GSoC 2017 proposal : Complete the implementation of FrozenSet, Set and Str builtin data types. Partial implementation of JSON module

ASP1234 commented 7 years ago

Project description

Abstract/summary:

VOC is a transpiler that converts Python code into Java class files so Python code can run in the JVM. This enables you to run Python code anywhere that there is a JVM - which includes Android phones, web applications to deploy in a J2EE container.

In order to replicate Python behavior in Java, Python's logic for all the basic operations needs to be implemented in the VOC Java support library.

Describe the need your project fulfills:

According to Effective Java, one of the idioms of a good software is to be Immutable whenever possible :

It’s easier to reason about immutable code
It’s easier to prevent accidental changes if the data is immutable
It’s easier to execute code in parallel when the data is immutable

A frozenset is an immutable set - it's set up with the frozenset() function call, but once it's set up its contents cannot be altered. Operations which are non-intrusive (i.e. read only) work on a frozenset in the same way that they work on sets, but of course anything that writes to / modifies a set can't be used on a frozenset.

One of the most widely used data types is a string. A string consists of one or more characters, which can include letters, numbers, or other types of characters. So, a complete implementation of String datatype is crucial for this project.

JSON is JavaScript Object Notation. It is a much-more compact way of transmitting sets of data across network connections as compared to XML and thus, widely preferred and used.

How will your project meet this need:

Set Types -- set, frozenset

I have sub grouped each of the operations into two categories :

 - Set Operations:

This includes add, clear, copy, difference, difference_update, discard, remove, intersection, isdisjoint, issubset, issuperset, pop. Java Collections can be used here. The main challenge is to deal with immutability in the implementation of frozenset operations. Also, the sweetness lies in the fact that Set and FrozenSet resemble in many ways. So, I'll be tackling both simultaneously.

 - Built-in Functions:

The Python interpreter has a number of functions built into it that are always available. Output of Python code doing that operation should be the same as the one run through CPython.

String

I have sub grouped each of the operations into two categories :

 - Complex Operations:

These operations don't have any naive Java implementation or require additional logic. This includes translate, maketrans, format, format_map.

 - Java Support Functions:

This includes built-in functions, unicode operations, splitlines.

JSON

The two major operations of JSON:

 - Encode:

Encodes the Python object into a JSON string representation.

 - Decode:

Decodes a JSON-endoded string into a Python object.

For this, we have JSON.Simple Library available to parse the JSON Strings in Java. But then this means introducing an external dependency into the project. So, either we need to implement a parser of our own or can rely on JSON.Simple.

Timeline/milestones:

Note: The whole process will be accomplished in stages, so that rebasing and merging doesn't pose any difficulties.

May 4 2017 - May 30, 2017 [Community Bonding]

Gain greater insight into JSON codebase
Bond with the community members and become accustomed with the Beeware culture
Learn the tools and technologies necessary for the project
Start a blog about the project to help my mentor track my progress

May 30, 2017 - June 02, 2017

Mantra is to implement operations in Set and modify it for FrozenSet. This ensures lesser bugs and better maintainability
Implement the difference, difference_update, intersection and intersection_update methods in FrozenSet
Implement isdisjoint, issubset and issuperset in Set

June 05, 2017 - June 09, 2017

Implement isdisjoint, issubset, issuperset, union and update in FrozenSet
Implement symmetric_difference and symmetric_difference_update in Set

June 12, 2017 - June 16, 2017

Implement symmetric_difference and symmetric_difference_update in FrozenSet
Implement format in Set and FrozenSet

June 19, 2017 - June 23, 2017

Implement Built-in Functions for Set and FrozenSet
Any bugs encountered to this point or project goals not implemented yet to be tackled by this time.

June 26, 2017 - June 30, 2017 [Phase 1 Evaluation]

Mentors and students submit their evaluations of one another. These evaluations are a required step of the program.
Implement str.isidentifier, str.isnumeric, str.isprintable

July 3, 2017 - July 7, 2017

Implement str.casefold, str.splitlines
Implement str.fromat, str.format_map

July 10, 2017 - July 14, 2017

Implement str.translate, str.maketrans
Deep Dive into JSON module

July 17, 2017 - July 21, 2017

Implement str.encode, naive methods
Any bugs encountered to this point or project goals not implemented yet to be tackled by this time.
Finalize library or scratch implementation for JSON module

July 24, 2017 - July 28, 2017 [Phase 2 Evaluation]

Mentors and students submit their evaluations of one another. These evaluations are a required step of the program.
Implement dumps for JSON module
Start working on JSON Array Parsing

July 31, 2017 - Aug 4, 2017

Implement JSON decoder for JSON Array
Start working on JSON Object Parsing
Any bugs encountered to this point or project goals not implemented yet to be tackled by this time

Aug 7, 2017 - Aug 11, 2017

Implement JSON decoder for JSON Object
Implement loads for JSON module
Replicate the methodology for Encoder

Aug 14, 2017 - Aug 18, 2017

Implement JSON encoder
Any bugs encountered to this point or project goals not implemented yet to be tackled by this time

Aug 21, 2017 - Aug 29, 2017

Submit sample code to the mentors.
Mentors review student code samples and determine if the students have successfully completed their Google Summer of Code 2017 project.

What broader goal is your project working towards?

Making VOC more genial and accessible to new and existing users and expand its use cases.

What resources will you need: people, documentation, literature, sample data, hardware if applicable:

Community Development team's help to choose most suitable path for JSON module
Community support and report issues if encountered related to my work

Setup

Context

I'd be elated if the proposal could be accepted, as it could allow me to make more advanced contributions to the open source. The idea of contributing to the open source and helping the non - technical people through coding and problem - solving skills is exciting.

Ongoing involvement

I intend to regularly contribute to the VOC codebase and be involved in the gitter channel. I have these contributions to VOC repository. I will continue contributing to VOC codebase even after the GSOC 2017. I intend to stay around and be a active member for Pybee after the summer is over.

Commitment

I understand that this is a serious commitment. I don't have any other major commitments and I will devote ~40 hours a week during the entire tenure.

freakboy3742 commented 7 years ago

Thanks for submitting this proposal. I have two major comments:

I'm not convinced you've done enough exploration of the amount of work involved for each method. For example, in the week of June 26, you're proposing to implement str.isidentifier, str.isnumeric, and str.isprintable - three relatively straightforward boolean checks. The following week, you're proposing to implement str.casefold, str.splitlines, str.fromat, and str.format_map - four significantly more complex methods. A similar problem is evident in the weeks of June 5 and June 12 - FrozenSet and Set will be mostly identical in implementation - yet you've allocated the same amount of time to implement the same two methods on both classes. The timeline you've proposed feels like you've determined what you want to do, and then split it up into 12 weeks, rather than working out how much time each task will take.
You've suggested using JSON.Simple as a library. That's fine - there's no need to re-invent the JSON parsing wheel. But why is JSON.Simple the right library to use? What alternatives have you investigated?

freakboy3742 commented 7 years ago

Unfortunately, this proposal wasn't accepted.

beeware / voc