Re: GNUstep Summer Of Code Deadline!

[JC Ortega]

Hello,

I plan to apply to the Google Summer of Code with GNUstep as a possible 
mentor organization.  My ultimate goal is to see WebKit ported, though 
my own personal timeline for it happening is beyond the end of the GSoC 
program end date.  I’ve been trying to research GNUstep projects as much 
as possible before I posed any questions on the mailing list, but the 
deadline is looming.

I’ve read over much of the WebKit discussion on this mailing list.  One 
major hurdle I’ve seen is the lack of CoreFoundation support.  As I 
understand it, GNUstep Base and FoundationKit provide much of CF’s 
functionality.  I’ve also seen the blog post about the ‘CoreFoundation 
emulation library’ project.  Is CF support the desired path to reaching 
a WebKit port?  If so, then I would love to tackle this problem.

On the other hand, there are Qt and GTK ports of WebKit that do not seem 
to rely on CF support.  On the WebKit-dev mailing list, I’ve seen the 
statement that “the biggest dependency is UI toolkit.”   This seems to 
encourage the idea that it is possible to create this port without 
having CF support.  I’m assuming, though perhaps wrongly, that the CF 
path will create better parity with WebKit proper and easier long-run 
code support.

As for my qualifications, I’ve taken a programming logic/design class, 
self-taught in C using K&R, taken a C++ class, and will take an assembly 
class this spring quarter.  I’m a complete Objective-C (and obviously 
GNUstep) novice and am starting “Objective-C GNUstep Base Programming 
Manual” as a primer.  This would be my first ‘real’ development project. 
 I have nine weeks until the actual GSoC program begins.  I do not want 
to take on more than I can handle, but I’m confident I can learn ObjC 
and familiarize myself with GNUstep (and WebKit) within those 9 weeks.

Is the GNUstep organization looking for more tangible results this 
summer (a project that is clearly finished)?  I could, perhaps, take on 
an easier GNUstep project for the summer and then tackle WebKit 
afterwards.  Maybe someone can suggest a project that will help with the 
porting of WebKit?


Thank you,

J.C. Ortega

(I apologize for being so late in the game with all this.  I just found 
out about Google’s Summer of Code and GNUstep’s involvement.)