Difference between revisions of "Google Summer of Code 2017 Ideas"
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− | === Search | + | === Search Shell extension === |
Our current Explorer still lacks a shell search band on the left. It would make the user able to search files, documents, or objects just like Windows does. It must be implemented compatible to the Windows Explorer interfaces to maintain compatibility with existing applications and existing search providers relying on it. | Our current Explorer still lacks a shell search band on the left. It would make the user able to search files, documents, or objects just like Windows does. It must be implemented compatible to the Windows Explorer interfaces to maintain compatibility with existing applications and existing search providers relying on it. | ||
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;Benefits | ;Benefits | ||
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: Knowledge of COM, ATL, and shell APIs would be a plus. | : Knowledge of COM, ATL, and shell APIs would be a plus. | ||
: Able to work without documentation, and only with debugging traces, WinDbg/API monitor | : Able to work without documentation, and only with debugging traces, WinDbg/API monitor | ||
+ | |||
+ | === Taskbar Shell extensions === | ||
+ | The shell in ReactOS lets user manager running applications, start other applications and manage files but nothing more. This idea is about implementing 3 small shell extensions for showing the state of the battery of the machine, for ejecting usb devices and implementing the quick launch toolbar. These are important requirements that we realized they are much needed while presenting ReactOS in real hardware. Not knowing the state of the battery or not being able to eject a usb flash drive is a serious usability problem. The shell extensions should be developed and tested to work on Windows. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ;Benefits | ||
+ | : Greater control of the machine right from the GUI shell. | ||
+ | : Makes testing and presenting the OS on real hardware much easier. | ||
+ | : Greater usability by making it possible to launch applications from the quick launch toolbar. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ;Skills needed | ||
+ | : Development in C/C++ and under Windows | ||
+ | : Knowledge of COM, ATL, and shell APIs would be a plus. | ||
+ | : Knowledge of device management APIs would be a plus. | ||
=== Performance Data Registry === | === Performance Data Registry === |
Revision as of 14:44, 19 February 2017
This page lists all the project ideas for our Google Summer of Code 2017 application. Students should also visit our general GSoC 2017 page for more information including a Student Guide and our contact information.
Contents
Your idea!
We are eager to hear about your proposal to improve either ReactOS or its infrastructure. Come and propose your project on the ReactOS developers mailing-list or on IRC to get feedback about its feasibility. If your project is doable, we will be glad to provide you with a mentor so you can succeed in your project.
Don't forget that ReactOS is a big project and application fields are wide. You can choose between user-mode or kernel-mode development, between application, or dll/driver development, or between working on ReactOS itself or on extra tools used by developers for their daily work on ReactOS. Also if all you prefer is web development, we also have needs there.
- Skills needed
- Yours
- Difficulty
- The one you'll have set
- Extras
- You'll be working on your own project and be able to choose its direction along with your mentor :-).
Drivers
Intel High Definition Audio Bus Driver
Implement support for the Intel High Definition Audio specification for sound cards.
- Benefits
- Modern audio cards use the Intel High Definition Audio specification. Therefore they rely on a bus driver to communicate with the audio hardware. The goal is to write a bus driver which supports those new cards. The bus driver needs to work on a Microsoft NT system and with ReactOS.
- References
- HD Audio Device Driver Interface whitepaper: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/gg462966
- Programming the HD Audio DDI: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff536442%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
- HD Audio Bus Drivers: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff536434%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
- Skills needed
- Kernel driver programming experience
- Bus driver programming experience
- Familiarity with Intel HD Audio specification
- Audio kernel streaming
NT "Wine audio" driver
Useful for: End-users
Currently, ReactOS imports mmdevapi DLL from Wine but it doesn't have a "driver" for it. In Wine, the driver is an implementation of various COM interfaces on top of libraries such as ALSA or OSS. However, it is perfectly possible to implement such a driver for Windows NT (preferably Vista+) using audio IOCTL to directly talk to the Windows device.
- Benefits
- Vista+ compatible sound stack (our portcls.sys is already there)
- Importing the latest Wine audio related libraries becomes possible (winmm, mmdevapi, dsound, etc.)
- One place to rule them all: the only direct interface between user mode and driver.
- Skills needed
- Windows Audio Stack knowledge
- COM knowledge
Plug and Play (PnP) Storage Stack
Right now, PnP support in the storage stack is close to being there. mountmgr.sys has already been implemented, and recent tests show that plugging USB sticks work. However, "traditional" storage stack is not PnP-aware, meaning that hot-plugging a SATA or SCSI device is not possible. Alleviating PnP support in scsiport would be the first task of this project. Then, turning uniata into a PnP-aware driver would permit SATA device hot-plugging. Finally, PnP-aware "cdrom_new" and "disk_new" drivers can be activated.
- References
- SCSI Port API
- Windows Open-Source Storage Driver Samples based on the PnP Storage Stack
- Universal ATA driver with PATA/SATA/AHCI support (opensource)
- Skills needed
- Software Development in C and under Windows
- Experience with developing low-level Kernel-Mode hardware drivers
- Previous experience with Windows Storage APIs would be a huge plus
Networking
Integrating SMB into ReactOS
Useful for: End-users and developers
SMB/CIFS is omnipresent for file sharing under Windows. It's one of the features new users to ReactOS always expect and then cannot find anywhere.
As such, ReactOS finally needs an implementation of SMB properly integrated into the operating system. SMB heavily relies on RPC and UNC paths and previous work in both areas exists. A potential developer should base the work on the mature Samba Open-Source implementation of SMB. However, Samba is developed for UNIX systems and therefore parts of its code require careful porting to create a native implementation for ReactOS.
- Benefits
- Having SMB would highly improve ReactOS' abilities to transfer files over the network, both for users and developers! It would also lay the groundwork for other Windows network services such as Printer Sharing.
- References
- Samba Wiki
- MS-SMB Server Message Block (SMB) Protocol Open Specification (and related ones on this site)
- Samba-TNG was an effort to rewrite unix samba libraries into a more NT like architecture. They already work in Windows/ReactOS, archival copies are available here source and binaries. There is even a video of how to use it.
- Skills needed
- Software Development in C and under Windows
- Familiarity with Win32 APIs and Networking
- Experience with gluing code of different projects together
Terminal Services
Useful for: End-users and developers
Implement support for terminal services, allowing inbound remote desktop connections to ReactOS. This encompasses implementation of input and video drivers to handle output over the network.
The terminal services system provides functionality for securely connecting remote clients and servers, for channeling communication between components of remote clients and servers, and for managing servers. It implements the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) which is a multi-channel protocol that allows users of a remote client to connect to a server over a network.
- Benefits
- Terminal services support would allow ReactOS to serve as a terminal server/thin client server. Organizations that wish to provide a shared workstation with Windows would have a free alternative that does not have complex licensing terms covering multi-session usage. The display driver for terminal services can also be used to support fast user-switching and even possibly multi-monitor support.
- References
- ReactOS Terminal Services
- Skills needed
- Network development experience.
- Driver development experience.
- Knowledge/familiarity with RDP protocol.
Durability
Kernel mode test suite
Useful for: Developers
Improve our existing kernel mode test suite (created by a previous successful GSoC student) by adding comprehensive new tests in areas previously untouched by the test suite such as the kernel caching APIs and PnP. The goal is to extensively test Native API functions exported by the kernel. Reference behavior could be checked by running the test suite against the corresponding Windows operating system.
- Benefits
- Improved system stability.
- More information about undocumented behavior.
- Improved compatibility with third party drivers.
- Skills needed
- Native API knowledge
- NT driver development skills
Win32k test suite
Useful for: Developers
Right now we have basically no tests that cover the win32k module. As win32k is the cornerstone of the interface between the Win32 Subsystem and the display drivers, lack of tests leads to inconsistency, guesswork and frustration when it comes to improving driver compatibility. A virtual display driver (à la kmtest.sys) allows us to test the functionality and behavior of win32k. If time permits, it would also be possible to add a mechanism to test videoprt.sys functionality, and the relationship between a display driver and its miniport counterpart.
- References
- Windows 2000 display driver model reference
- Benefits
- Improved stability.
- More information about undocumented behavior.
- Improved compatibility with third party drivers.
- Skills needed
- Display drivers development experience
- Win32 API knowledge
System Enhancements
Audio Mixer
Implement support for mixing of audio streams.
- Benefits
- An audio mixer is responsible for routing of multiple audio streams. This would be very beneficial to ReactOS as audio driver support has improved yet the use of these drivers is limited by the lack of an audio mixer. At the end of the project multiple audio streams should be able to be played at the same time.
- References
- Audio Mixer Reference
- DirectKS Sample Application download
- Programming Services
- "Secret Rabbit Code" (SRC) Sample Rate Converter aka libsamplerate
- Skills needed
- Windows Services familiarity
- Basic Audio file format familiarity
- Audio mixing algorithms / libraries familiarity
- Basic kernel streaming familiarity
Search Shell extension
Our current Explorer still lacks a shell search band on the left. It would make the user able to search files, documents, or objects just like Windows does. It must be implemented compatible to the Windows Explorer interfaces to maintain compatibility with existing applications and existing search providers relying on it.
- Benefits
- This would make our Explorer feel more like the original one and be an user improvement
- Great compatibility test for our browseui/explorer infrastucture.
- Skills needed
- Development in C/C++ and under Windows
- Knowledge of COM, ATL, and shell APIs would be a plus.
- Able to work without documentation, and only with debugging traces, WinDbg/API monitor
Taskbar Shell extensions
The shell in ReactOS lets user manager running applications, start other applications and manage files but nothing more. This idea is about implementing 3 small shell extensions for showing the state of the battery of the machine, for ejecting usb devices and implementing the quick launch toolbar. These are important requirements that we realized they are much needed while presenting ReactOS in real hardware. Not knowing the state of the battery or not being able to eject a usb flash drive is a serious usability problem. The shell extensions should be developed and tested to work on Windows.
- Benefits
- Greater control of the machine right from the GUI shell.
- Makes testing and presenting the OS on real hardware much easier.
- Greater usability by making it possible to launch applications from the quick launch toolbar.
- Skills needed
- Development in C/C++ and under Windows
- Knowledge of COM, ATL, and shell APIs would be a plus.
- Knowledge of device management APIs would be a plus.
Performance Data Registry
Access to performance data on Windows is done primarily through the registry API, accessing something known as the performance data hive. This hive does not exist as a genuine file but is in reality a collection of data exported by various OS components, drivers, services, and even applications. Many of the performance values provided through the performance data registry is not available in any other form. The absence of support for performance counters renders many diagnostic utilities from Microsoft broken and is also an impediment to application compatibility. Condor is an example of a third party application that uses the performance data registry for process and resource usage tracking.
- Benefits
- Besides application compatibility, the performance data registry is one of the most difficult to use public interfaces in Windows. The layout of its data structures makes querying and accessing values a highly manual process. Documentation produced from this effort would provide better guidelines for third parties to access the performance data registry and better use the information published by the system and Microsoft's own applications such as the .NET runtime or the IIS service.
- References
- Description of performance counters and types in Windows 2003: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc776490%28WS.10%29.aspx
- Performance counter data structures: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa373093%28v=VS.85%29.aspx
- Example code for accessing performance data through registry: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa373219%28v=VS.85%29.aspx
- Skills needed
- Registry API familiarity.
- Performance registry structure familiarity.
- Performance counter familiarity.
Management Console
Implement Microsoft Management Console (MMC). The MMC provides an interface for various management tools, both from Microsoft and third parties, called snap-ins. These snap-ins are standalone programs dynamically loaded into an MMC console to perform a specific configuration task, such as configuring a network or managing disk drives.
- Benefits
- Easier snap-ins development.
- Consistent user interface of management tools.
- One configurable place to access key management and configuration apps.
- References
- What is MMC
- Developing for MMC 3.0
- Skills needed
- Basic Windows development experience.
- Knowledge of COM.
Applications Manager Rapps
Useful for: End-users
RAPPS is a lightweight GUI utility which downloads and installs various popular apps and redistributable packages in Windows and ReactOS. It can be significantly improved to become a really useful tool for not only for ReactOS but for Windows users also who want to manage their installed applications like Steam manages games installation/updating.
A list of features to be implemented:
- Mainly:
- https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_SVqMk1VU75tjAnnE5oz20iU8fy5fQpPf5vwTf3bnEk/edit?usp=sharing
- Optionally:
- Add support for command line parameters to RAPPS. For example: "rapps install chrome" (just like your favourite Linux distro package manager) or "rapps remove msvc2010_redist" - Separate the download and install operations so that a user could choose just to download the apps into a local cache and install some or all of them later (just like Steam or NVidia's driver updaters first does Download then asks to Install, for example) - Automatically "install" simple apps by unpacking the archive they come in and execute a script inside it (if any) which creates shortcuts on the desktop
- Skills needed
- WinAPI
- C/C++
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Extras
- A chance to work on an app potentially used by many people throughout the world
GUI 1st Stage Installer
Useful for: End-users
To make ReactOS more user friendly for installation, a GUI installation instead of a rather limited text-mode installer is needed. This could be run off of the LiveCD and act as a front end to the disk formatter and installer we already have implemented.
- Benefits
- Having a GUI installer would allow the project to merge the bootcd and LiveCD and ensure that the LiveCD gets more testing to make sure it is not broken and simply neglected. A GUI installer would also be less intimidating to new users, especially those used to Vista or 7's installer.
- Skills needed
- Win32 API familiarity.
- Partitioning and setup experience.
Win32 Subsystem
Multi-Monitor Support
Implementation of multi-monitor support has been almost nonexistent until now. Display device drivers expose them thanks to the HwVidGetVideoChildDescriptor callback, which videoprt.sys uses to enumerate monitors attached to it then to pass the information to win32k.sys. It is then the role of win32k.sys to make the link between the two (or more) monitors, either cloning or extending the desktop and exposing the relevant features to client applications.
- Benefits
- Multi-monitor support would allow ReactOS to become a serious player in professional desktop applications given the increasing number of double-screen installations present in modern workspaces. Document comparison, permanently visible e-mail reader or presentation applications are just a few benefits professionals get when using multiple monitors.
- Multi-Monitor support would also find its place in the casual computing experience. Writing e-mails while watching a movie, or chatting with friends about current football play are things people do in the 21st century!
- From a technical standpoint, properly supporting this feature would improve driver support and WIN32 application compatibility for APIs such as EnumDisplaySettings.
- References
- http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd145071%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
- http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff569172%28v=VS.85%29.aspx
- http://www.vesa.org/
- Virtualbox video driver source
- Skills needed
- Experience with Windows display drivers.
- Experience with WINAPI, especially gdi32/user32.: Experience with PnP, as this feature would require detection of connected monitors: Experience with EDID/VESA standards.
Enhancing web presence of ReactOS
Implement a REST API in testman
Useful for: Developers
For its development, ReactOS project has been using with success for years a complete tools set. Each time a commit is made to our trunk, our buildbot infrastructure (https://build.reactos.org) is in charge of rebuilding the trunk and starting a bunch of tests (about 10M tests) on it to make sure no regressions came in. When these tests are done, they are uploaded to Testman (https://www.reactos.org/testman), which makes them properly readable and usable for developers. Over the years, the question of being able to catch regression patterns more or less automatically has been raised. Also, regtests provide a good performance indicator for ReactOS and evaluating their performances over commits can be critical as well.
Thus there is a need to be able to directly query Testman via an API to gather the raw data (tests, time to perform then) so that more tools can make use of these results. The student would have the responsibility to implement such an API into Testman directly.
- Skills needed
- PHP/MySQL development
- REST API development
- Difficulty
- The project in itself shouldn't be difficult. Testman is a well-known product developed in-house. But deep attention must be given to security and the performance of the API.
- Extras
- If the student goes fast enough, we will be able to extend this project, by for instance looking at how to develop a skeleton application to make use of the API or by directly developing a complete application to evaluate the performance of the tests over time.