hola, I think we usually ask for drivers because that's what keeps some of us away of using Plan 9 natively or in new hardware, but I also get Charles point, soo..
I'd really like to see p9p for windows and/or 9vx for windows as well. for the first, I heard somewhere that a german fellow even got acme going, but I don't know where that work is, for the latter there is also a port stalled. As for applications for Plan 9, the ones we need (read to cope with the rest of the world) are too big for a soc project, so even if I don't like gcc, a port would help on this matter. right now, one can get by running old linux binaries and linuxemu+ equis, so improving linuxemu is also a project I'm interested. just my opinion On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 12:16 PM, Charles Forsyth <fors...@terzarima.net> wrote: > There are GSoC project suggestions at http://gsoc.cat-v.org/ideas/ > but I think more are needed, and that it would be especially good > to have a further set of useful but simpler and smaller projects. > > Projects need to be non-trivial for GSoC, but shouldn't > be hard enough that many of us would shun them (or indeed, have shunned them). > Based on my experience several years ago, > I'd also look for projects that are modular, so that the set of deliverables > can be extended > or reduced depending how things go. That worked well for the > projects I was involved with. > > The problem with ports of the system or device driver writing, in my > experience, > is that satisfying though they are, and as necessary > as they might be, they are typically quite hard to > supervise, and will usually be fairly difficult for relative novices. > There is quite a bit to learn for most students just to > get started and be productive in the programming environment, > although 9vx does make that much easier. > Application-level projects are typically easier to > supervise because they don't need specialised equipment, > and many more people on this list and elsewhere can help > with plausible advice, and also help debug when students are stuck. (Advice > will > sometimes be contradictory, but that's not a bad lesson to learn, too.) > It's quite hard to help when special hardware or kernel-level debugging is > involved. > Because quite a bit in Plan 9 (or Inferno/9vx/p9p etc) is done at > user-level that is done at kernel-level in other systems, that shouldn't > narrow the scope much. I wrote "application-level" not just "user-level" > earlier because I thought it would be good to have some > interesting applications of the system. Of course, I don't mean > to preclude system-level things when students are especially keen > on that (as indeed I was during my school and university years). > > I don't know where the best place to suggest or discuss them would be, > but I thought this list would reach nearly everyone interested. > > -- Federico G. Benavento
