GSOC how to begin

Wellcome to Scribus, wellcome to the GSOC !!

Here is a short introduction on how to proceed toward a successfull GSOC.

Scribus is a DTP software

To begin with, you have to become familiar with scribus

• Read the wiki and documentation
• Use Scribus for basic uses, and for some more complex real world uses.
• Note the strength and the weaknesses of the tool

Scribus is a community

Go on IRC, subscribe to the user and dev list, or to the forums.

Please use the same nickname on all various media (IRC, lists, forum, GSOC site, etc)

Introduce yourself, your skills, your experience

Good communication is very important for the success of the GSOC : We have to understand you and feel that you understand us

Scribus is code

You have to discover the code and the tools for coding

Subscribe RSS to follow the bug tracker and the commits
Install svn and get a copy of the dev version's source
Compile the dev version

Look at the bug tracker and see if you could fix some bugs.
Some easy to fix bugs are marked with the "easyhack" tag
but there are other possibly easy to fix bugs
See :
* http://bugs.scribus.net/search.php?tag_string=easyhack
* [[Low Hanging Fruit‎]]

Open an account on the mantis bug tracker.
Study and fix a first bug 
You can ask for help, and we'll be happy to help when possible,
but show that you can be autonomous and dont expect too much support : 
the devs are busy.
Carefully test your fix : 
it has to fix the issue and should not introduce any other issue.
When ready, upload your patch on the bug tracker
Explain the fix in your report
A good fix will be quickly merged in the trunk version
and you will know you are on the good track

Go on with a slightly more complex fix.

And so on.

GSOC is a dynamic

Taking part to the GSOC requires dedication. When you enter this path, you will slowly discover Scribus world and the Scribus GSOC world too, and Scribus team members will slowly discover you too.

You will also discover possible Scribus GSOC projects and the one you might work on.

Make propositions. Study the project. Open a blog or a wiki for your project so as to show your progesses. Draw diagrams or code charts, Imagine data structures. Make a proposal of UI. Build some real dialog window.

Those need not be perfect but will show your understanding of the issue and of the project and your ability to organise and create solutions.

These steps will enable you to build a project proposal for the GSOC too.

Define and plan the content of your future work : what shall you achieve, how long time will each step require.

Be ambitious, be realistic and thou shall succeed !

When accepted, this project will be full time work for you during 2 months.