[Soc-coordination] GSoC proposals for mentors.debian.net

[Nicolas Dandrimont]

Dear SoC coordinators,

Here's a proposal for a GSoC project on the mentors.debian.net codebase,
namely debexpo. The text is pasted below, in "wiki" form.

We're not quite certain that the whole extent of the project can be
achieved by one single student, so we're ready to either split the two
subprojects as two fully-fledged projects, or make the project an
either/or between the two subprojects, according to your feedback.

The full text of the proposal (complete with a background paragraph on
mentors.debian.net) is available at the bottom of the mail.

Please let us know if and how we should move forward with this proposal.

Thanks a bunch,
Nicolas Dandrimont

[proposal text]

'''Semantic Package Review Interface for mentors.debian.net'''

* "About mentors.debian.net"

Debexpo (the software running on mentors.debian.net) is a collaborative
package review tool. Debian as a community distribution, allows everyone
to maintain packages in the archives. New contributors are supposed to
go through a mentoring process, which includes reviewing packages made
by a prospective contributor. 

Debexpo helps to host newly created packages and provides a review and
management platform. Packages uploaded to Debexpo are being reviewed by
experienced users and Debian Developers who will eventually upload them
to official Debian archives. 

Once uploaded to Debian, packages then flow into the many
[[http://wiki.debian.org/Derivatives/Census|Debian-derivatives]]; the
maintenance and inclusion of packages in Debian is thus central to the
entire Debian and Debian-derivative ecosystem as highlighted by Ubuntu's
"Debian First" policy. [[https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDevelopment/NewPackages|Recent
discussions]] about package review systems have indicated that Ubuntu's
current [[http://revu.ubuntuwire.com/|REVU]] system could be replaced by
Debexpo in an effort to converge.

 * '''Description of the project:'''

Thorough reviews of packages made by less experienced maintainers,
before they're uploaded to the main package archive, are key to
maintaining the technical excellence of the Debian distribution.
Unfortunately, the lack of manpower for package reviews extends the
length of the process to a point that it is a recurrent source of
frustration in prospective contributors.

This project aims to simplify the package review process by providing a
semantic review tool for source packages on the http://mentors.debian.net/
website. This new review interface can in fact split in two subprojects:

The first subproject would be to gather a new set of semantic metadata
(e.g. an uploaded package is python-based, a package uses a certain
packaging helper, ...) on packages uploaded to Debexpo, using the
available Debian QA tools or ad-hoc heuristics. This new semantic
metadata should then be matched to the interests of sponsors and teams,
which would be taught to the software either automatically (by looking
at the upload history) or manually (with a set of tags). An automatic
matching of sponsor and package traits should make the mentoring process
easier and faster.

The second subproject, to allow the convergence efforts of the current
Debian mentoring process with the Ubuntu one, is to develop an
integrated code browser with a review interface that will allow
reviewers to take a look at the source packages at a glance, comment on
them and send summarized reviews automatically to the package
maintainer. The web interface should also allow reviewers to quickly
check the differences between subsequent uploads of the packages,
streamlining the current iterative review process.

Those two new features will need to be integrated with the current
[[mailto:debian-mentors at lists.debian.org|mailing-list]] and
[[http://bugs.debian.org/sponsorship-requests|bug-tracking system]]
based workflows.

 * '''Confirmed Mentor''': Nicolas Dandrimont

 * '''How to contact the mentor:''' nicolas.dandrimont at crans.org, IRC
 olasd on #debexpo (on irc.debian.org also known as OFTC)

 * '''Confirmed co-mentors:''' Arno Töll, debian at toell.net, IRC
 daemonkeeper; Stuart Prescott, stuart+debian at nanonanonano.net, IRC
 themill

 * '''Deliverables of the project''':

   * A versatile storage backend for packages and associated metadata in
   debexpo

   * A nicer web query interface for the package metadata, based on the
   new storage backend

   * A richer metadata set on source and binary packages, to ease the
   finding of prospective sponsors

   * An integrated code browser, with provisions for online package
   reviews

 * '''Desirable Skills''':

   * Python (Debexpo is based on the [[http://www.pylonsproject.com/|Pylons]]
   framework and uses sqlalchemy as ORM; prior knowledge of these
   frameworks or the underlying modules is appreciated but not by any
   means mandatory)

   * Basic git knowledge (Currently used for Debexpo development, and
   ''could'' be used for the package storage backend)

   * Basic understanding of Debian packages (can be acquired easily, too)

   * Some HTML/CSS knowledge (this is a web development project after all...)

 * '''What the student will learn:'''

   * How Debian source packages work and how to avoid common pitfalls in packaging

   * All about the Debian Mentors package review process, as used by Developers

   * Debian QA tools (Package Tracking System, Lintian, Debtags, ...)

   * How to interact with the Debian infrastructure (mailing-lists, bug tracking system)

   * How Debian teams work, what they do, community work in Debian.

[end of the proposal text]
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