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Google has announced plans for Google Summer of Code™ 2012. This page collects ideas on acceptable projects for students to undertake.
Work-in-Progress: 2012
The contents of this page are for brainstorming of suggested project ideas for Google Summer of Code. See http://www.haiku-os.org/gsoc for more information on participating with Haiku in Google Summer of Code.
Project Areas
Applications
Updating AbiWord
Even though an older AbiWord port is being hosted at OSDrawer : AbiWord Project Page (2.0), the AbiWord project would prefer the port to use their current sources (2.8.x). The student is responsible for determining which aspects of this project to persue. AbiWord/AbiSource has participated in past GSoCs and we expect that they will again this year. This could be a possible cross project with a co-mentor from each org, so if interested in this one you may want to apply to both orgs.
AbiWord: Official 2011 ideas page http://www.abisource.com/wiki/Google_Summer_of_Code_2011
Skill set: userland development, usability basics
Updating and Extending WebPositive
Haiku uses a WebKit based browser called WebPositive. This task would involve:
- Update to newer WebKit codebase
- Update (jam) build system to package WebKit as an OptionalBuildFeature, to be used by Haiku's build system
- Native network backend. Currently we use the Curl backend, which is slow and has some other problems. Use the (unfinished) "Services Kit" instead.
- various webpositive tickets.
Skill set: userland development, kernel development, possibly x86 assembly
VirtualBox port to Haiku
A port of VirtualBox to Haiku, would allow developers and users to run another operating system within Haiku. Preliminary VirtualBox port to Haiku
Skill set: userland development
Other applications
- Caya
- More ?
Kernel/Filesystems
Filesystems: general improvements
Haiku has great support for its own filesystem, but most others are only available read-only, or not at all. It is way better for interoperability with other systems to be able to read and write to these disks.
- ReiserFS, BTRFS, exFAT: write support
- UFS2, ZFS: Read (& Write) support
- SMB, Windows shares: Read (& Write) support
- HAMMER FS: Read (& Write) support
- SquashFS: To support booting Haiku off SquashFS on a CD/DVD
Skill set: kernel and driver development
IMAP FS: File system access to an IMAP account
In Haiku emails are stored as individual file with extended attributes. Mounting an IMAP account as a local file system is therefore a natural fit. The file system should have full read and write support (deleting mails (files), creating folders, and moving mails between folders, etc.) with local caching for better performance.
Skill set: kernel and file system (driver) development, network development
NFSv4 client with xattr support and caching
Haiku has an NFS client, but using the out of date NFSv2 specification and the old file system API. This makes it unusable for any practical purpose. Also, the current implementation doesn't support caching, which makes it slow, and lacks xattr handling, which is very important in Haiku.
Skill set: network protocols, maybe kernel development, userland development
BFS Partition Resizer
An often requested feature. This includes being able to resize the filesystem and it's descriptive structures (eg, think of resizing an image file) and being able to resize the partitions on the drive. Ideally integrated within DriveSetup.
Skill set: driver development
Drivers
ACPI Video Extensions
ACPI Video Extensions, as specified in ACPI Spec 4.0a Appendix B, adds special support to handle multiple output devices such as panels and TV-out capabilities, brightness control as well as special power management features.
Suggested work: Detect attached devices for display adapters, implement a basic driver for a display, allow display switching and brightness control.
Requirements: computer with ACPI that has Acpi Video Extentions (_DOS _DOD and so on)
Skill set: kernel development, general C/C++, userland development
AV/1394 support
Our Firewire stack supports DV receiving, but not controlling the A/V device (ie play/stop). This requires to modify the Firewire stack for FCP frame support. See AV/C Digital Interface Command Set General Specification for reference.
Requirements: a DV camera, a machine with a Firewire port.
Skill set: kernel development, API design, general C/C++, userland development
TTY Layer
The TTY layer is needed for proper serial port support in Haiku. Until now the serial port was reserved for kernel debugging, but it is now time for proper userland support. Rewrite the API that was available in BeOS R5, and make sure it can be used with a real serial port. USB to serial converter may or may not be included.
Currently, the TTY layer is written mostly with the usb_serial in mind, so it uses stuff that might not be easy or possible at all to use in more low-level drivers (like pc_serial). The API could use improvements. Locking issues exist. Also the generic module is not yet in the image due to these.
Note: This task could include finishing phoudoin's libusb port, which would help to make the driver more feature complete.
Skill set: kernel, and driver development
Network
Bluetooth Stack Improvements
Haiku Bluetooth Stack implements basic functionality on lower and middle layers, this functionality needs to be completed and Bluetooth 2.X possibilities explored.
Requirements: Bluetooth enabled Haiku system
Skill set: C++, kernel development, userland development, global bluetooth stack knowledge(optional)
Tasks: RemoteDevices Database, UserLand tools(Preferences), Pairing/Auth/Encryption use cases, etc.
Integrate our PPP implementation
Port the PPP implementation to our new network stack. Add phone-line modem support, including HDLC framing and VJC compression (porting both algorithms is sufficient, but make sure the license is compatible to MIT). Implement CHAP authentication. Find and fix bugs.
Tickets: #812, #869, #873, #922, #923, #1059, maybe: #1057, #1058
Skill set: multi-threading basics, maybe network protocols and some kernel/drivers development, maybe userland development
IPv6 Polish
GSOC 2010 added the base framework for IPv6 support. There is a lot of smaller cleanup/polish projects left however!
- #8293 -- BNetworkAddress needs to check if there is an available IPv6 connection.
- #7228 -- RFC: BNetworkInterfaceAddress needs to store auto-configuration flags
- #6489 -- ifconfig needs to validate availability of ipv6 module prior to utilization
- #2632 -- Possible redefinition for struct sockaddr_in, related to IPv6
- #8316 -- Haiku needs IPv6 link scope Auto Configuration
- #8317 -- Haiku needs IPv6 global scope Auto Configuration
Skill set: IPv4 and IPv6 protocols, kernel and network stack development
User Interface
Preflet GUI refactoring
Several preference applications (aka preflets) could be redesigned. This includes (but not limited to)
- combining Keymap and Keyboard
- #6983 Printer
- #6206 integrate scrollbar options into a new Appearance preflet
- Shortcuts & Notifications
- Network (todo, link to work-in-progress preflet)
- ...,
Skill set: c++, userland development
Modular edit view (BIG) ====
Many Haiku applications are using their own edit view to provide basic editor functionalities. All these implementations work a little bit different and create an inconsistent user experience. One solution is to provide a modular and powerful editor view that could be used in various Haiku applications.
The edit view design should be modular and extensible to make it easy to implement e.g. following features:
- syntax highlighting
- spell checker
- code completion, word completion
- line numbers, ruler, 80 character limit line, hyper links
- working on an input stream rather than on a input file e.g. to be able to open files ~100Mb without loading them into memory in one go.
- interface to external applications e.g. to jump from a compiler error to the according line in the code
Skill set: C++, userland development
Media
Merge CDPlayer into MediaPlayer
The functionality of CDPlayer could be migrated into MediaPlayer, allowing the play back of audio cd's. An alternative to CDPlayer's way of controlling the device in a low-level fashion would be to make it use the wave files as presented by the cdda-fs, subscribe to volume mounts via BVolumeRoster, present a menuitem for the CD similar to one for DVDs in the VLC Media Player, having this option populate a playlist and start playing.
Skill set: general C/C++, userland development
Streaming support for Media Kit and applications
The media kit and related applications in Haiku relies a lot on the BMediaFile being seekable. This makes it difficult to use with non-seekable media sources such as internet streams or DVD media. Rework what's needed to get them working properly.
Others
Fix and improve Haiku's mail system
Haiku features an integrated mail management system allowing to manage your mail using Tracker, the file explorer. This system needs some improvements and updates. See this mailing list post for a list of TODO and related ideas
Trac Plugin: "Test and Commit Patch" functionality
Several developers have requested the ability to simply press a button that would trigger an automatic system to test and (conditionally commit) a supplied patch.
Skill set: Python
Add Haiku support to Allegro 5.0
Allegro is a gaming library, it has support for BeOS/Zeta/Haiku in the 4.4 branch, but they dropped BeOS from the 5.x branch. Now that Haiku is in a usable state it would be nice to get the latest builds of Allegro 5.0 working on Haiku. It's still unclear if Allegro will be applying for GSoC but they do have a developer who'd be willing to co-mentor this with a Haiku mentor.
Graphical project manager tool
BeOS had CodeWarrior IDE built-in, which makes it easy to create a new project and get started on development. Haiku currently only provide make and jam in the
default installation, which is far less easy to use for starting developpers. The makefile engine is somewhat simpler, but more limited. All of these tools are to be used in text mode, not so good for beginners. Also see : http://www.marmida.org/blog/2010/10/27/9/ (url broken)
Create some graphical tool to easily get started on 3rd party development in a few clicks. No need for a full-blown IDE.
Tracker add-on for source control
Windows has TortoiseSVN and TortoiseGIT. Do something similar with Haiku Tracker.
- Write a Tracker add-on that has the functionality
- Extend support in Tracker itself where needed : icon overlays, ...
Previous Years
2011
See official page here: http://www.haiku-os.org/community/gsoc/2011/ideas Last work-in-progress page for 2011
2010
See official page here: http://www.haiku-os.org/community/gsoc/2010/ideas Last work-in-progress page for 2010
2009
See official page here: http://www.haiku-os.org/community/gsoc/2009/ideas Last work-in-progress page for 2009
