1 |
On Thursday, 18 August 2005 04:35 pm, Jordan Dawe wrote: |
2 |
> I'm interested in becoming a sci developer. I've been using |
3 |
> gentoo to do computational oceanography for a couple of years |
4 |
> now, and it would be nice to know how the whole system works. |
5 |
> How do you sign up? How much time would it demand? The time |
6 |
> might be a problem--I'm tyring to finish my PhD right now, but |
7 |
> if there's too much to do, perhaps I could join up later...? |
8 |
|
9 |
I will continue this discussion off-list with Jordan, but here |
10 |
are a few remarks about what being a developer entails and how |
11 |
much time is necessary. By posting on this list, other |
12 |
developers can correct me and add their own opinion. |
13 |
|
14 |
First of all, as George said, it is not necessary to be a |
15 |
Linux/UNIX guru to become a developer. Much more important is |
16 |
your interest in dedicating a bit of time every week to improve |
17 |
your favorite distribution. ;-) You do need to be reasonably |
18 |
familiar with the UNIX operating system and Gentoo Linux, |
19 |
though, and to be able to do some basic bash scripting. |
20 |
|
21 |
Familiarity with one or more scientific packages already in |
22 |
Portage, and willfulness to maintain them up-to-date and |
23 |
bug-free would be a plus. We currently have no maintainer for |
24 |
important packages such as GNU Octave, Maxima or the Staden |
25 |
Package. A problem I have with scientific software is that I |
26 |
find it hard to test when it applies to a field I am not |
27 |
familiar with. This is probably the case with everybody in the |
28 |
sci herd. ;-) |
29 |
|
30 |
Since we have time constraints ourselves, we understand potential |
31 |
recruits may only have a few hours during one day of the week to |
32 |
do Gentoo development, and that is Ok. However, if you don't |
33 |
think you will be able to dedicate at least an hour or two a |
34 |
week on average, I am not sure it would be profitable to invest |
35 |
time and efforts in the mentoring process. |
36 |
|
37 |
As soon as a developer is ready to be your mentor, an official |
38 |
request to hire you may be opened. You will then go through a |
39 |
30-day evaluation period. During this time, you will learn about |
40 |
Gentoo's development policies, improve your knowledge of Gentoo |
41 |
(and the particulars of ebuild development for Portage), and |
42 |
contribute to the project. Your newly acquired abilities will |
43 |
then be tested by having you fill in quizzes (with the help of |
44 |
your mentor). Once the recruiters deem your work and your |
45 |
quizzes' answers satisfactory, you'll be part of the team. :-) |
46 |
|
47 |
Kind regards, |
48 |
|
49 |
-- |
50 |
Olivier Fisette (ribosome) |
51 |
Gentoo Linux Developer |
52 |
Scientific applications, Developer relations |