), so we
>> can let people choose.  Then savvy people can tell them whether it’s
>> going to be too difficult, etc.
>>
>> WDYT?
>>
>
> People at the GHM knew what they wanted to package. I know Amirouche
> (who's been on #guix for a few weeks) was trying to package
> skribilo. I think we should let them package what they want.

Yes.  (BTW, I have a stash with Skribilo...)

> It'd be great to decide what __we__ should package for the next
> release, though :)

My opinion is that we first want packages that improve usability for the
typical hacker.  That’s what has been guiding part of my packaging
activity, and now most of what I use daily comes from Guix.

The second thing is GNU packages.  Some of the trickier but more
interesting include TeXmacs, Octave, and R, for instance.

The third category is big software collections: GNOME, GNUstep, XFCE,
KDE, etc.

Thoughts?

(I’ll write more about what other things I’d like to see in the next
release separately.)

Ludo’.

Re: Online hackathon ?

[Andreas Enge]

On Wed, Aug 28, 2013 at 10:53:53PM +0200, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> The second thing is GNU packages.  Some of the trickier but more
> interesting include TeXmacs, Octave, and R, for instance.

TeXmacs and R are not on the gnu ftp servers, so they are on my list of
things not to package for the time being... (More precisely, on the list
of packages where it would make sense to enquire about an upload to the
gnu ftp servers so that we could start packaging and have automated updates
and so on.)

Andreas

Re: Online hackathon ?

[Andreas Enge]

On Wed, Aug 28, 2013 at 10:53:53PM +0200, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> The second thing is GNU packages.  Some of the trickier but more
> interesting include TeXmacs, Octave, and R, for instance.

Octave requires gfortran. How can this be activated in our gcc used for
building packages?

Andreas

Re: Online hackathon ?

[Ludovic Courtès]

Andreas Enge <andreas@enge.fr> skribis:

> On Wed, Aug 28, 2013 at 10:53:53PM +0200, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
>> The second thing is GNU packages.  Some of the trickier but more
>> interesting include TeXmacs, Octave, and R, for instance.
>
> Octave requires gfortran. How can this be activated in our gcc used for
> building packages?

I’d be in favor or creating a separate package derived from gcc that has
Fortran enabled:

  (define-public gfortran
    (package (inherit gcc-4.8)
      (name "gfortran")
      (arguments
        ;; something that does --enable-languages=fortran
        )))

For code that fiddles with --enable-languages, see the definition of
‘gcc-boot0’ in base.scm.

Probably this should be factorized and made available in a nicer way:

  (define (gcc #:key (languages '("c" "c++")))
    "Return a GCC with the given LANGUAGES..."
    (package ...
       ...))

HTH,
Ludo’.

Re: Online hackathon ?

[Jason Self]

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There will also be a hackathon going on at the GNU Project's 30th
anniversary [0] in Boston if anyone's interested in meeting in person
there. It could probably be coordinated with an online hackathon too.
Based on Libby's message [1] it might be possible to coordinate
something for Guix too.

Just a thought...

[0] https://gnu.org/gnu30/
[1]
https://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/gnu-linux-libre/2013-08/msg00014.html

Re: Online hackathon ?

[Ludovic Courtès]

"Jason Self" <jason@bluehome.net> skribis:

> There will also be a hackathon going on at the GNU Project's 30th
> anniversary [0] in Boston if anyone's interested in meeting in person
> there. It could probably be coordinated with an online hackathon too.
> Based on Libby's message [1] it might be possible to coordinate
> something for Guix too.

Would be nice, though I think most people here are on the other side of
the ocean.  On the positive side: it would be an opportunity to conquer
the US.  ;-)

There’s a birthday party in Paris on the 21st too.  I won’t be
physically there, but that could be a good date too.  Cyril?

Ludo’.

Re: Online hackathon ?

[Ludovic Courtès]

"Jason Self" <jason@bluehome.net> skribis:

> There will also be a hackathon going on at the GNU Project's 30th
> anniversary [0] in Boston if anyone's interested in meeting in person
> there. It could probably be coordinated with an online hackathon too.
> Based on Libby's message [1] it might be possible to coordinate
> something for Guix too.

We haven’t heard from our Hackaton Manager, but I think ey (Cyril)
mentioned liking the idea of having the hackaton on that occasion.

So, unless someone strongly disagrees, I’ll shortly email Libby to
inform them that (1) we’ll be holding that online hackaton, and (2)
we’ll provide a preview of the official Guix-based GNU system.

Ludo’.

Re: Online hackathon ?

[Cyril Roelandt]

On 09/07/2013 02:35 PM, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> "Jason Self" <jason@bluehome.net> skribis:
>
>> There will also be a hackathon going on at the GNU Project's 30th
>> anniversary [0] in Boston if anyone's interested in meeting in person
>> there. It could probably be coordinated with an online hackathon too.
>> Based on Libby's message [1] it might be possible to coordinate
>> something for Guix too.
>
> We haven’t heard from our Hackaton Manager, but I think ey (Cyril)
> mentioned liking the idea of having the hackaton on that occasion.
>

Oh right, forgot to write an email about that, but as discussed on IRC 
(iirc), I think it'd be best to have our online Hackathon at this date.


Cyril.

Re: Online hackathon ?

[Andreas Enge]

On Sat, Sep 07, 2013 at 02:35:01PM +0200, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> "Jason Self" <jason@bluehome.net> skribis:
> > There will also be a hackathon going on at the GNU Project's 30th
> > anniversary [0] in Boston if anyone's interested in meeting in person
> > there. It could probably be coordinated with an online hackathon too.
> > Based on Libby's message [1] it might be possible to coordinate
> > something for Guix too.
> We haven’t heard from our Hackaton Manager, but I think ey (Cyril)
> mentioned liking the idea of having the hackaton on that occasion.

Another option would be to have it coincide with the 30th anniversary
celebrations in Paris in two weeks:
   http://www.april.org/celebrer-les-30-ans-de-gnu-le-21-septembre-2013-paris-8
I will probably go there, is anyone else going to attend?

Andreas

Re: Online hackathon ?

[Ludovic Courtès]

Andreas Enge <andreas@enge.fr> skribis:

> On Sat, Sep 07, 2013 at 02:35:01PM +0200, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
>> "Jason Self" <jason@bluehome.net> skribis:
>> > There will also be a hackathon going on at the GNU Project's 30th
>> > anniversary [0] in Boston if anyone's interested in meeting in person
>> > there. It could probably be coordinated with an online hackathon too.
>> > Based on Libby's message [1] it might be possible to coordinate
>> > something for Guix too.
>> We haven’t heard from our Hackaton Manager, but I think ey (Cyril)
>> mentioned liking the idea of having the hackaton on that occasion.
>
> Another option would be to have it coincide with the 30th anniversary
> celebrations in Paris in two weeks:
>    http://www.april.org/celebrer-les-30-ans-de-gnu-le-21-septembre-2013-paris-8
> I will probably go there, is anyone else going to attend?

I won’t.

In the meantime I had emailed Libby of the FSF mentioning Sep. 28th.  So
you’ll have the 21st to chat in Paris, and the 28th to hack.  ;-)

Ludo’.