[singapore-pm] Google Summer of (Perl) Code

[Gaurav Vaidya]

Hey everybody,

I'm from Singapore.pm, the Singapore Perl Mongers. We're a (very  
small) group of Perl enthusiasts in Singapore, using Perl in  
everything from administering computer networks to writing and  
maintaining large applications to creating buzzword-compliant websites.

The Perl Foundation (TPF), Perl's organizing body, is one of the GSoC  
organizations this year. You'll find some project ideas at http://www.perlfoundation.org/perl5/index.cgi?gsoc_2009_projects 
, but the great thing about doing your GSoC project in Perl is the  
sheer breadth of things you can work on. The list on that page alone  
includes everything from the next iteration of the Perl language (Perl  
6) to a register-based virtual machine (Parrot), from Perl's testing  
system (TAP) to its new object system (Moose/Mouse), and from a Perl 6  
wiki to some of the top Perl 5 modules around (Catalyst, POE and  
BioPerl). A new project to create a cross-platform IDE for Perl  
(called Padre) has been generating a lot of interest recently. And if  
that's not enough, Perl can boast of 15,000+ modules you might be  
interested in working on (see http://search.cpan.org/ to see what's  
available there). If you have an interesting idea on *any* subject,  
and would like to develop it on Parrot or Perl, I can probably find  
somebody to mentor you in that area.

Most of these projects require moderate Perl programming experience,  
but testing suites can be written with only a basic knowledge of Perl.  
If you're into technical writing, most of these projects will also  
need your help in writing concise, easy-to-understand documentation.  
Rakudo and Parrot need people to write code in languages like PIR and  
Perl 6, which are still being written - your feedback will directly  
determine how these languages work. There's a lot of exciting things  
happening in Perl these days, and I'm sure you'll have a great time  
working on them with us.

Please drop me an e-mail if you're interested.

cheers,
Gaurav