Hi all: Google Summer of Code applications have begun and, as promised, I am carrying out all the application and administration related work. There are a few issues on which it would be great if I get some feedback from the fellow developers, particularly Allin and Jack: 1)- As you know, our project ideas page is located at http://gretlwiki.econ.univpm.it/wiki/index.php/Google_Summer_of_Code_2009... Google encourages assigning a substitute mentor for different projects. Is there anyone who would like to help by becoming a secondary or a substitue mentor in some of the ideas? If noone volunteers, Jack has told me that he could act as the substitute for (4) and (5). And I can do (2). Allin, would it be OK for you to be the substitute mentor for (3)? I hope someone in the list would volunteer for (1) because that is not something I feel I could do. 2)- Allin and Jack (and others who intend to participate): Could you please create a user profile from http://socghop.appspot.com/ or by following the directions on the GSoC page. Google requires this. Could you also send me your usernames once registered? 3)- Attached is an odt file containg the application that I prepared today. I am planning to submit this shortly via Google's web interface. Any comments and suggestions are welcome. 4)- There are 2 fields in the application that I could not fill out. The first is regarding wheather we have a public email. Allin, could you set up a generic email such as gretl-info@... and put it at the bottom of the gretl web page? Secondly, Google asks who will be the backup program administrator. Jack would you like to act as the backup administrator? 5)- In a recent email, Stefano Iacus from the R core team told Jack and me that he supports the development of a file filter library but currently it can be difficult for R to adopt such library due to some issues in R's development approach itself. This project would still be useful to Gretl as well as other projects such as PSPP, Gnumeric etc and I think it would be good to have. As a result, I just modified the proposal description so that it does not look like a joint effort with R. 6)- Stefano also commented on our #2 regarding function packages management. Here is what he said: "Although not asked, let me express my comment on point #2. It contains the proposal about creating a Grelt's packages repository and a set of functions to install, update and maintain packages. I strongly suggest such a project. I think this is doable in a reasonable time like the GSOC timeframe. On this topic, we are now deciding to increase the metadata of CRAN and make those informations harvestable from external (other than R) sources. The main goal is to have a proper citation mechanism of software products (packages in our case) which are more and more research outcomes rather than just software. It won't be ready before summer, but we are currently setting the bases and I'll be happy to share some knowledge. This is likely to become an hot topic in the near future because many actors are pushing this, so it would be good for Gretl as well to be ready." I think this is a very important suggestion, especially in the light of an increased interest in replicability in research in economics. I have already modified the idea description to include this as well. I think GSoC program would be very useful if it helped getting this project alone. What do you guys think? 7)- Finally, if anyone has any new project ideas or comments or additions on the existing ones, please bring them up. I look forward to hearing from you. Best regards Talha -- “Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.” - Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) --