Do'sThings you should do
Don'tsThings you should avoid
Search for shortcuts
There is no shortcut to GSoC selection and there is no shortcut to GSoC completion. The student stipend is only paid after the contestans submit a minimum amount of code. Even if you do find a certain shortcut, you will not recieve your stipend without presenting meaningfulcode. If you are the right candidate for GSoC, you will not need a shortcut anyway, as you will love completing your task.Disappear
If your mentor thinks you have disappeared during the summer, this tends to quickly result in failure. The most common problem is failing to mention long family vacations or class schedules in the summer. Disappearing includes taking the initial payment and running with it; if you're tempted to do this, you might want to consider the damage to your reputation, or the excited students missing out on a slot so you can waste yours.Take another major commitment
The GsoC is a full-time job, and anything that takes more than 5 hours a wekk will cause problems. Having two simultaneous full-time jobs is unrealistic and is not expected of you.Submit code at the last minute
Showing your code in public can be scary. Some students wait until the very last minute to show their code to their mentor and other contributors to the project. Do this only if you have a burning desire to fail, because it's too late for any review to fix holes in your code.Be shy about asking for help
This is a learning experience, and there is no such thing as a stupid question. You will face issues and problems that need to be solved, but you will need help. The mentors are here to provide feedback as well as help you when you're facing an issue, so never hesitate.Consider this is a solo project
This is not college or highschool, Google summer of Code heavily implies working with a community. The mentor will provide feedback and help you with your issues, while the rest of the community will keep contributing to the code, making the software a living entity that grows and evolves.Commit multiple non-related changes at once
If something is bad about one of the changes and someone needs to roll it back, it's more difficult to do so. Make each commits succinct and functional, even if it means a little extra work.Go for more than a week without communicating with your mentor
The project timeline doesn't allow for unplanned gaps in communication. Students should talk to their mentor at least once a week to update them on their status whether the mentor asks for it or not. That way, both of them can plan ahead and keep a steady work flow.Start coding before planning
You can encounter numerous issues if you decide to start coding before discussing the project on an architectural level with your mentor. Changes in the plan will most likely translate into rewriting a bunch of code for no reason.Understand Free Software
You will have to interact with the community, write & submit code for the duration of the summer, so you are expected to have an understanding of what Free Software is. Click here to learn more about its philosophy.Consider GsoC a full-time job
Unless otherwise discussed, students are expected to work about 40 hours a week on their project. This is essentially a full-time job. If students can't work this much or if there are periods of time when a student will be away on vacation, then that needs to be discussed beforehand with the mentors or project administrator. The mentors shouldn't have to hunt you down to keep tabs on your activity either, it is your job to provide periodical reports on your activity.Learn to manage your time
Time management is a great skill to have, and a crucial one during the GsoC. You are epected to work this as a full-time job, 40 hours a week, for the duration of the summer. This will, most likely, be your first full-time job and working from home might cause distractions. The most important thing is to separate the "work" environment from the "home" environment, as to avoid distractions. Create a time table with goals, milestones and have a daily schedule to keep you on track and optimize your time worked, while balancing it with your personal life.The student should schedule time to work on the project each day and keep to a regular schedule. It's not acceptable to fiddle around for days on end and then pull an all-nighter just before deadlines. It will show in code and in the evaluation.
Commit early, and commit often
This allows issues to be caught quickly and prevents the dreaded one-massive-commit-before-deadline. Developers can rarely ever commit too frequently. They can very easily commit too infrequently. Once a day is far too infrequent.Commit with meaningful messages
The history in version control is frequently the best timeline log of what happened, why, and who did it. The commit messages should be detailed and informative, with references to specific bug numbers, links and issues.Communicate with your mentor
The mentor is one of the most valuable resources to students. The mentors are generally already solid contributors with a long track record of involvement with the project. The mentor likely has worked on the project for long enough to know the history of decisions, how things are architected, the other people involved, the process for doing things, and all other cultural lore that will help the student be most successful. Frequent communication with your mentor is a must. The student should make sure the mentor has a good idea of:What you're currently working on
How far you've got
How you are implementing it
What you plan on woring next
What issues have come up
What you did to solve them
If you're stuck, what the problem is