Google Summer of Code 2018

Introduction

KolibriOS is going to apply as a mentoring organization for Google Summer of Code 2018. This page contains our ideas list and some additional information for students and mentors.

We have previously successfully participated as a Mentoring Organization in Google Summer of Code in 2014 and 2016. Historical links to these events are available for your reference:

2014: Ideas page, organization and accepted projects
2016: Ideas page, organization and accepted projects

We are optimistic and therefore always discovering oportunities for further development of KolibriOS. In 2013, we have run an independent Summer of Code using money we collected with Kickstarter. Two students have worked on KolibriOS, and the results of 2013 Summer of Code were: adding write support for EXT2 filesystem, and adding (read-only) support for XFS filesystem.

Student Requirements

Prospective students are required to register on our developers forum, join the developers chat and submit a small bugfix / improvement to our SVN in order for their application to be considered. Examples of such tasks can be obtained by asking on developers chat or on our IRC channel (#kolibrios @ irc.freenode.net). This requirement is only to show us that you are able to work with our SVN and interact with our developers if you are selected. This task has to be completed before student application deadline (03 April 16:00 UTC).

In addition, students need to answer the following questions when applying:

Full Name (First + Last Name).
E-mail address.
Phone (home or mobile).
Another phone for emergency cases (if we cannot contact you) - parents, boy/girlfriend, husband/wife etc.
Nickname you plan to use on our forums, SVN repository or IRC chat.
Age.
Country + city of residence.
Human languages you speak (state all languages and knowledge level - basic/intermediate/expert/mother tongue).
Name of college or university you are accepted into or enrolled in + link to their website.
Name of program (or faculty, or department) in that college/university you are accepted into or enrolled in.
Your current timezone in UTC/GMT terms (for example, Paris is UTC/GMT +1 hours right now).
Have you been involved with any open-source project in the past? If yes, which one, and what have you done for that project?
Code samples - please provide links to code that you have written. It can be your high school project, contribution to open-source organization, your college/university task or anything like that.
The task you are willing to work on from our list of Summer of Code 2017 ideas (or suggest your own idea, if you don't like any of the proposed ideas). Please provide an approximate work plan for your task split to 1-week intervals, as well as expected outcome of your work. This point should be detailed as much as possible, as your application would be evaluated mainly based on what you write here. You are welcome (and even encouraged!) to collaborate with potential mentors on this paragraph.
What other time commitments, such as school work, university studies, another job, planned vacation, etc., will you have between May 23 and August 23 (coding period)? Please be as specific as possible. Bear in mind that GSoC is like a full-time job, so if you consider taking a summer semester at the university (with more than 1-2 courses), or intend to perform an internship or work elsewhere during the summer in addition to GSoC, you will likely be NOT accepted.

Organization

You can find the organizers at our forum: http://board.kolibrios.org/

Name	Nickname	Role
Dmitriy Smirnov	Pathoswithin	Administrator for GSoC, mentor
Ivan Baravy	dunkaist	Mentor, backup administrator
Ashish Gupta	ashmew2	Mentor
Vladimir	Siemargl	Mentor
Jeffrey Amelynck	hidnplayr	Mentor

We have discussed "Google Summer of Code 2017" application with all active members of the KolibriOS Project Team, and selected only those people who have knowledge, dedication, and time to help their students during the entire summer. Each one of them was assigned to mentor projects in his area of specialization only. In a rare event when a Mentor from the above list cannot continue mentoring his student(s) due to personal circumstances, we will try to find a replacement Mentor, or ask the remaining Mentors to cover for the missing one. Additionally, there is always a number of knowledgeable members of our team hanging around our forum chat, and they will gladly answer any student questions that may arise, even if they haven't volunteered as Mentors themselves.

Most Mentors selected for this year are the same that were originally proposed for last year, and they have already proved to be responsible, helpful and knowledgeable during GSoC'2014 and GSoC'2016.

Ideas for Google Summer of Code 2018

The below list contains ideas suggested by KolibriOS team members. It is neither complete nor final.
Students are welcome (and even encouraged) to suggest their own ideas for GSoC, provided they can find a mentor amongst KolibriOS developers to guide them.

Sortable list of ideas for easy navigation

Idea Name	Area	Programming Language	Mentor
File system	Kernel	FASM (Assembler)	Pathoswithin
Widget toolkit	System wide	FASM (Assembler), C	Siemargl
Port PolarSSL	Library	C/FASM	ashmew2
XMPP/Jabber client	Application	Assembler/FASM	ashmew2
Fasmg port	Application	FASM/FASMG (Assembler)	dunkaist
Unicode library	Library/Application	FASM (Assembler)	dunkaist

File system

Primary goal: Add write support for ext4 file system (ext4 reading and ext2 writing are already supported).
Additional goal: Improve write support for NTFS file system.
Language: FASM (Assembler)
Mentor: Pathoswithin
Links: Ext4 Disk Layout

Widget toolkit

Primary goal: Extend Box_lib (a set of separate widgets) to create a full-featured widget toolkit, design architecture and implement focus handling, callbacks and other core ideas.
Additional goal: Integrate created box_lib widgets to the C-framework, extend framework with font handling, layout manager
Language: FASM (Assembler), C (framework)
Mentor: Siemargl
Links: basic idea, list of toolkits

Port PolarSSL

Primary goal: Make a working port of PolarSSL (as native KolibriOS MS COFF library) and add it to the automatic build-system.
Additional goal: Update HTTP library (written in FASM) to support HTTPS.
Language: C/FASM
Mentor: ashmew2
Links: Forum thread about polarSSL, HTTP library on WebSVN

XMPP/Jabber client

Primary goal: Write a basic XMPP/Jabber library and client for KolibriOS.
Additional goal: Implement some xmpp extentions.
Language: Assembler/FASM
Mentor: ashmew2
Links: XMPP spec, XMPP extentions, Unfinished XMPP client for KolibriOS

Fasmg port

Tomasz Grysztar (creator of FASM) introduced FASMG, a new assembler engine. It would be nice to support its new syntax in KolibriOS.

Primary goal: Write FASMG application like FASM one. Port standard KolibriOS macros to FASMG syntax.
Additional goal: Implement macros for compatibility with FASM.
Language: Assembler/FASM/FASMG
Mentor: dunkaist
Links: FASMG overview, FASMG manual

Unicode library

Unicode is a huge and sophisticated standard. Nevertheless modern OS should provide libraries with Unicode related routines like NFC, NFD, sorting, comparing, etc.

Primary goal: Write a tiny Unicode library with core Unicode algorithms and example application.
Additional goal: Upgrade existing applications to use the new library.
Language: Assembler/FASM
Mentor: dunkaist
Links: libutf

Rough Guide for Prospective Students

As the kernel is written in FASM, ability to write and understand i386-assembly code is very useful.
C is also a plus as some applications/libraries and components are written in C. Also, C is useful to interface with assembly at times.
Familiarity with the GNu landscape like Autotools, GCC etc are also a plus to have (especially for porting software).
The desire to take challenging problems and solve them is also required as several parts of the code base require thought for design and implementation (mentors can help you with that).
Hang out on our forum, chat and get in touch with other developers.
Languages used for communication are Russian and English (although most developers are bilingual, and you can always ask someone for help).

I'm a potential GSoC student. I'm scared of all the assembly and docs here! Where should I start?! :'(

Start here : http://wiki.kolibrios.org/wiki/HowTo This will help you set up KolibriOS. Easiest will be to use either Qemu or VirtualBox as most developers use it and thus will be able to help you with eventual problems. Feel free however to try something else and let us know how it goes!

I'm a potential GSoC student. What is this test task?!

Regarding the test mentioned above, it is for assessing your current skill set and their relevance regarding the project that you want to eventually work on. In most cases, your potential mentor will assign you a task via IRC / Forum Chat but another developer can do this as well . Meanwhile, In case you are waiting for a test task, you can go through our bug tracker and find a small task to work on yourself, or learn about KolibriOS by going through example code.

I want to play with the code but my college blocks SVN

If you are have trouble accessing, please do mention it on the forums. You can temporarily use this backup git repository: http://repo.or.cz/w/kolibrios.git

All the ideas seem interesting, But..

Feel free to suggest your own idea! This is encouraged largely both in GSoC and KolibriOS. The mentors will be glad to such an idea and assess it's feasibility / usability for Kolibri.

Great Guide! But I still don't understand X

Please read Documentation / Development pages on this Wiki. If you have any doubts, feel free to connect with other KolibriOS users and developers through Forum Chat or #kolibrios on Freenode. Please ask developers / mentors on Forum Chat or IRC . Please be patient on IRC and Forum Chat as developers are on different time zones and it might take a few hours to get back to you. You can also start a Forum thread if it is about something you feel is a general issue.

Most importantly...Have Fun!