Subject: Re: Git in Outreachy?

From: Taylor Blau <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 4 Sep 2021 13:51:47 -0400

On Thu, Sep 02, 2021 at 10:40:45PM -0400, Taylor Blau wrote:
>   - Updates to our applicant materials on git.github.io (project ideas,
>     as well as potential microprojects).

One project I have been thinking of is a grab-bag of bitmap-related
tasks. Some ideas for general improvements are:

  - Designing a new .bitmap format (perhaps using the new chunkfile
    API?) to allow us to add optional data to it in the future, like any
    information we might need for a stable object order.

  - Experimenting with replacing EWAH with different bitmap compression
    algorithms to see if we can increase read performance and/or
    decrease file size.

  - Tidy up and take measurements from my RFC patch(es) to add an
    extension which indicates which commits have bitmaps, and at what
    position. These were discussed beginning at:

        https://lore.kernel.org/git/[email-masked]/

    (but they seem to help most when there isn't too much traversal
    required between the ref tips and the bitmapped commits).

  - Rethinking bitmap selection to be more robust against repositories
    which have "spikey" ref tips and for which follow-on traversal is
    expensive.

These are all fairly open-ended, and so may not make a good Outreachy
project. But I would be in favor of having more people familiar with and
interested in reachability bitmaps.

I'll think of some others, too.

Thanks,
Taylor