NaCl docs: add project ideas

native_client_sdk/src/doc/reference/ideas.rst

+.. _ideas:

[binji, 2015/02/11 00:29:05]

I wonder if it would be worth making this a wiki instead of our standard
documentation...

[JF, 2015/02/11 01:22:24]

I'd like to move *more* stuff into documentation, and kill the wiki :-D

+
+=================
+Contributor Ideas
+=================
+
+.. contents::
+   :local:
+   :backlinks: none
+   :depth: 3
+
+Contributing? Me‽
+=================
+
+NaCl and PNaCl are very big projects: they expose an entire operating system to
+developers, interact with all of the Web platform, and deal with compilers
+extensively to allow code written in essentially any programming language to
+execute on a vartiety of CPU architectures. This can be daunting when trying to

[binji, 2015/02/11 00:29:05]

sp: variety

[JF, 2015/02/11 01:22:23]

Done.

+figure out how to contribute to the open-source project! This page tries to make
+contributing easier by listing project ideas by broad area of interest, and
+detailing the required experience and expectations for each idea.
+
+This isn't meant to constrain contributions! If you have ideas that aren't on
+this page please contact the native-client-discuss_ mailing list.
+
+If you like an idea on this page and would like to get started, contact the
+native-client-discuss_ mailing list so that we can help you find a mentor.
+
+.. _native-client-discuss: https://groups.google.com/group/native-client-discuss
+
+Ideas
+=====
+
+We've separated contributor ideas into broad areas of interest:
+
+* **Ports** encompass all the code that *uses* the PNaCl platform. Put simply,
+  the point of ports is to make existing open-source code work.
+* **Programming languages** sometimes involves compiler work, and sometimes
+  requires getting an interpreter and its APIs to work well within the Web
+  platform.
+* **LLVM and PNaCl** requires compiler work: PNaCl is based on the LLVM
+  toolchain, and most of the work in this area would occur in the upstream LLVM
+  repository.
+* **NaCl** mostly deals with low-level systems work and security.
+
+
+..
+  Adding a proposal to this document should follow this format:
+    Project:

[binji, 2015/02/11 00:29:05]

what is meant to go here?

[JF, 2015/02/11 01:22:24]

Done.

+    Brief explanation:
+    Expected results:
+    Knowledge Prerequisite:
+    Mentor:
+
+
+Ports

[binji, 2015/02/11 00:29:05]

Maybe reference the issues here: https://code.google.com/p/naclports/issues/list

Now that I mention it, maybe there should be a "new port" tag for the naclports
repo...

[JF, 2015/02/11 01:22:23]

GSoC explicitly doesn't want an issue list. I tend to agree: it's not quite
friendly to people who want to contribute.

+-----
+
+
+Languages
+---------
+
+PNaCl already has support for C and C++, and virtual machines such as
+JavaScript, Lua, Python and Ruby. We'd like to support more languages, either by
+having these languages target LLVM bitcode or by making sure that the language
+virtual machine's APIs work well on the Web platform.
+
+Rust
+~~~~
+Project:
+Brief explanation:
+Expected results:
+Knowledge Prerequisite:
+Mentor:
+
+Haskell
+~~~~~~~
+Project:
+Brief explanation:
+Expected results:
+Knowledge Prerequisite:
+Mentor:
+
+Julia
+~~~~~
+Project:
+Brief explanation:
+Expected results:
+Knowledge Prerequisite:
+Mentor:
+
+Scala
+~~~~~
+Project:
+Brief explanation:
+Expected results:
+Knowledge Prerequisite:
+Mentor:
+
+Mono

[binji, 2015/02/11 00:29:05]

This exists for NaCl but has bitrotten. What were you thinking of for this
project? Port to PNaCl?

[JF, 2015/02/11 01:22:23]

Done.

[JF, 2015/02/11 01:22:23]

Done.

+~~~~
+Project:
+Brief explanation:
+Expected results:
+Knowledge Prerequisite:
+Mentor:
+
+
+LLVM and PNaCl
+--------------
+
+
+NaCl
+----