Hello everyone, Thanks for taking the time out to read my GSoC proposal.
I would love to receive feedback on this. One question I have is that
how should I contact my mentor(Christian Coulder) in the period from
April 4 - April 26 stated below, which will be akin to the community
bonding period for me, ie do the conversations take place on the mailing
list or personal emails or any other medium ? Google docs :
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1H06V1sjE2i74NtXihiDNnApvx0iMemU2RotHt0SeDCI/edit#
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Improvements to git log
## Contact Information Name Parth Gala Major Electronics and
Communications Engineering Email parthpgala@xxxxxxxxx Mobile No.
+91-829-125-7343 Github ParthGala2k Linkedin Parth Gala IRC parth56
Timezone IST (UTC +0530)
## Background
Hello, my name is Parth Gala, I am a sophomore majoring in Electronics
and Communications Engineering at Dwarkadas J. Sanghvi College of
Engineering.I have been programming since a few years now and have been
inquisitive to learn more about new things in the field of Computer
Science. I am proficient in C/C++, Java and Shell script and try to run
redundant tasks using scripts.
## Work Environment
I use Vim as my primary code editor and GDB as the debugger. I have been
using Linux(Ubuntu 18.04) as my primary operating system since two years
now and was introduced to the world of open source about a year ago when
I started to learn Git and Github and have gained sufficient familiarity
with each of them.
## Motivation
I have been active in the git community since January this year. I was
inspired to contribute open source since it is a great way to get
started with making enterprise level software which is well documented
and tested. Google Summer of Code is the best way to get kick started in
that direction, and given I use git on a regular basis and would
continue doing so, it would be a great experience contributing to it as
well. ## Previous Contributions Contributing to git helped me realize
how high quality software is developed by first
considering the design, adding unit tests and more importantly, about
using git itself
better to maintain a neat commit history and tracking newer changes.
* Contributions to git
1. GitGitGadget https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/pull/545
Mailing list
https://lore.kernel.org/git/pull.545.git.1581535151.gitgitgadget@xxxxxxxxx/
Status Yet to be merged
2. GitGitGadget https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/pull/582 Status
Being reviewed by Johannes Schindelin before submitting to mailing list
<https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/pull/582>
## Project * Abstract
`’git log’ is a frequently used command that displays commit history of
the branch in various formats in order to make it easier to analyse the
changes made to code over a course of time and using various flags that
help you filter out only the commits that you need.
## Current Shortcomings 1. Although there are various options in git
log, still a few are missing that many users would like for example “git
log --oneline” shows the decorations right after the commit hash but
before the commit message causing the alignment of messages to be
disturbed. This can be overcome by setting a custom format string to
print the decorations after the message. Having the decorations at the
end has its own disadvantages, say, you only need to check the status of
a branch rather than its contents, then you would prefer to have the
decorations right next to the shortened commit hash. 2. Another
desirable feature to have is a date line like ‘==DATE==’ in the log
output right over the commits wherever a date changes.
## Goals
1. Create a --pretty=concise format to deal with the first issue. 2.
Create a --log-day option to show date.
## Timeline Tentative
# April 4 - April 26
Discuss the compatibility of --log-day option with all other log options
and finalise its design so as to be easily extended or modified for
similar future enhancements such as --log-month or --log-day[range],
--log-day[onwards] options and whether the option asks for author date
or the commiter date upon Junio's advice and do the same for
--pretty=concise. Also discussion of the stitching of these two
options(output for when both are used together) shall be done in order
to decide how the design should be done. At the same time go through as
much of the relevant code in detail as possible for the said
enhancements. I will be mostly unoccupied during this period and hope to
complete largely all the ‘community bonding period’ work with my
potential mentor Christian Coulder during this period itself.
## Community Bonding Period : April 26 - May 16
I will be having some submissions during the first few days of this
period followed by my end semester exams which will start May 4 and end
May 16. Since there are generous holidays between each paper, I intend
to keep a check on my GSoC project and be in touch with Christian during
this period for around 2 hours a day to depending on what needs to be
discussed or finalised before the project starts. I also hope to
finetune the project workflow and make timeline changes if necessary
during this period.
## Phase 1 : May 18 - June 13
1. Complete the --pretty=concise format option. 2. Add tests and
documentation for the same.
## Phase 2 : June 14 - July 28
1. Work on the --log-time option. 2. Add tests and documentation for the
same.
## Phase 3 : July 29 - August 10
1. Implement usage of both the commands simultaneously. 2. Update tests
for both the previous phases.
## Final Phase : August 10 - August 17
1. Polish the patches to apply final touch-ups(if any) 2. Update
documentation. If there is any extra time left, I would like to discuss
the viability and use of --log-month
option with the community and add it to the entire package if many users
on the mailing
list would find that option useful to their workflow.
I plan to communicate with my mentors in the form of PRs against my own
forkof the
project and also intend to keep the community updated with my progress
in the form of
weekly reports on the mailing list and inform everyone involved in case
of any changes to the timeline.
## Availability
I will be done with my mid-sems by April 4 following which I will be
largely unoccupied for 3 weeks until April 26 in which period I plan to
complete my obligations for the community bonding period. My end sems
will start May 4 upto May 16, so I will be relatively busy for a week
before it, but due to generous holidays between I will be able to work
upto 2 hours on my GSoC Project. My vacations will start May 17 upto the
second week of July, so during this period I will be easily able to
devote 45-50 hours a week. Even after my college resumes, I will be able
to contribute around 40 hours a week to the project. Apart from this I
have no other commitments or plans for the summers barring the odd
weekend trek ;-)
## Post GSoC
I would love to learn from such a rich community of developers who have
built a tool that a majority of the software world uses on a daily
basis. Needless to say that only the lure of the new features would also
be enough to bring me back to the community again and again but I will
still contribute to the community in code and discussions post GSoC, and
if possible be a co-mentor someday ?
## Final Remarks
I am a quick learner with a knack of not giving up on problems. I can
have a go at it all day long and learn everything necessary to git(get)
the job done. Selected or not I will continue to hustle and contribute
to git and other open source projects that interest me and improve
myself and the planet little by little everyday. After all that’s what
open source is all about !
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