Gentoo Archives: gentoo-science

From: Olivier Fisette <ribosome@g.o>
To: gentoo-science@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-science] Re: Scientific herd leadership
Date: Sun, 21 Aug 2005 19:59:56
Message-Id: 200508211558.47977.ribosome@gentoo.org
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-science] Re: Scientific herd leadership by Jordan Dawe
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

Replies

Subject Author
Re: [gentoo-science] Re: Scientific herd leadership "M. Edward (Ed) Borasky" <znmeb@×××××××.net>
Re: [gentoo-science] Re: Scientific herd leadership C Y <smustudent1@×××××.com>