[Phylobase-devl] incorporating Bio++ (was: a graphics challenge ...)

[Hilmar Lapp]

On Mar 20, 2009, at 10:13 PM, Brian O'Meara wrote:

> [...] I personally think it would take more time than people have  
> been able to put into phylobase recently, and perhaps would be a bit  
> chewy for a summer student, though the potential benefits could be  
> large.

That doesn't sound at all like bad preconditions for a Summer of Code  
project, actually - namely 1) it's not necessarily something we can  
easily and would indeed soon pull off ourselves, 2) it's a challenge  
but doable provided someone has the necessary qualifications, 3) has  
the potential for large pay-off, and 4) if it turns out utterly  
unsuccessful not much or any harm would be done to the project itself  
beyond a lost opportunity.

> For me, a bigger priority would be stabilizing the current phylobase  
> functions and getting it ready to go to CRAN, and I don't think  
> adding Bio++ would accelerate this.

I don't think so either, but 1) this need not interfere with or delay  
achieving CRAN readiness (development could - and quite possibly  
should - occur on a branch), and 2) giving tasks of higher priority to  
a SoC student isn't the right strategy anyway - Summer of Code is much  
more a training program than it is a means of obtaining (cheap or not)  
labor to keep the project alive and moving. I.e., the benefits of SoC  
are often more long-term than having immediate pay-offs for the users  
of a project.

	-hilmar
-- 
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: Hilmar Lapp  -:-  Durham, NC  -:- hlapp at duke dot edu :
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