Re: GSoC 2012

On Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 10:29:29AM +0000, Justin Finkelstein wrote:
> There're two things I'd like to suggest that aren't on the list:
> 
>     1. An queueing system, to eliminate or work around the one-writer at
> a time issue
>     2. A web service front-end, handling queries via GET, CRUD
> operations via POST containing XML

Isn't (2) essentially what Richard's restpose (http://restpose.org/)
aims to do, except it's JSON not XML (which seems to be the modern
trend)?

> The idea being to bring Xapian a bit more in-line with some of the other
> search appliances and to make adoption easier.
> I'm not sure how these would fit into the Xapian ethos, but it's
> something I'd like to see developed.

These seem like projects on top of Xapian to me, and that seems a
sensible separation (like how solr is a web services layer on top of
lucene).

I'm happy to include work on projects like that, but starting a new
project is potentially problematic.

If the student is engaged enough to stay involved in the longer term, it
would work OK, but if the student doesn't hang around much after GSoC
you have an orphaned project, which isn't really good for anyone
involved.

Also, most students will probably do better working within some sort of
existing structure rather than trying to start from a clean slate.

Cheers,
    Olly