This year's Google Summer of Code is upon us. The Perl Foundation isn't participating, but many other organisations are. I've read through all of the project ideas and there are the ones which jumped out at me:
Update: See TPF and SoC 2007.
Before I get all slashdotty (OMFG Perl is dying!), is there a discussion somewhere online about TPF not participating? (The way you say it makes it seem like common knowledge.) I don't see any projects in the list with the word "perl" in them.
Re:TPF not participating?
jns on 2007-03-17T12:47:31
No I don't believe there was any discussion "online" about this. On the other hand I don't think there any secret discussion on the subject either. Emails were sent to various lists where interested parties might be found and people who had particated in some way or another previously.
I wouldn't be inclined to see the fact that The Perl Foundation don't have any projects in the SoC as some kind of indication of the imminent demise of the language, rather that a lot of people who might otherwise been involved are somewhat over-committed on other projects or, you know, real life.
My personal view on this is that if TPF's involvment in SoC in previous years had been more of an unambiguous success then there would have been more enthusiasm and energy behind doing something this year; others of course might have a different view and might want to provide more of the background to this.
As it is I don't think there is any particular harm in us (as in the Perl community at large) stepping aside from this for a year. Next year we might have a great crop of projects and some really enthusiastic students who will bring something long-lasting to Perl.
Re:TPF not participating?
brian_d_foy on 2007-03-19T15:14:40
It's not that the Perl community is not participating, but that TPF is not. The two really aren't the same.
Previously Google has told me that they only wanted on Perl mentoring organization. If I'd known that TPF wasn't going to participate, Stonehenge would have taken its place. However, TPF still exists in name despite not existing in action, so people defer it it when something requires action. I won't make that mistake again.Re:TPF not participating?
brian_d_foy on 2007-03-19T19:14:08
I've heard through other sources that TPF did apply to participate, so my comment is really a bunch of crap. I'm not sure what the story is, but I've been told there will be a TPF blog post about it soon.
