[tor-commits] r25869: {website} Replace stem's PathSupport idea with usability improvements (website/trunk/getinvolved/en)

[Damian Johnson]

Author: atagar
Date: 2012-11-10 20:36:53 +0000 (Sat, 10 Nov 2012)
New Revision: 25869

Modified:
   website/trunk/getinvolved/en/volunteer.wml
Log:
Replace stem's PathSupport idea with usability improvements

As Ravi discovered during the last GSoC application phase our PathSupport idea
is too poorly defined to make a good GSoC (or GSoC-like) project. Replacing it
with far better defined tasks for improving stem's usability.



Modified: website/trunk/getinvolved/en/volunteer.wml
===================================================================
--- website/trunk/getinvolved/en/volunteer.wml	2012-11-10 19:34:04 UTC (rev 25868)
+++ website/trunk/getinvolved/en/volunteer.wml	2012-11-10 20:36:53 UTC (rev 25869)
@@ -557,7 +557,7 @@
     
     <p>
     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />
-    <i><a href="#stemPathsupport">Stem PathSupport Capabilities</a></i>
+    <i><a href="#stemUsability">Stem Usability Improvements</a></i>
     </p>
     
     <a id="project-metrics"></a>
@@ -847,6 +847,59 @@
     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/blob/HEAD:/proposals/190-shared-secret-bridge-authorization.txt">190</a>.</p>
     </li>
     
+    <a id="stemUsability"></a>
+    <li>
+    <b>Stem Usability Improvements</b>
+    <br>
+    Priority: <i>Medium</i>
+    <br>
+    Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
+    <br>
+    Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
+    <br>
+    Likely Mentors: <i>Damian (atagar)</i>
+    <p>
+    <a href="https://stem.readthedocs.org/en/latest/index.html">Stem</a> is a
+    python controller library for tor. Like it's predecessor, <a
+    href="#project-torctl">TorCtl</a>, it uses tor's <a
+    href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/blob/HEAD:/control-spec.txt">control
+    protocol</a> to help developers program against the tor process, enabling
+    them to build things similar to <a href="#project-vidalia">Vidalia</a> and
+    <a href="#project-arm">arm</a>.
+    </p>
+    
+    <p>
+    While TorCtl provided a fine first draft for this sort of functionality,
+    it has not proved to be extensible nor maintainable. Stem is a rewrite of
+    TorCtl with a heavy focus on testing, documentation, and providing a
+    developer friendly API.
+    </p>
+    
+    <p>
+    Stem is very nearly feature complete but presently has no users. We
+    want to change that prior to making our first release for a couple
+    reasons...
+    </p>
+    
+    <ul>
+      <li>Make sure that we have a reasonably good API, and improve the rough
+      edges that hurt its usability.</li>
+      <li>Provide examples for how stem can be used.</li>
+    </ul>
+    
+    <p>
+    This project involves several tasks...
+    </p>
+    
+    <ol>
+      <li>Move stem's site to Tor's website (<a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/7324">ticket</a>)</li>
+      <li>Set up Piwik for our site (<a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/7424">ticket</a>)</li>
+      <li>Come up with a better, more developer friendly "Module Overview" for our documentation (<a href="https://stem.readthedocs.org/en/latest/api/control.html">example page</a>). For instance, it would be nice to provide interlinking between the overview and the classes/methods that it lists. This will probably involve asking for help from the <a href="http://sphinx-doc.org/">Sphinx user list</a>.</li>
+      <li>Finally get your hands dirty using stem. We want to expand stem's <a href="https://stem.readthedocs.org/en/latest/tutorial.html">tutorial page</a> with more examples. To do this you'll want to both brainstorm some of your own and contact the <a href="https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-dev/">tor-dev@ email list</a> to solicit ideas. This last step is pretty open ended, so go nuts with whatever you think will improve stem's usability!</li>
+    </ol>
+    </li>
+    
+    <!--
     <a id="stemPathsupport"></a>
     <li>
     <b>Stem PathSupport Capabilities</b>
@@ -908,6 +961,7 @@
     Upon reflection this is not an especially good project for this year's GSoC. You are still perfectly wecome to apply for this project, but <a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/stem">other stem related tasks</a> such as implementing a general controller, descriptor fetching, and client migrations would be better. For the discussion that lead to this see <a href="http://archives.seul.org/or/dev/Apr-2012/msg00006.html">this thread</a>.
     </b></p>
     </li>
+    -->
     
     <!--
     <a id="orbot-userInterface"></a>