Add guide for GSoC contributors

[colinfrisch]

GSoC guide for new contributors looking to join Mesa for GSoC.

[EwoutH]

I think this is a great start already! I have a few (mostly minor) suggestions.

I'm really curious how the other (ex) GSoC contributors view this guide! Does it tell you what you wish you wanted you'd knew before writing your proposal?

[colinfrisch]

Thanks for your reviews, I agree with all of them so I added them. I integrated a few feedbacks already from @Sahil-Chhoker, but I'd be curious to see what the others think of it indeed :)

[EwoutH]

Maybe you can also link to the guide on the main Readthedocs page

mesa/docs/index.md

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- [Github]

[Sahil-Chhoker]

I think this looks solid.

[pragam-m25]

Hi @EwoutH (and @colinfrisch),

Ewout asked me to share my thoughts on this guide from a new contributor's perspective.

First, I think it's a great guide! If I had this 3 days ago, I would have understood the GSoC expectations much better.

As a new contributor, I did find a few small things that were a bit confusing for me as a complete beginner:

1. ABM Acronym: The guide introduces "agent-based modeling" on line 4, but as a developer who is not a modeller, I wasn't 100% sure what that was. Then on line 27, it uses the acronym "ABM" without defining it (e.g., "Agent-Based Modeling (ABM)"). For a total beginner, it might be helpful to define the acronym clearly at the start.

2. Confusing Jargon: On line 52, it mentions "pressing matters" and "fluff". As a new person, I don't know what the project's 'pressing matters' are, and 'fluff' is also a bit confusing. These words might be hard for beginners to understand.

3. Complex Sentence: The long sentence on line 28 ("Putting in a lot of reflection on use cases...") was also a bit complex. I wasn't sure if it was advice for GSoC proposals or for my feedback on the guide itself.

These are just my honest thoughts as someone new to the project. I hope this is helpful!

[Sahil-Chhoker]

2. Confusing Jargon: On line 52, it mentions "pressing matters" and "fluff". As a new person, I don't know what the project's 'pressing matters' are, and 'fluff' is also a bit confusing. These words might be hard for beginners to understand.

I wrote this line to explain what I’m trying to say, this applies only after you’ve seen the project you’ll be working on. Every project shouldn’t just be a simple feature or bug fix; it should be a solution to a problem with its own trade-offs. 'Pressing matters' defines just that, working on what matters more. 'Fluff' is the unimportant stuff people tend to add to their proposals just to make them longer.

In my opinion, this is best understood once contributors have seen their respective projects. Let me know what you think.

[EwoutH]

Would something like “to separate the main issues from the non-essentials” make it more clear?

Every project shouldn’t just be a simple feature or bug fix; it should be a solution to a problem with its own trade-offs. 'Pressing matters' defines just that, working on what matters more. 'Fluff' is the unimportant stuff people tend to add to their proposals just to make them longer.

I think this captures it well. Maybe just add (a version of) this?

[colinfrisch]

Thanks for the feedback ! I integrated everything. Anything else you want me to add/modify ?

[EwoutH]

I think is an awesome start! If we think of more we can always improve it further.

Now we have make this document findable, otherwise nobody reads it. I would suggest linking to it in 3 places:

1. The main docs page:

Maybe you can also link to the guide on the main Readthedocs page

mesa/docs/index.md

Line 68 in 6dabdbf

- [Github]

2. Here in the readme: https://github.com/projectmesa/mesa?tab=readme-ov-file#resources
3. In italic on top of the contributing guide: https://github.com/projectmesa/mesa/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md

I would suggest in all three to use the full name and the abbreviation, something like “For participating in the Google Summer of Code (GSoC), checkout Mesa’s GSoC guide.”

I’m thinking, do we need to do anything to let Readthedocs build this document (@tpike3 / @quaquel)?

[EwoutH]

Awesome, I’m good. Readthedocs renders nicely. Thanks!

Let give the rest of the team a bit of time to look at it.

[EwoutH]

Let’s keep this a living document and keep updating where relevant.

Thanks Colin for setting this up!