We're
excited
to
get
applications
from
students
with
a
wide
range
of
backgrounds,
experience
levels,
and
interests.
To
ensure
everyone
has
the
best
experience
possible,
here
are
a
few
guidelines
for
students
thinking
about
applying
to
work
with
Plan
9
or
related
technologies
in
Google
Summer
of
Code.
SKILLS
The
primary
skill
needed
to
work
well
with
Plan
9
or
related
projects
is
an
ability
to
think
creatively
about
problems.
While
the
Unix
lineage
of
all
these
tools
is
clear,
we
do
a
number
of
things
differently.
Students
should
be
prepared
to
be
working
in
a
somewhat
unfamiliar
-
but
very
exciting!
-
environment.
If
you're
working
on
Plan
9
itself,
your
project
will
almost
certainly
be
done
in
C.
We
use
a
dialect
of
ANSI
C
with
a
few
restrictions,
a
few
extensions,
and
a
more
limited
pre-processor.
If
you're
good
with
ANSI
C,
it'll
be
an
easy
transition.
There
is
a
tiny
bit
of
assembly
in
the
platform
support;
if
you're
working
on
a
port
you
may
need
to
be
able
to
handle
that.
For
Inferno,
the
kernel
is
written
in
C
while
all
the
applications
are
written
in
Limbo,
a
high-level
language
vaguely
similar
to
C
(and
an
ideological
ancestor
to
Go).
If
you're
familiar
with
C
or
other
C-family
languages,
it
should
be
a
relatively
easy
learning
curve.
If
you're
looking
to
work
on
a
project
for
Inferno
and
are
not
already
familiar
with
Limbo,
you
should
get
at
least
a
high-level
familiarity
while
preparing
your
application
to
GSoC
and
be
prepared
to
be
reasonably
proficient
before
the
start
of
the
coding
period.
Skill
requirements
for
other
projects
will
vary
with
the
specifics.
For
example,
v9fs
will
require
C
work
in
the
style
used
by
the
Linux
kernel,
while
9p/styx
servers
in
other
languages
could
be
done
entirely
in
those
languages.
If
a
project
on
our
ideas
page
has
particular
skill
requirements
beyond
these,
we'll
list
them
there.
EXPECTATIONS
Over
the
course
of
the
summer,
students
will
be
engaged
in
a
project
with
their
mentor
that
is
designed
to
be
educational,
productive,
and
fill
a
summer.
To
ensure
that
this
goes
well,
students
should
be
prepared
for
the
following:
-
Students
are,
of
course,
expected
to
follow
all
Google's
rules
for
the
program,
and
to
have
read
the
Student
Handbook.
This
includes
filling
out
the
midterm
and
final
evaluations
in
a
timely
manner.
-
As
with
GSoC
generally,
our
students
are
expected
to
be
working
on
their
project
more
or
less
full-time.
In
particular,
this
means
you
are
unlikely
to
be
successful
if
you
have
other
intensive
commitments,
like
an
unrelated
full-time
job
or
extensive
travel
plans.
-
Students
will
be
expected
to
be
in
regular
contact
with
their
mentors.
You
should
discuss
exactly
what
this
means
with
your
mentor,
but
it
likely
means
every
day
or
two
initially.
This
daily(-ish)
contact
needn't
be
particularly
in-depth,
but
should
indicate
what
you've
been
doing
since
the
last
such
contact.
Lines
from
a
changelog
or
commit
messages
would
be
great
to
include
here,
but
discuss
the
exact
form
with
your
mentor.
-
You'll
be
epxected
to
make
a
weekly
report
every
Monday
to
the
plan9-gsoc
mailing
list.
This
should
give
a
reasonably
detailed
account
of
what
you've
done
over
the
past
week.
You
needn't
give
line-by-line
code
review,
but
it
should
be
enough
so
that
casual
readers
of
the
list
know
what
you've
been
up
to.
-
Students
must
keep
their
code
in
a
publicly-available
place,
with
updates
every
day
or
so
reflecting
the
current
state
of
things.
Don't
worry:
if
it
doesn't
compile
for
a
few
days
nobody's
going
to
hunt
you
down,
but
we
need
to
be
able
to
see
what
you're
working
on
to
make
sure
you're
not
heading
off
in
unproductive
directions.
This
year,
acceptable
repositories
are
limited
to
mercurial
repositories
on
bitbucket
or
a
contrib
directory
on
sources,
the
main
community
9p
server.
Discuss
with
your
mentor
which
option
works
best
for
your
project.
-
Each
student
will
be
assigned
a
backup
mentor.
This
mentor
may
not
have
much
day
to
day
interaction
with
you,
but
will
be
following
along
in
case
they're
needed.
Keep
them
in
the
loop
by
CC'ing
them
on
any
mail
sent
to
your
mentor
(and
not
sent
to
the
plan9-gsoc
list).
-
In
the
unlikely
event
that
your
mentor
becomes
uncommunicative
or
unresponsive,
let
your
backup
mentor
and
organization
admins
know
right
away.
