Hello from new Outreachy applicant

Hello from new Outreachy applicant

[Lulu]

Hello everyone,

My name is Lulu and I'm a DevOps engineer and Scheme hobbyist from
Turkey. I just got accepted to Outreachy and I would like to
contribute to GNU Guix. My pronouns are they/them and my timezone is
UTC+3. I go by `erkin' on Freenode and GitHub.

Looking forward to working with you!

--
Lulu (they/them)

Re: Hello from new Outreachy applicant

[Brett Gilio]

Lulu <me@erkin.party> writes:

> Hello everyone,
>
> My name is Lulu and I'm a DevOps engineer and Scheme hobbyist from
> Turkey. I just got accepted to Outreachy and I would like to
> contribute to GNU Guix. My pronouns are they/them and my timezone is
> UTC+3. I go by `erkin' on Freenode and GitHub.
>
> Looking forward to working with you!
>
> --
> Lulu (they/them)


Hey Lulu,

Pleasure to meet you. Congratulations on your Outreachy acceptance. Do
you have any ideas for what you might want to contribute? I am on
Freenode in #guix and open for privmsg under `brettgilio`

Best,
Brett Gilio

Re: Hello from new Outreachy applicant

[Lulu]

Hi Brett,

> Congratulations on your Outreachy acceptance.
Thanks!

> Do you have any ideas for what you might want to contribute?
I'm learning the internals of Guix right now but I'm planning on
doing the task for adding a `guix git log' subcommand.

--
Lulu (they/them)

Re: Hello from new Outreachy applicant

[zimoun]

Hi Lulu,

Welcome!

Have you already tried GNU Guix?  The package manager on foreign
distro?  The full Guix System?
If yes, are you comfortable with?  Feedback is very welcome. :-)
If not, you can give a look at the manual, especially the Binary
Installer on foreign distro section [1].

Do not hesitate to report here or help-guix@gnu.org or #guix if you
hit an issue.

Well, last but not least, what topic you may be interested in to work on?


All the best,
simon

[1] <https://guix.gnu.org/manual/devel/en/guix.html#Binary-Installation>

Re: Hello from new Outreachy applicant

[Lulu]

Hi Simon,

> Have you already tried GNU Guix?  The package manager on foreign
> distro?  The full Guix System?
> If yes, are you comfortable with?  Feedback is very welcome. :-)

I tried Guix on a foreign distro but ran into some problems with
SELinux and locales. Do you recommend using GuixSD on a virtual
machine, or do you think a foreign installation would be easier for
development? I reckon a setup for internal development wouldn't be
the same as a setup for the end-user. I think I might need to work
directly from the trunk, so maybe I need to get familiar with
`guix environment' for testing? I'd appreciate some tips on this.

> Well, last but not least, what topic you may be interested in to work on?

I decided on the task to add a `guix git log' subcommand, out of the
two tasks on the Outreachy page. :-) [1]

Aside from that, can you tell me more about how this mentorship
process works? Is there a regular schedule with meetings or progress
reports or such?

[1]: https://www.outreachy.org/outreachy-december-2020-internship-round/communities/gnu-guix/#add-a-subcommand-showing-gnu-guix-history-of-all-p

--
Lulu

Re: Hello from new Outreachy applicant

[Gábor Boskovits]

Hello Lulu,

Lulu <me@erkin.party> ezt írta (időpont: 2020. okt. 9., P, 8:00):
>
> Hi Simon,
>
> > Have you already tried GNU Guix?  The package manager on foreign
> > distro?  The full Guix System?
> > If yes, are you comfortable with?  Feedback is very welcome. :-)
>
> I tried Guix on a foreign distro but ran into some problems with
> SELinux and locales. Do you recommend using GuixSD on a virtual
> machine, or do you think a foreign installation would be easier for
> development? I reckon a setup for internal development wouldn't be
> the same as a setup for the end-user. I think I might need to work
> directly from the trunk, so maybe I need to get familiar with
> `guix environment' for testing? I'd appreciate some tips on this.
>

I have always used a Gnu System VM or bare machine for development. It was
easy to set up, and made it easy to work also on services and system stuff.
The foreign distro way might be more lightweight, but if you can afford a VM I
would recommend it.

> > Well, last but not least, what topic you may be interested in to work on?
>
> I decided on the task to add a `guix git log' subcommand, out of the
> two tasks on the Outreachy page. :-) [1]

Nice, thanks for looking at it. It looks like a really good
improvement, but Simon
will have more info on that.

>
> Aside from that, can you tell me more about how this mentorship
> process works? Is there a regular schedule with meetings or progress
> reports or such?

No, actually nothing compulsory. We usually come to an informal agreement on
the meetings. I believe that communication is important and like to
have a longer discussion
(an hour or so) in the internship period. Other than that, I would
like to see two things:
1. some form of communication from the applicants every two/three
days: this should even come, if everything is going as expected, like:
"Everything is going as expected, right now I am working on..."
2. if there is a blocker of any kind, and you cannot make progress for
more than two hours: "Hello, there is a blocker, I can't make
progress, the problem is: ... Please contact me."
These should preferably be public communications, so that the
community as a whole can see the progress, and help in case of a
problem.
Just two notes for that:
1. two hours might seem a bit short, but the thing here is that we
would like to know about these, so that only a little time is wasted.
If you don't need help, or want to spend some more time on the problem
we won't stop you, but might give some directions to make this more
efficient.
2. It might feel awkward at first to communicate blockers publicly,
but it might shortcut a bunch of communication roundtrips. Guix is a
quite big place, sometimes I don't know how to tackle a problem, and
will need to turn to the community anyways. Thus making things public
will allow you to not block on my response.
One more final thought:
Don't get too stressed, there is nothing set in stone, and we can be
quite flexible, as long as we see progress, but please communicate
often, so that we know what's going on.

>
> [1]: https://www.outreachy.org/outreachy-december-2020-internship-round/communities/gnu-guix/#add-a-subcommand-showing-gnu-guix-history-of-all-p
>
> --
> Lulu
>

Regards,
g_bor
-- 
OpenPGP Key Fingerprint: 7988:3B9F:7D6A:4DBF:3719:0367:2506:A96C:CF63:0B21

Re: Hello from new Outreachy applicant

[zimoun]

Re,

> Nice, thanks for looking at it. It looks like a really good
> improvement, but Simon
> will have more info on that.

I have. :-)

Basically, recently the new "guix git" subcommand has been added (see
"guix git authenticate").  So the idea is to add another subcommand:
"guix git log" to browse the local clone (see
~/.cache/guix/checkouts/).  Currently, it is cumbersome:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
$ git -C ~/.cache/guix/checkouts/pjmkglp4t7znuugeurpurzikxq3tnlaywmisyr27shj7apsnalwq
\
       log -10 --oneline
08c62ac7bd (HEAD -> master) gnu: ghc-stylish-haskell: Deprecate older
duplicate package.
156b08bd2f gnu: stylish-haskell: Update description.
3ac12ca61b gnu: Add r-oai.
069554dc24 gnu: Add r-latex2exp.
ae10511981 gnu: Add r-httpcode.
2e59a63b41 gnu: global: Add 'python-wrapper' as input.
18401bdf69 Revert "gnu: Remove qemu-minimal@2.10."
dde3f55156 gnu: gpgme: Fix build.
b1ebda07cb gnu: python-pygraphviz: Use HTTPS home page.
d7ee58ccd2 gnu: python-tables: Use HTTPS home page.
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

And the point is to hide the plumbing and simply do:

   guix git log <options>

Well, the <options> have to be discussed.


> > Aside from that, can you tell me more about how this mentorship
> > process works? Is there a regular schedule with meetings or progress
> > reports or such?
>
> No, actually nothing compulsory. We usually come to an informal agreement on
> the meetings. I believe that communication is important and like to
> have a longer discussion

+1

> (an hour or so) in the internship period. Other than that, I would
> like to see two things:

[...]

> Don't get too stressed, there is nothing set in stone, and we can be
> quite flexible, as long as we see progress, but please communicate
> often, so that we know what's going on.

I am perfectly aligned with Gábor.  The main points are:

  - Fun matters!
  - Communicate often

All the best,
simon

Re: Hello from new Outreachy applicant

[zimoun]

Dear,

On Fri, 9 Oct 2020 at 05:40, Lulu <me@erkin.party> wrote:

> > Have you already tried GNU Guix?  The package manager on foreign
> > distro?  The full Guix System?
> > If yes, are you comfortable with?  Feedback is very welcome. :-)
>
> I tried Guix on a foreign distro but ran into some problems with
> SELinux and locales. Do you recommend using GuixSD on a virtual
> machine, or do you think a foreign installation would be easier for
> development? I reckon a setup for internal development wouldn't be
> the same as a setup for the end-user. I think I might need to work
> directly from the trunk, so maybe I need to get familiar with
> `guix environment' for testing? I'd appreciate some tips on this.

I am using the Guix package manager on the top of Debian; installed
via the Binary Install.  Let's refer to Guix as the package manager.
:-)  The nice point with Guix is the flexibility and hackability for
the end-user.  Once you are familiar with [1], the next natural step
is:

  git clone https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix.git
  cd guix
  guix environment guix --pure
  ./bootstrap
  ./configure --localstatedir=/var/
   make -j 4 # whatever number fits your machine

Then you have a fresh compiled Guix that you can run with:

   ./pre-inst-env guix help

But don't cut the corners.  The first step is to have a working Guix.

Which distro do you use?  About the locales, if you start a thread on
help-guix@gnu.org describing your problem, then the setup will be
fine. :-)
About SELinux, I do not know... I do the job on the foreign distro
side.  You could ask about specific issue on 'help-guix' or folks on
#guix will advice you.

[1] https://guix.gnu.org/manual/devel/en/guix.html#Getting-Started


> > Well, last but not least, what topic you may be interested in to work on?
>
> I decided on the task to add a `guix git log' subcommand, out of the
> two tasks on the Outreachy page. :-) [1]
>
> Aside from that, can you tell me more about how this mentorship
> process works? Is there a regular schedule with meetings or progress
> reports or such?

Nice!

Basically, the key to success is communication.   Raise the hand _as
soon as possible_.

Then my advice is: everyday log what you are doing.  It may be only
one or two lines, sometimes more.  Once a week (at least), collect the
items and send me (privately) maybe with some patches or a branch to
pull for testing.  The idea is to know your progress and your blocking
points and then help you.  On a weekly or bi-weekly basis, voice (or
video) chat with any mean which suits you (especially your timezone).

> [1]: https://www.outreachy.org/outreachy-december-2020-internship-round/communities/gnu-guix/#add-a-subcommand-showing-gnu-guix-history-of-all-p

All the best,
simon

Re: Hello from new Outreachy applicant

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hi Lulu,

Welcome!  :-)

zimoun <zimon.toutoune@gmail.com> skribis:

> Basically, the key to success is communication.   Raise the hand _as
> soon as possible_.
>
> Then my advice is: everyday log what you are doing.  It may be only
> one or two lines, sometimes more.  Once a week (at least), collect the
> items and send me (privately) maybe with some patches or a branch to
> pull for testing.  The idea is to know your progress and your blocking
> points and then help you.  On a weekly or bi-weekly basis, voice (or
> video) chat with any mean which suits you (especially your timezone).

These sound like great ideas.

I would add that Outreachy is not just about technical contributions but
also about enabling the intern to become part of the group, possibly
serving as a model for contributors-to-be.  So I encourage you to
interact with the wider group in addition to your mentor, I think it can
be beneficial to all of us.

Thanks for joining!

Ludo’.