Re: Octave code sprint

[Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso]

On 14 June 2011 15:12, Rik <address@hidden> wrote:
> Absolutely coincidentally, I took up the idea of a code sprint this
> morning again and wrote an e-mail to Jordi about it.  Here is the
> message which lays out some ideas.

Oh, good, then I can answer publicly.

> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Octave code sprint
> Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2011 11:42:40 -0700
> From: Rik <address@hidden>
> Reply-To: Rik <address@hidden>
> To: Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso <address@hidden>
>
> 7/14/11
>
> Jordi,
>
> So far, you were the only one who expressed interest in having a
> code sprint. This may be because most of the other Octave coders
> have never been through one. In any case, I'm going to propose that
> we two organize one and hopefully it comes off well enough that
> people will want to do it again.
>
> Most of what we need to do is logistics and publicity.
>
> On the logistics front, we need a time and a place. To avoid both
> work days and religous days I would suggest a Saturday in July. I
> think the 16th or the 23rd would work well.

Either is fine. I don't have plans for July, and I'll make this a
priority should something else arise.

> For time, I was thinking 10 a.m. EST (GMT-5). This is 7 a.m. for me,
> but that's doable.

That's also morning for me at a very comfortable hour. I can do it.

> I would say a minimum of 4 hours would be a good length and it could
> possible extend longer if people are interested and still coding. I
> propose just meeting on the Octave IRC channel.

Sounds like good time. That's a very short hacking session for me, but
if other people can't commit to more time, this will be helpful for them.

>
> For publicity, I was thinking of announcements on the Octave mailing
> lists (maintainers, but also help). We can probably repeat the
> announcements as the date approaches. I think jwe would also let us
> put something on the main Octave.org website.

Both are good ideas.

> Finally, what do you think about starting a Wiki page for the code
> sprint on the Octave wiki?

Also a good idea, but like I said in my other recent reply to jwe, I
need to fix that wiki. It's very awkward to work with right now.

> If you can think of other ways of getting the word out I would be
> interested.

Well, I've already announced it in the /topic of #octave itself, which
might catch a couple more eyeballs. I think a frontpage announcement
in the Octave webpage will be our biggest form of advertising.

I was wondering if there was a way in which we could surreptitiously
advertise on Matlab Central, heh. Just kidding. ;-)

> Finally, I thought it would be nice to have big goals for the
> sprint. I thought of two, not exclusive, possibilities.
>
> 1) Halve the number of outstanding bugs on the bug tracker and

This sounds like a huge task! I'm not sure we can do this in one
sprint if it's just you and me and jwe. Perhaps cut it by 25%, unless
we see more people are interested by the time the date approaches?

> 2) Halve the number of functions without built-in self tests.

This sounds much easier and like a doable goal. I like it. It might
also get more people interested. I got a couple of people in #octave
who have repeatedly expressed interest in coding for Octave but didn't
know how to get started. I had suggested writing documentation, but
come to think of it, doing tests for functions might be easier and
just as useful. I'll mention this sprint to them as well.

> What do you think?

I'm excited about this and the conference topics resurfacing on the
same day. I hope we can get these two balls rolling.

- Jordi G. H.