[dot] University Students to Enhance KDE

[Dot Stories]

URL: http://dot.kde.org/1165100724/

From: Jes Hall <>
Dept: time-to-do-your-homework
Date: Saturday 02/Dec/2006, @15:05

University Students to Enhance KDE
==================================

   A group of students at the Paul Sabatier University
[http://www.ups-tlse.fr] in Toulouse will be collaborating on the KDE
projects KPlato [http://www.koffice.org/kplato/] and Umbrello
[http://uml.sourceforge.net/] as part of their Institut Universitaire
Professionalisé en Ingénierie des Systèmes Informatiques
[http://www.iup-ups.ups-tlse.fr/isi] (Professional Institute of Computer
Software Engineering) course of study.

     Students undertaking the course of study engage in a group project
at the end of each year, with a focus on project planning, architecture,
coding and testing phases. Traditionally, the proposed projects were
very focused on process and project management. Kévin Ottens, KDE
developer and a PhD student at the University proposed the addition of
Open Source projects to the proposal, and was instrumental in arranging
the collaboration. The students were given a choice between the more
traditional style java based projects usually offered by the University
and a KDE project, and chose to work on a KDE project as part of their
course of study. When asked what version of KDE they wished to work on,
all chose KDE4 (trunk).

     11 fourth year students have already started, with 4 or 5 more
third year students to join each team mid project. The students are
being mentored by KDE developers, Jonathan Riddell for Umbrello, and,
Thomas Zander and Will Stephenson for KPlato. While the KPlato
maintainer, Dag Andersen, is unable to find the time to mentor, he has
been very supportive and the students report that they are pleased with
his feedback.

     The students currently involved are:

    * KPlato team

    * Frédéric Becquier
    * Frédéric Lambert
    * Alexis Ménard
    * Nicolas Micas
    * Florian Piquemal

    * Umbrello team

    * Hassan Kouch
    * Florence Mattler
    * Thibault Normand
    * Pierre Pettera

     When asked his opinion about the projects, Henri Massié the
director of the institute stated that "This collaboration with the KDE
community is a good thing for us. It is refreshing to see our students
so motivated by these kind of projects. I wish it will be a success and
hope that we will be able to reiterate this collaboration next year".

     Kévin Ottens graciously consented to interview the students about
the projects.

     Kévin: Why did you choose to work on these projects?

     Thibault: Avoid working on yet another Java based project! Frédéric
L.: I wanted to see something new than a Windows based workspace.
Florence: It's an original project domain wise. Florian: Mainly
curiosity, and that's a good opportunity to switch to Linux. Alexis:
We're sure that it'll be useful to people. Pierre and Caroline: Free
Software and being part of a community!! Nicolas: Because it looks fun,
and at the same time it will allow to improve my resume. Florian and
Frédéric B.: To improve our skills, and learn Qt. Pierre: Because I'd
like a kde.org mail address. :-) Gohar: To improve my C++ skills.

     Kévin: You already contacted people involved in your respective
projects. Did you feel well accepted?

     Caroline and Thibault: Yes! We're very happy! Florence: We got a
lot of feedback and proposals. All: Warmly!!! We were welcomed warmly.

     Kévin: How did you perceive the development environment setup?

     Florence: Not enough documentation. Frédéric L.: Well, the
documentation is okay for the base, but I perceived a lack of
documentation for the other modules like koffice. Florian: Not exactly
easy, but really interesting, I learnt a lot! Thibault: It's a change,
it looks less like simply applying what we learn during lectures.

     Kévin: And for the future? How do you feel what will happen in your
projects next?

     Alexis: I'm impatient to work more with the code itself! Caroline:
I don't feel confident yet. Florence: Yes, that's quite a lot of code to
learn. Gohar: I feel confident, it doesn't look unfeasible. Nicolas:
Moreover we have tremendous community to find help! Hassan: Only "KJoy"!
:-)

     The enthusiasm of the students is clear to see, and KDE can only
benefit from the contribution of this talented team. KDE warmly welcomes
the students of the Paul Sabatier University and thanks the University
and Kévin Ottens for providing this opportunity. Special thanks also go
to the mentors for their dedication to KDE.