[GSOC] Introduction and Microproject

[Elvira Khabirova]

On Sat, 10 Apr 2021 23:53:56 -0400
"Srikavin Ramkumar" <srikavinramkumar at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Elvira,
> 
> Thanks for the feedback.
> 
> On Sun Apr 11, 2021 at 2:02 AM, Elvira Khabirova wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > 
> > On Mon, 05 Apr 2021 17:49:33 -0400
> > "Srikavin Ramkumar" <srikavinramkumar at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > 
> > > Hi,
> > > 
> > > I have finished my draft GSoC proposal [1]; I have also uploaded it in the
> > > student dashboard. I would appreciate any questions or feedback.
> > > 
> > > [1]: https://hackmd.io/@srikavin/SJSl2RaNd
> >
> > 
> > Your proposal looks elaborate and well thought out.
> >
> >
> > Some things to consider:
> >
> > 
> > - We would appreciate if you used flex/bison for parsing syzlang instead
> > of Python. This is more in line with the project's general style, and
> > some might
> > argue that using a specialized tool would be more appropriate for the
> > task.
> 
> I would be comfortable with using either C with flex/bison or Python. I agree
> that using a specialized tool for lexing and parsing regardless of language
> choice is a good idea since it will reduce complexity and future maintenance
> work. 
> 
> However, I think string processing and code generation would be significantly
> simpler with Python than with C. The downsides of using Python would also be
> limited if the generated code is committed alongside modifications to the
> underlying syzlang files.

I don't really understand this point, since yes, the generator is going to
be placed in maint/, and yes, the generated parsers are going to be manually
commited, but it doesn't make the generator implementation details less
important; but...

> Is using C a hard requirement?

...yeah, I'm afraid it is. But most of the string processing is going to be
handled by flex/bison anyway.

> > - Your actual timeline will likely differ from the one you've drafted,
> > because
> > merging the changes usually takes as long as the main coding process.
> 
> I've made some changes to the timeline so that I have four total buffer weeks
> that I can use for merging. 
> 
> Thanks,
> Srikavin