Re: GSoC comparison

[Graham Percival]

On Sun, Jun 10, 2012 at 11:01:16AM +0200, David Kastrup wrote:
> 
>     1.) Replace lex-bison based parser with handwritten parser in gcalctool
...
> I have the suspicion that the student will learn more than the
> project.

The official response would probably be "that's a feature, not a
bug".

> Now it's not as bad as the first look: certainly more than half of the
> projects are not of this "I could pull out my hairs" variety.  And those
> projects were likely accepted under the general GNOME umbrella rather
> than individually, so they don't really have more elated status than our
> GSoC pitch.

Being part of an existing umbrella is vital.  Doesn't GSoC get
over a thousand applications?  Think of the role that luck plays
in hiring somebody for a low-level job.  Imagine somebody shifting
through 200 resumes, trying to find half a dozen to interview.  I
figure a human spent 5 minutes looking at the lilypond application
before rejecting it.  If I were doing it, I'd probably make my
first pass rejections within 2 minutes for each application.

*shrug*
it's a lottery, not a competition.  If you can't stand the heat...

- Graham