

Rails Google Summer of Code students and mentors - chancancode
http://weblog.rubyonrails.org/2014/5/23/meet-our-google-summer-of-code-students-and-mentors/

======
wasd
You know what kinda bums me out? There's probably nothing more I would like to
do than help contribute to Rails but I have no idea where to start. I've read
books [0] on a basic idea of how it works, subscribe to every mailing list,
answer questions on stack overflow, emailed 2 core contributors on tips, and
read a dozen blog posts but I haven't even scratched the surface. For me, the
code base is is incredibly intimidating. Every once in a while, I muster the
courage to go through pages and pages of Rails issues to try to understand
what and where but usually I have no idea what's going on or how to fix it. I
think really is a huge problem in OSS. I'm only two years out of school but
I'm not allowed to participate in GSoC/Facebook OSS Academy.

Anyone have any suggestions?

[0] Rebuilding Rail - [http://rebuilding-rails.com/](http://rebuilding-
rails.com/)

~~~
bradgessler
Set ActiveRecord free from Rails:
[http://bradgessler.com/articles/activerecord-sprockets-
shoul...](http://bradgessler.com/articles/activerecord-sprockets-should-have-
their-own-command-line-interfaces/)

Like the sequel gem.

~~~
michaelrkn
It's actually mostly done.

To connect to your database, simply run:

ActiveRecord::Base.establish_connection(:adapter => 'sqlite3', :database =>
'db/development.db')

Or, if you'd like to store your database config in a YAML file:

database_configurations = YAML::load(File.open('./db/config.yml'))

development_configuration = database_configurations['development']

ActiveRecord::Base.establish_connection(development_configuration)

To use the Active Record rake tasks, use this gem:
[https://github.com/rosenfeld/active_record_migrations](https://github.com/rosenfeld/active_record_migrations).
It also provides a rake task for generating migrations.

It would be great if that gem weren't needed - I think that's where the big
opportunity for improvement is.

------
bradhe
> Randomizing the Rails test suite

This is sponsored with actual resources? Seems to me this should be a weekend
project for someone?

~~~
chancancode
Well, in that case, you got any plans this weekend? I'm sure we can find the
student something else to work on if you fixed it for us over a weekend ;)

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intull
Weren't the project list, mentors and students out long back?

~~~
xs_kid
probably they were waiting for students to start coding to announce this

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michaelrkn
Is there any update on the outcome of last years SoC projects?

