Archive:Google Summer of Code/2008: Difference between revisions

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:'''TIP!''' [http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2008/feb08/02-18GSDPR.mspx Microsoft DreamSpark student program currently gives access to technical software at no charge].
:'''TIP!''' [http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2008/feb08/02-18GSDPR.mspx Microsoft DreamSpark student program currently gives access to technical software at no charge].


== How To Apply as a Stident ==
== How To Apply as a Student ==


===Before you can apply===
===Before you can apply===
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===Google SoC Development Process===
===Google SoC Development Process===
Each accepted project will be developed in its own sandbox (SVN branch), separate from the main XBMC codebase. Naturally, the end goal of each of the accepted XBMC projects ought to be to have that code in shape for acceptance into the production codebase. This page will track the status of each project and how well each student are doing.  
Each accepted project will be developed in its own sandbox (SVN branch), separate from the main XBMC codebase. Naturally, the end goal of each of the accepted XBMC projects ought to be to have that code in shape for acceptance into the production codebase. This page will track the status of each project and how well each student are doing.


== Current Status ==
== Current Status ==

Revision as of 08:32, 10 March 2008

Template:Current event Google is sponsoring their forth annual Summer of Code (SoC) in the summer of 2008, this entail sponsoring students to work on assorted open source projects as well as sponsoring mentors in those same projects, everyone wins! Note that The XBMC Project has not yet been selected as one of the approved mentoring organizations howeever we do plan to apply this year. This page will be used to possible project ideas for the Google Summer of Code 2008 season, and also once track the status of each project and how well each student are doing.

Introduction to XBMC

XBMC (formerly "XBox Media Center") is a free and open source (GPL) cross-platform media player and entertainment hub software. XBMC was originally established in 2002 and in the beginning developed as XBox Media Player (XBMP) for the first-generation Xbox game-console. XBMC has since been ported to also run natively under Linux, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows operating-system. XBMC has so far been translated to over 30 languages, won two SourceForge Community Choice Awards, (Best Multimedia Project and Best Game Project back in 2006), and today XBMC has a very broad international community of active developers, graphic artists, and devoted users.

About Developing for XBMC

XBMC's source code is made up of a mix of programming-languages (mostly C++ with some Assembly, and also some C libraries). XBMC uses Microsoft DirectX multimedia framework (Direct3D) on the Xbox (as the Xbox does not support OpenGL), and the SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer) framework with OpenGL rendering for other operating-system platforms, (such as Linux, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows). XBMC main program (including the GUI) is mainly developed in Microsoft Visual Studio .NET, (however there are KDevelop project files for Linux, and also Eclipse/Xcode project files for Mac OS X), for the Xbox a copy of the latest Microsoft Xbox SDK (a.k.a. XDK) is also required to compile, however the XDK is not used on XBMC aany of the other platforms that XBMC supports. XBMC's code also contain four multimedia-player cores which has to be compiled separately, (however works seamlessly to the end-user), none of these player-cores require the XDK to be compiled, (they are instead compiled with MinGW/MSYS). One generic audio/video-player core based on MPlayer, another in-house developed (FFmpeg-based) dedicated video-player core (which also supports DVD-Video movies with menus), one in-house developed dedicated music-player core, and one in-house developed Tracker-Mod (audio-modules) player.

NOTE! For more detailed information on where to get started with XBMC development please see Appendix D (Development_Notes) in this wiki.
TIP! Microsoft DreamSpark student program currently gives access to technical software at no charge.

How To Apply as a Student

Before you can apply

Before you can apply make sure you are qualified enough to apply:

  • You have to know how to program in C++ (and know C) fairly well.
  • We would like you to first submit a small patch that fixes a bug or adds a feature to XBMC. By doing that we will know that you are qualified for the task or not. At the bottom of this page there will be a list of possible Qualification Tasks, specific ideas that could be performed to show your skill, however you are free to submit anything you feel might be of value to XBMC. The qualification task can be done after you have filed you application.
  • Submit a good application through the formal Google Summer of Code process during the application timeframe.
  • You have to have >35 hours per week to put into the project.
  • You ca not have another job at the same time as the SoC project.

Applying

If you are interested in participating in the Google Summer of Code you will need to register at the official SoC site linked above and file an official application. Traditionally, top applications are fairly detailed. Look at this application here for inspiration. The official guide from Google can be found here:

The Drupal project has also prepared a couple of good guidelines that might be usefull:

Google SoC Development Process

Each accepted project will be developed in its own sandbox (SVN branch), separate from the main XBMC codebase. Naturally, the end goal of each of the accepted XBMC projects ought to be to have that code in shape for acceptance into the production codebase. This page will track the status of each project and how well each student are doing.

Current Status

  • To Come.

Project Proposals

  • To Come.

Overview

Qualifications for a good Summer of Code proposal:

  • Discrete, well-defined, modular
  • Comprised of a series of measurable sub-goals
  • Based on open specs that are available free of charge
  • Based on complete specs

An example of a good proposal is the implementation of a new feature or function that is not yet available in XBMC.

An example of a less desirable proposal is one that's not as measurable, such as refactoring an existing API. Bad proposals tend to be ones that would require touching a lot of core code.

To re-iterate:

  • Localized/isolated code projects = good
  • Global code refactoring = bad

Proposal ideas up for discussion

Most of the proposal in this list are just some project ideas we are kicking around, (which, by no means, limits any prospective proposals). So you are more than welcome to come up with a new unique idea that you think falls into the scope of XBMC and the Google Summer of Code spirit.

NOTE! THIS LIST IS NOT THE FINAL PROPOSALS WE ARE SUBMITTING!

Projects with Mentors (official approved projects)

  • To come.

Qualification tasks

Please add a note here if you choose to work on a Qualification task to avoid duplicate work, (to do that you first need to register an account on this wiki and request 'ninja status' from a Team-XBMC member for that account).

Many students will probably apply for the Google Summer of Code and wish to work on a sexy multimedia project such as XBMC. All students will probably also claim to be hard workers, but we need a real method of determining which students have a higher probability for success. Thus, we will use this qualification system (adopted from FFmpeg SoC 2007 season). A student must successfully first complete a qualification task in order to be considered for an XBMC SoC project. In doing so, a student demonstrates that they:

  • Were willing to commit some time during the Summer of Code application review period in order to prove themselves can code C++ satisfactorily and with the same general style expected of the XBMC codebase.
  • Can wrap their head around the XBMC codebase.
  • Can interact with the XBMC development team via the forum an IRC.
  • Can accept feedback and revise the code after a review until it is suitable for inclusion in the main XBMC codebase.

Frequent Objection #1: "But I don't have time to do a qualification task!" Then how do we know you will have time to work on your task during the summer? The qualification tasks are selected to be fairly trivial by XBMC standards and should not be too difficult for a prospective XBMC contributor. If they are too difficult, maybe XBMC is not the project for you. Also, be encouraged by the fact that the application review period comes after the application submission deadline; i.e., you can work on a qualification task after you submit an application to XBMC. But you will not be considered for an SoC project slot unless you have satisfactorily completed a qualification task.

Process: If you are truly interested in applying for XBMC's Summer of Code and, by extension, interested in working on a qualification task, the first step is to register a XBMC Community Forum Account, a SourceForge.NET Account and a XBMC Wiki Account (plus apply to get 'ninja status' for the Wiki by contacting a Team-XBMC member), and then publicly indicate that your interest and which project you plan to work on.

XBMC for Xbox

XBMC for Linux

XBMC for Mac OS X

XBMC for Windows

Legacy Tasks

There is a growing backlog of 'interesting patches' and 'bug-reports' for XBMC on our patch-tracker and our bug-tracker which are both hosted on the XBMC SourceForge.net project site. Many of the patched have been abandoned by the original submitter, thus now requires volunteers to take the initiative to clean up each patch to the satisfaction of the project leaders, resubmit it for new review, so that it can finally be approved for SVN inclusion. As for the bugs, please try to fix enough bugs to show of your skill.

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