You always wanted to own a MacBook but missed your chance at CanSecWest PWN to OWN 2008. If you always wanted to code in Objective-C and if you're a Computer Science Student here's your chance:
The deal:
Take part in Google Summer of Code for the GNUstep project. We - GNUstep - give you the possibility to learn coding in Objective-C for Cocoa (of which GNUstep basically is a free software clone) and Google pays you for this.
We are a relatively small project - that means not every interesting task is already grabbed by someone else and you won't end up only doing legwork for some remotely important subtask or the like. On the other hand the power of Objective-C gives us (and you too!) the possibility to do great things with a small amount of code.
There's plenty of interesting stuff to do, for instance:
- If you want a lot of fame: porting WebKit to GNUstep (using GCC 4.x with ObjC++ support). The WebKit team is willing to help whoever wants to take on this project, please see this email.
- If you have MS-Windows coding experience: Add support for MS-Windows native theming ... have a subclass of GSTheme for windows which detects changes in the native theme and matches them within gnustep apps.
- If you like to do something at the basic language level of Objective-C: Revamp Objective-C garbage collection and make it compatible with the Apple implementation
- Or maybe you like something smaller, more manageable: Some classes like NSDatePicker, NSLevelIndicator, NSFormatter, NSCalendar are missing or need to be completed.
- If you have knowledge in OpenGL, XML or even Ajax there would be a task for you: NSOpenGL Classes could be improved, made compatible with current Cocoa implementations; NSXMLDocument, NSXMLDTD, and NSXMLDTDNode, and NSXMLElement, and NSXMLNode implementations would be useful for compatibility; GNUstepWeb could need an AJAX Framework.
That's by far not all, you find more ideas here: http://wiki.gnustep.org/index.php/Summer_Of_Code_Ideas. And of course you can also come up with your own ideas.
So, what's your benefit:
- You improve your karma by helping us ;-)
- You improve your knowledge on Objective-C and Cocoa, you learn to know how everything works inside Cocoa from the ground up
- Objective-C / Cocoa knowledge make a good impression in your CV if you apply for a Job at Apple (yes you want this won't you?)
- You already know how your MacBook works when you buy it from the money you earned.
To get in contact with us just send an E-Mail to discuss-gnustep@gnu.org and/or gnustep-dev@gnu.org
One last thing:
The deadline for application for the Google Summer of Code is Monday, March 31 at 5:00 PM PDT. Be sure not to miss it!
