[boost] [GSoC] Boost.XML

Subject: [boost] [GSoC] Boost.XML
From: Ilie Halip (lupuroshu_at_[hidden])
Date: 2010-03-20 06:54:00

Hi!

My name is Ilie Halip, and I'm a student at the Faculty of Computer Science
in Iasi, Romania. I'm really interested in this year's Summer of Code, and
stumbled upon your list of ideas yesterday.

I have a few questions about the Boost.XML project.

First, what actually needs to be done? The project proposal isn't clear
about that. If it's about parsing using DOM/SAX, using XPath queries, then
the project linked from the page already does that, right? So the project
would involve working with the existing sources and adding validation, tests
etc (as mentioned in the README)?

How much working knowledge should a student have before trying to work on
such a project? I must admit I haven't used Boost, nor libxml2 in the past,
so I guess I should start reading documentation about both. I am good in
C++, and I've been working with XML APIs for years, so that's not a problem.
But the other two (Boost+libxml2) are?

Is there a coding style I should follow if I were to work for this project
to conform to Boost standards? Where can I find such info?

Do you have any requirements from students working with GSoC? Something
like: weekly reports, blogging about their experience, maintaining a wiki
page about the status of the project?

And last but not least... I'm actually employed right now, but my superiors
are willing to give me more than 3 months of time off to be able to work for
GSoC. Is that ok? Should I ask for more? I was looking over the timeline,
and thought about getting a vacation between May 15th and August 30th. Would
that be enough? Is it also alright if I stop working on the project for
about a week in early June? Because I have a few exams then.

Regards,
Ilie.

P.S. You can usually find me on IRC too (nickname: ihalip).