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From: "Till Westmann" <tillw@apache.org>
To: dev@asterixdb.incubator.apache.org
Subject: Getting up to speed on AsterixDB (was: [DISCUSS] Graduation from the
 incubator)
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2016 08:37:11 -0700
Message-ID: <67B952B9-0360-4703-95B2-AFCC90C9457A@apache.org>
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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 <dtabass@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
>>>
>>
>>