Re: Getting up to speed on AsterixDB

[Mike Carey <dt...@gmail.com>]

Let's use the new datafeeds model and the node groups / query processing 
changes as use cases, perhaps?
:-)

On 3/18/16 9:42 AM, Till Westmann wrote:
> I’m happy to read and write good documentation. However, I think that
>
> a) it’s quite unclear what we are talking about (is this about javadoc,
>    design sketches, detailed specifications, …) and
>
> b) I’m not happy with "enforcing" things. I think that to get to good
>    documentation, we should not ask "other" people to do it, but rather
>    provide a good example to convince everybody to follow.
>
> So I think that the first step is to provide or point to some
> documentation that is good or helpful and to discuss on that example
> how we can produce more of it (and where documentation is most urgently
> needed).
>
> My 2c,
> Till
>
> On 17 Mar 2016, at 13:46, abdullah alamoudi wrote:
>
>> Totally agree and this is very much needed and will be worth the 
>> investment.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Abdullah.
>>
>> On Thu, Mar 17, 2016 at 11:39 PM, Chen Li <ch...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> We need to do a good job maintaining documentations of the project.  To
>>> achieve the goal, we need to decide a protocol and enforce it.
>>>
>>> Chen
>>>
>>> On Wed, Mar 16, 2016 at 8:37 AM, Till Westmann <ti...@apache.org> 
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> In the spirit of not hijacking the thread I’m trying to create a new
>>>> thread here.
>>>>
>>>> On your question:
>>>> I think that getting up to speed is not quick and it is difficult. 
>>>> Even
>>>> for those of us with the 10+ years industrial experience the learning
>>> curve
>>>> is steep. As you said, the code-base is big and big pieces of it 
>>>> are not
>>>> trivial. There are a number of papers on the high-level concepts, 
>>>> but the
>>>> distance between those and the code is also not small. And the 
>>>> learning
>>>> curve is also steep for people at the universities.
>>>>
>>>> We have been thinking about ways to ease the access to the 
>>>> code-base e.g.
>>>> by adding a few references and design docs to the wiki [1]. And 
>>>> while I
>>>> think that this is a step ahead it is not a solution.
>>>>
>>>> Also, while I’ve found everybody to be friendly and helpful, nobody is
>>>> working full-time on easing the access to the code-base for 
>>>> newcomers -
>>>> this is usually a volunteer activity in addition to the day-job.
>>>>
>>>> I think that the way that people have been able to get to the 
>>>> code-base
>>> is
>>>> to
>>>> - start at some piece that they think could use some improvement 
>>>> and then
>>>> to
>>>> - find our how it works and
>>>> - how it can be improved
>>>> and then move forward from there.
>>>>
>>>> I’m sorry that I cannot suggest a better way here.
>>>> But maybe somebody else on the list has a better idea or can tell 
>>>> you how
>>>> they managed to overcome the initial hurdle?
>>>>
>>>> Cheers,
>>>> Till
>>>>
>>>> [1] https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/ASTERIXDB/Home
>>>>
>>>> On 16 Mar 2016, at 7:42, Sandeep Joshi wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Mike,
>>>>>
>>>>> I asked because I wanted to ascertain how quickly a newcomer 
>>>>> outside the
>>>>> UCI circle can come up to speed with the vast asterixdb code-base.
>>>>>
>>>>> I don't want to hijack this thread so maybe we can start another 
>>>>> thread.
>>>>> I am interested in knowing how one could gain proficiency in
>>> participating
>>>>> in asterixdb development.    What design patterns should one keep in
>>> mind,
>>>>> what hasn't worked historically, what sequence of tasks can one 
>>>>> take on
>>> to
>>>>> learn about various parts of the system, etc.
>>>>>
>>>>> -Sandeep
>>>>>
>>>>> On Wed, Mar 16, 2016 at 7:36 PM, Mike Carey <dt...@gmail.com> 
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> And I would guess there are at least 5 individuals with 10+ years of
>>>>>> industrial experience (apiece) on the current team, if that's one of
>>> the
>>>>>> reasons for the inquiry, with a handful more probably in the 2-5-ish
>>>>>> years
>>>>>> range.  :-)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On 3/15/16 9:32 PM, Till Westmann wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi Sandeep,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On 15 Mar 2016, at 19:13, Sandeep Joshi wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I am curious to know how many committers are from outside the 
>>>>>>> academic
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> circle (i.e. those who have not worked in the past on Asterixdb 
>>>>>>>> at UC
>>>>>>>> Irvine or other academic institutions ) ?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I think that the current number committers without academic UC
>>> heritage
>>>>>>> is 3 (it’s an educated guess as I don’t know the CVs of the
>>> committers).
>>>>>>> Actually, a nice number for a project that was a university 
>>>>>>> project 12
>>>>>>> months ago.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Cheers,
>>>>>>> Till
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>