Xapian devel - Mar 2012 - GSOC 2012: Dynamic Snippets and QueryParser Reimplementation

Hello,
My name is Sean Mikalson. I am a second year Software Engineering student
with a combined degree in Philosophy. I am interested in participating with
Xapian in GSOC this year and a couple of projects have initially caught my
eye:

   - Dynamic Snippets
   - QueryParser Reimplementation

I have good working knowledge in C/C++, Java and SQL (specifically
Transact-SQL). In order to determine where my skills and interests are best
suited, as well as to provide the best proposal possible for my
application, I would like to get better acquainted with the Xapian code
base. I have looked at the the FAQS/Snippets link for Dynamic Snippets and
have explored the QueryParser documentation and the source code for
QueryParser, all the information provided on the ideas page.

Is there a way that I can modify and play around with the code on my own
machine in order to really get familiar with how the code works? Any one
want to discuss the above project ideas in more depth? After I do some
exploring of the code I am sure I will have questions and ideas!

Thanks,

Sean Mikalson
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On Sun, Mar 11, 2012 at 02:51:26PM -0600, Sean Mikalson
wrote:
> My name is Sean Mikalson. I am a second year Software Engineering student
> with a combined degree in Philosophy. I am interested in participating with
> Xapian in GSOC this year and a couple of projects have initially caught my
> eye:
> 
>    - Dynamic Snippets
>    - QueryParser Reimplementation
> 
> I have good working knowledge in C/C++, Java and SQL (specifically
> Transact-SQL). In order to determine where my skills and interests are best
> suited, as well as to provide the best proposal possible for my
> application, I would like to get better acquainted with the Xapian code
> base. I have looked at the the FAQS/Snippets link for Dynamic Snippets and
> have explored the QueryParser documentation and the source code for
> QueryParser, all the information provided on the ideas page.
Hi Sean,

I'm not really sure which way to steer you based on what you've said
about your skills.  C++ is useful to both, Java and SQL not really
to either.
 
> Is there a way that I can modify and play around with the code on my own
> machine in order to really get familiar with how the code works? Any one
> want to discuss the above project ideas in more depth? After I do some
> exploring of the code I am sure I will have questions and ideas!
Anyone can check the latest code out - see the instructions here:

http://xapian.org/bleeding

It is available from SVN or git, but I'd recommend using git - we found
last year that git worked better for the GSoC workflow.

If you want a target to aim for while getting to grips with the code
then http://trac.xapian.org/wiki/ProjectIdeas has some "bite size"
project ideas which may be useful.  You can also look for tickets
for bugs in the area you want to look at and see if you can investigate
them, and maybe even come up with a patch.

Cheers,
    Olly