Command Server Project Proposal

• Name: Idan Kamara

• Contact: idankk86@gmail.com, idank on #mercurial

• Background: I'm a Computer Science and Mathematics undergraduate in the Open University of Israel.
  
  My first meeting with Mercurial was in my previous work place. At the time I started working there, the development teams were using a (god forsaken) source control called StarTeam. I quickly grew tired of it and started looking for alternatives to take its place. Among the top DVCSs at the time, my absolute favorite was Mercurial due to its user-friendly approach, low learning curve, cross platform and a very open and helpful community.
  Since then I've been following Mercurial looking for opportunities to give back. GSoC looks like a great one.
  
  Most of my programming experience is in C++, Iv'e also done some Java and C# here and there. I've been using Python for a lot of small tasks the past couple of years but I've always wanted to see how a real application is written using it and in my opinion Mercurial is an excellent example of one.
  

• Project title Command Server

• Synopsis: Mercurial's primary stable API is its command line interface. Creating a tool and library to communicate with this API over a pipe or a socket will help improve performance for third-party tools that use Mercurial.

• Benefits to Mercurial

  • As stated above, improving performance (saving process startup time, cache the repository object).
    • It can also benefit regular users by having a small, fast client talk to the server directly.
  • Easier integration with Mercurial for programming languages other than Python.
  • Allow a remote repository to be queried without needing a local clone.

• Deliverables:

  • A functioning server.
  • A sample client.
  • Make the test suite pass while using the server rather than talking to hg directly.

• Project details:

• Project schedule:

  April 26th - May 22rd	Familiarize myself with Mercurials command-line interface. Discuss with my mentor and the community to set up some goals for how the finished project should look like.
  May 23rd - July 10th	Finish the design after community comments and write it in a wiki page. Code the command server. Do necessary Mercurial internal modifications to support performance improvements.
  July 11th - July 15th	Mid-term evaluations. Continue coding.
  July 16th - August 15th	Finish last tasks in the command server. Write test cases. Integrate the command server with the existing test suite.
  August 30th	Project ends. Submit code to Google.

• Exams and other commitments: Due to summer vacations not overlapping with the US, I will still be in the middle of a semester. I'm only taking one course so I don't think it'll hamper my ability to successfully finish the project.

• Other summer plans: I also plan on taking a 10 day vacation in early May. Since coding begins May 23rd I plan on putting more time before I go on vacation so I don't fall behind.

• Post GSoC plans: I will gladly continue my involvement in Mercurial after GSoC. I've been following several open source projects through the years but never really got involved in any. I think Mercurial is a great opportunity for me due to my growing interest in Python and in open source software in general.