Guix as GSOC Project

Guix as GSOC Project

[Ashish Gupta]

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Hello, i am Ashish Gupta, second Year Student pursuing Information
Technology. I am very interested to work for Guix as my GSOC Project, this
is the first time i am participating.

Any help regarding any kind of work i can do .

I have C/C++ programming experience for a couple of years and i really want
to contribute something to the Free Software Community, and Guix seems like
the perfect project to do so.

Looking forward to a reply so i can start working asap,

Regards,

Ashish

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Re: Guix as GSOC Project

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hi Ashish,

Thanks for your interest in GNU & Guix!

First I would suggest you look at http://gnu.org/s/guix and the manual
referred to from there to familiarize yourself with Guix, if you haven’t
already.  Trying to install the system and report any problems that you
have may also be a good starting point.

Guix is written in Scheme.  You don’t need to be a Scheme wizard to hack
on it, but I’d recommend looking at the code, and perhaps reading a bit
about Scheme and Guile to get a feel.

Last but not least, among the ideas listed at
<http://www.gnu.org/software/soc-projects/ideas-2013.html#guix>, which
one would you like to work on?  Or would you like to add one?

Happy hacking!

Ludo’.

Re: Guix as GSOC Project

[Ashish Gupta]

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Thanks for the suggestion Karloskar , I'll surely start with Scheme soon.

Hello Ludovic,

I have gone through the manual ( a few pages as of now),and have downloaded
the source ball from the HTTP server.

My exams are going on right now , i have one on 24th April , and the next
on 3rd May, so would it be okay if i start full throttle with the
application after 24th April ? (26 hours after the time at which im writing
this mail).

I have gone through the idea list on
http://www.gnu.org/software/soc-projects/ideas-2013.html#guix, and the
ideas i wish to work on are ,

*Package Management through emacs.*
Since i use emacs time and again, it'll be much nicer if i was say hacking
away at a piece of code and it required some libraries, maybe the package
manager could be made to parse the INSTALL/README files automatically and
then find the required packages you need for that source ball you'll be
compiling from later(I can elaborate on this a bit more).

*Packaging a Modern Desktop environment in GNU Guix.*
Guix needs a DE, i would suggest LXDE as the first step because it's light
weight and options for switching between them can also be added later, so
this project has a lot of future scope.

*Another idea i had was about a Hotspot access point (Wireless).*
Would this be a good place to discuss it ?

The best part is that I'll be having a summer break from 27th May (the date
when volunteers are announced) to 18th June. In those 20 days, i can do a
lot of learning about whatever will be relevant. And after the college
starts i can spend at least 35-40 hours a week working on the project i
will be assigned.

As i already mentioned, my exams are going on right now,
Would it be acceptable if my application proposal is a bit late than 24th
May (3 days at MAX).

Thanks for the patience while reading this,
Looking forward to replies,

Ashish


On Tue, Apr 23, 2013 at 3:27 AM, Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> wrote:

> Hi Ashish,
>
> Thanks for your interest in GNU & Guix!
>
> First I would suggest you look at http://gnu.org/s/guix and the manual
> referred to from there to familiarize yourself with Guix, if you haven’t
> already.  Trying to install the system and report any problems that you
> have may also be a good starting point.
>
> Guix is written in Scheme.  You don’t need to be a Scheme wizard to hack
> on it, but I’d recommend looking at the code, and perhaps reading a bit
> about Scheme and Guile to get a feel.
>
> Last but not least, among the ideas listed at
> <http://www.gnu.org/software/soc-projects/ideas-2013.html#guix>, which
> one would you like to work on?  Or would you like to add one?
>
> Happy hacking!
>
> Ludo’.
>

Learn Scheme then! :) Great language google SICP. Also im no dev.

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Re: Guix as GSOC Project

[Ludovic Courtès]

Ashish Gupta <ashmew2@gmail.com> skribis:

> I have gone through the manual ( a few pages as of now),and have downloaded
> the source ball from the HTTP server.

Great.  Make sure to ask any questions you may have regarding installation.

> *Package Management through emacs.*
> Since i use emacs time and again, it'll be much nicer if i was say hacking
> away at a piece of code and it required some libraries, maybe the package
> manager could be made to parse the INSTALL/README files automatically and
> then find the required packages you need for that source ball you'll be
> compiling from later(I can elaborate on this a bit more).

Hmm yes.  The idea here was rather to have a user interface, in Emacs,
to manage packages with Guix.  Are you familiar with package.el?  That’s
the kind of UI we’d aim for.

What’s your experience writing Emacs Lisp code?

> *Packaging a Modern Desktop environment in GNU Guix.*
> Guix needs a DE, i would suggest LXDE as the first step because it's light
> weight and options for switching between them can also be added later, so
> this project has a lot of future scope.

As you might have seen, Chris is also volunteering to work on that part,
specifically on GNOME.  Adding LXDE would be great, but my impression is
that it would take much less effort than GNOME, and probably “not
enough” for a SoC.

> *Another idea i had was about a Hotspot access point (Wireless).*

What do you mean?

Thanks,
Ludo’.

Re: Guix as GSOC Project

[Ashish Gupta]

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> Hmm yes.  The idea here was rather to have a user interface, in Emacs,
> to manage packages with Guix.  Are you familiar with package.el?  That’s
> the kind of UI we’d aim for.
>
> What’s your experience writing Emacs Lisp code?

I have read about package.el , but as far as making Emacs Lisp scripts go,
i've not really given it a try. I will shortly , once i get enough grasp on
Scheme to understand it .I have done UI designing before ( in Qt/GtK), so i
guess it should be easy to build on it.
I have started with SICP and going through the basics.

> > *Another idea i had was about a Hotspot access point (Wireless).*
>
> What do you mean?

I was thinking about a system tool/software that could easily enough create
Infrastructural WiFi Access Points. There's a very popular program on
Windows to achieve this, but doing the same under Linux seems to be
impossible as of now. There is hostapd which seems promising, but is still
unused. That could be moulded in a better GUI. The need for infrastructural
networks is of utmost importance now a days , because smartphones can
connect to them and use internet , which is not possible on ad hoc
networking (at least under android).
This comes in for internet sharing in an easy manner, for example in the
case where you have one LAN cable to connect and five devices to run off
the same internet. So, it converts it into your personal hotspot (With
internet connection sharing).

Maybe something like this could be built into Guix in a more default way ?

> As you might have seen, Chris is also volunteering to work on that part,
> specifically on GNOME.  Adding LXDE would be great, but my impression is
> that it would take much less effort than GNOME, and probably “not
> enough” for a SoC.
>

As far as packaging a modern DE in Guix goes, i am very sure that packaging
GNOME would be a nice idea, as it could appeal to a larger user base among
many things. I suggested LXDE just for it's lightweightedness. If GNOME
makes the project enough for SOC, then GNOME it should be :D

> Great.  Make sure to ask any questions you may have regarding
installation.

I installed Guile 2.0, (i had version 1.8 on arch and that wouldnt go to
2.0 ) , so i went to the git repository and cloned and compiled, is there
already some way to watch a git repository for a newer version at all
times? As in, one package is kept synced with the git repository instead of
the official repository. Can we already do that in Guix in a more
convenient manner for the user?
Im referring to something like
           guix-package install guile
which would also check if the git repository has a more recent version of
the same package.

Right now the ./configure gives me (im on Arch x86_64):

************************************************************************
No package 'guile-2.0' found

Consider adjusting the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable if you
installed software in a non-standard prefix.

Alternatively, you may set the environment variables GUILE_CFLAGS
and GUILE_LIBS to avoid the need to call pkg-config.
See the pkg-config man page for more details.
************************************************************************

It's still asking for Guile-2.0 , the binaries i have in /usr/bin and
/usr/local/bin have versions 2.1.0.

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Re: Guix as GSOC Project

[Chris Dale]

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> It's still asking for Guile-2.0 , the binaries i have in /usr/bin and
/usr/local/bin have versions 2.1.0.
Hello Ashish! I had this problem too. The easiest fix is to install the
guile2 package from the AUR.

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Re: Guix as GSOC Project

[Ashish Gupta]

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On Wed, Apr 24, 2013 at 8:51 PM, Chris Dale <
adventureonthehighseas@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > It's still asking for Guile-2.0 , the binaries i have in /usr/bin and
/usr/local/bin have versions 2.1.0.
> Hello Ashish! I had this problem too. The easiest fix is to install the
guile2 package from the AUR.

Hello Chris,
Found a mail in the January archive. This did the trick :

  $ ./configure PKG_CONFIG=true GUILE_CFLAGS="" GUILE_LIBS=""
SQLITE3_LIBS="-lsqlite3"

Finally did a sudo make install right now ! :D

Cheers.
Ashish.

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Re: Guix as GSOC Project

[Cyril Roelandt]

On 04/23/2013 10:24 AM, Ashish Gupta wrote:
> The best part is that I'll be having a summer break from 27th May (the date
> when volunteers are announced) to 18th June. In those 20 days, i can do a
> lot of learning about whatever will be relevant. And after the college
> starts i can spend at least 35-40 hours a week working on the project i
> will be assigned.

So you'd be going to college and working on Guix at the same time ? I 
think this might be a problem. The idea of the "Summer of Code" is that 
students get to work during their summer __break__. I'm not saying this 
can't be done, but working double shifts seems a bit hard to me.

Cyril.

Re: Guix as GSOC Project

[Ludovic Courtès]

Ashish Gupta <ashmew2@gmail.com> skribis:

>> Hmm yes.  The idea here was rather to have a user interface, in Emacs,
>> to manage packages with Guix.  Are you familiar with package.el?  That’s
>> the kind of UI we’d aim for.
>>
>> What’s your experience writing Emacs Lisp code?
>
> I have read about package.el , but as far as making Emacs Lisp scripts go,
> i've not really given it a try. I will shortly , once i get enough grasp on
> Scheme to understand it .I have done UI designing before ( in Qt/GtK), so i
> guess it should be easy to build on it.
> I have started with SICP and going through the basics.

Great.

Regarding package.el, you can try M-x package-list-packages in Emacs
24.x so see what it’s like.

>> > *Another idea i had was about a Hotspot access point (Wireless).*
>>
>> What do you mean?
>
> I was thinking about a system tool/software that could easily enough create
> Infrastructural WiFi Access Points.

Interesting, but only remotely related to Guix.  ;-)

> I installed Guile 2.0, (i had version 1.8 on arch and that wouldnt go to
> 2.0 ) , so i went to the git repository and cloned and compiled, is there
> already some way to watch a git repository for a newer version at all
> times? As in, one package is kept synced with the git repository instead of
> the official repository. Can we already do that in Guix in a more
> convenient manner for the user?
> Im referring to something like
>            guix-package install guile
> which would also check if the git repository has a more recent version of
> the same package.

So currently we have something that looks for the latest upstream
release (cf. <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-guix/2013-03/msg00032.html>).

It would be doable to check the upstream version control repository, but
I don’t think it’s a good idea to emphasize such a feature as long as
there are upstream releases.

> Right now the ./configure gives me (im on Arch x86_64):
>
> ************************************************************************
> No package 'guile-2.0' found
>
> Consider adjusting the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable if you
> installed software in a non-standard prefix.
>
> Alternatively, you may set the environment variables GUILE_CFLAGS
> and GUILE_LIBS to avoid the need to call pkg-config.
> See the pkg-config man page for more details.
> ************************************************************************
>
> It's still asking for Guile-2.0 , the binaries i have in /usr/bin and
> /usr/local/bin have versions 2.1.0.

Did you eventually solve that?

Thanks,
Ludo’.

Re: Guix as GSOC Project

[Ashish Gupta]

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On Thu, Apr 25, 2013 at 1:24 AM, Cyril Roelandt <tipecaml@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 04/23/2013 10:24 AM, Ashish Gupta wrote:
>>
>> The best part is that I'll be having a summer break from 27th May (the
date
>> when volunteers are announced) to 18th June. In those 20 days, i can do a
>> lot of learning about whatever will be relevant. And after the college
>> starts i can spend at least 35-40 hours a week working on the project i
>> will be assigned.
>
>
> So you'd be going to college and working on Guix at the same time ? I
think this might be a problem. The idea of the "Summer of Code" is that
students get to work during their summer __break__. I'm not saying this
can't be done, but working double shifts seems a bit hard to me.
>
> Cyril.

Hello Cyril, im actually accustomed to working like that, college goes on
but that will be for about 4 hours a day with no concept of "homework"
going on. It wont be "double shifts", it's actually what i do everyday,
very normal. The college will not be a part where time is invested, not at
all. It will actually be like a summer break because the hours have been
reduced by half (8 hours to 4 hours) by the college.

It is of no worry. I can keep working on Guix for 40-45 hours a week easily
enough , and maybe stretch it to 50-55 if required.
Plus as i mentioned, the 20 holidays that im getting in the beginning of
June will also help in learning about a lot of new things, using which
stuff can be implemented once the actual programming kicks off under GSoC.

Regards,
Ashish

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Re: Guix as GSOC Project

[Ashish Gupta]

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On Thu, Apr 25, 2013 at 2:04 AM, Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> wrote:
>
> Great.
>
> Regarding package.el, you can try M-x package-list-packages in Emacs
> 24.x so see what it’s like.

Wow, the UI is simple to use and seems powerful. New "window" spawning
inside on new clicks is also a nice feature , so switching between packages
is as easy as it can be. If this is the kind of UI mentioned in the ideas'
page, it seems to do the trick. Simple + Powerful.

> > I installed Guile 2.0, (i had version 1.8 on arch and that wouldnt go to
> > 2.0 ) , so i went to the git repository and cloned and compiled, is
there
> > already some way to watch a git repository for a newer version at all
> > times? As in, one package is kept synced with the git repository
instead of
> > the official repository. Can we already do that in Guix in a more
> > convenient manner for the user?
> > Im referring to something like
> >            guix-package install guile
> > which would also check if the git repository has a more recent version
of
> > the same package.
>
> So currently we have something that looks for the latest upstream
> release (cf. <
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-guix/2013-03/msg00032.html>).
> It would be doable to check the upstream version control repository, but
> I don’t think it’s a good idea to emphasize such a feature as long as
> there are upstream releases.
>

I went through that thread and i guess the feature can be worked upon later
(not a point of concern in the nascent stage), so it would be better to
just focus on the core stuff for now.

> > Right now the ./configure gives me (im on Arch x86_64):
> >
> > ************************************************************************
> > No package 'guile-2.0' found
> >
> > Consider adjusting the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable if you
> > installed software in a non-standard prefix.
> >
> > Alternatively, you may set the environment variables GUILE_CFLAGS
> > and GUILE_LIBS to avoid the need to call pkg-config.
> > See the pkg-config man page for more details.
> > ************************************************************************
> >
> > It's still asking for Guile-2.0 , the binaries i have in /usr/bin and
> > /usr/local/bin have versions 2.1.0.
>
> Did you eventually solve that?
>
Yes , i solved that, and another error related to an undefined reference to
sqlite3_exec, simply by configuring it with

 $ ./configure PKG_CONFIG=true GUILE_CFLAGS="" GUILE_LIBS=""
SQLITE3_LIBS="-lsqlite3"

I have a guix system up and running now, and guix-package install gcc seems
to have finished without errors.
I'll just check that.

Just two things that i noticed while installing GCC,
There's no resume support for partial downloads.
The progress bar should be confined to a single line rather than spanning
100*10 lines (one for each 0.1%) (at least that's what happened on my end ,
maybe i have a slow internet connection.)
Are these issues worth addressing as of now?

PS - Should i submit an application regarding Guix as GSOC Project now ?

> Thanks,
> Ludo’.

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Re: Guix as GSOC Project

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hi Ashish,

Ashish Gupta <ashmew2@gmail.com> skribis:

> Just two things that i noticed while installing GCC,
> There's no resume support for partial downloads.
> The progress bar should be confined to a single line rather than spanning
> 100*10 lines (one for each 0.1%) (at least that's what happened on my end ,
> maybe i have a slow internet connection.)
> Are these issues worth addressing as of now?

There’s no progress bar, just a percentage.

I agree that this kind of feedback is important, but I wouldn’t worry
for now.

> PS - Should i submit an application regarding Guix as GSOC Project now ?

To be honest, I’m not confident about our ability to work together at
this point.  You mentioned you’ll start college, whereas I would expect
GSoC to be full time (perhaps you could do both, but I don’t want you to
work night & day).  Also it seems to be a completely new set of tools
(Scheme, Emacs, etc.) compared to your area of expertise.

Anyway, thanks for your interest in GNU and Guix, and I hope we’ll be
able to work together over time!

Thanks,
Ludo’.

Re: Guix as GSOC Project

[Xue Fuqiao]

On Fri, Apr 26, 2013 at 10:35 PM, Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> wrote:
> Hi Ashish,
>
> Ashish Gupta <ashmew2@gmail.com> skribis:
>
>> Just two things that i noticed while installing GCC,
>> There's no resume support for partial downloads.
>> The progress bar should be confined to a single line rather than spanning
>> 100*10 lines (one for each 0.1%) (at least that's what happened on my end ,
>> maybe i have a slow internet connection.)
>> Are these issues worth addressing as of now?
>
> There’s no progress bar, just a percentage.
>
> I agree that this kind of feedback is important, but I wouldn’t worry
> for now.

+1

I think something like packaging a modern DE in GNU Guix is more
important.

--
Best regards, Xue Fuqiao.
http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/

Re: Guix as GSOC Project

[Ashish Gupta]

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On Fri, Apr 26, 2013 at 8:05 PM, Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> wrote:
>
> To be honest, I’m not confident about our ability to work together at
> this point.  You mentioned you’ll start college, whereas I would expect
> GSoC to be full time (perhaps you could do both, but I don’t want you to
> work night & day).  Also it seems to be a completely new set of tools
> (Scheme, Emacs, etc.) compared to your area of expertise.
> Anyway, thanks for your interest in GNU and Guix, and I hope we’ll be
> able to work together over time!
>

Well, the college is not an issue as i mentioned, it would be a full time
thing only (Without working day and night). Yes i cannot deny the fact that
Scheme/Emacs scripting/programming are relatively very new. I always
planned to learn LISP (or one of its dialects), thought this would be a
right time.
Anyhow, thanks for the support/replies, Im sure i'll be able to contribute
something useful over time, just not right now.

Thanks Ludovic.

Regards,
Ashish

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