Before the Board votes on this proposal we would like to have a period of community consultation. Please leave feedback in the comments or if you prefer send email with your comments to karen at perlfoundation.org.

Name

Jonathan Worthington

Project Title

Meta-model Improvements and Natively Typed Attributes

Synopsis

As Rakudo gains features, its relatively low performance is increasingly
being viewed as a blocker for continued progress and adoption. Prior to now,
a focus on Rakudo features has been a good thing; we have a releasable product
in Rakudo * that demonstrates the power of Perl 6, and working on optimization
prior to the features would have ultimately done more harm than good. As Rakudo
reaches a wider user base, it's time to examine some of the remaining tasks and
work on delivering a more performant Rakudo.

We have been able to build Perl 6 capabilities into Rakudo by starting out with
Parrot default components and gradually replacing them with Perl 6-specific
ones. A prime example of this is the object metamodel. Parrot's object model
has not mapped well to Perl 6, but in the "ng" branch work earlier this year
we have abstracted most of it to a well-defined API. However, the abstraction
is inefficient and in some places inadequate for implementing some features
from the Perl 6 specification.

The work this grant proposes aims to re-build what lies beneath the meta-model
API in a way that is far more optimal for Perl 6. Since this is used by both
Rakudo and nqp-rx, it will deliver both compile time and runtime speed gains.
Furthermore, the re-implemented meta-model will suport natively-typed attributes
and compact structs, enabling portions of Synopsis 9 to be implemented for Rakudo
(one of the areas where Rakudo and the specification are currently weakest).

Benefits to Perl 6 Development

This work will contribute towards addressing one of the most cited problems with
Rakudo Perl 6 today - its performance. It will also deliver more Perl 6
features, bring Rakudo still closer to the specification, and provide a basis
for further development. A faster, more complete Rakudo will attract
additional interest, grow the Perl 6 community and provide more feedback to
move much closer to having a full Perl 6 implmentation.

Deliverables

D1. A new, clean, efficient implementation of the core of the Perl 6 meta-model,
replacing the current P6object implementation.

D2. Modify nqp-rx to use the new meta-model implementation, particularly
enabling compile-time index offsets of attributes and detection of
mis-spelled attribute names.

D3. Modify Rakudo to use the new meta-model implementation.

D4. Implement natively typed attributes in Rakudo.

D5. Finish the pieces needed to enable writing custom meta-classes in
Rakudo and document how it is to be done.

D6. Review and ensure we have good test coverage for all of the above
deliverables.

Project Details

Deliverable 1 is the really big part of this project. The new meta-model
implementation should be capable of:

• Accessing object attributes by index offset rather than a more expensive
  hash table lookup

• Having natively typed attributes

• Performing type checks (isa and does) faster than currently possible

• Providing custom dispatchers

• Supporting all features of the existing metamodel implementation

The core should not implement every Perl 6 feature, but rather provide a fast
implementation of the fundementals required to do so. For example, the core
metamodel itself may only support single inheritance, but it would be
possible to build multiple inheritance on top of this using the Perl 6
ClassHOW implementation.

Deliverable 2 involves converting nqp-rx to use the new meta-model. This will
provide some early feedback and experience that will guide the process of
integrating the new meta-model core with Rakudo. NQP is also a simpler target
than Rakudo. Work on the new metamodel will begin in a branch, which will
eventually replace the current metamodel that NQP uses.

Deliverable 3 converts Rakudo to use the new meta-model core. Essentially
this requires rewriting Rakudo's ClassHOW and RoleHOW in terms of the
new metamodel primitives. The aim will be to use nqp-rx as the primary
language for these objects, to simplify further development and prove
that they can be specified in Perl 6 with minimal "hacks" or "magic".

Deliverable 4 adds natively typed attribute declarations to Rakudo.
This will need some discussions with the Perl 6 and Parrot design teams
and some prototyping attempts. The end result should be the ability to
declare natively typed attributes as described in S09. The majority
of the S09 sized types will be implemented, and initial support for the
"compact structs" section will be provided.

Deliverable 5 completes the ability to create custom metaclasses that is
/almost/ present in Rakudo today. The above work on the metamodel should
allow this highly-requested feature to become available.

Deliverable 6 ensures we have good test coverage of this work. This
task will be ongoing as part of test-driven development in producing
the other deliverables above.

Project Schedule

Initial design work on Deliverable 1 will begin in July, with much of the
implementation work happening during August. Deliverable 2 should be
complete between the end of September and the middle of October. Deliverables
3 and 4 are targeted for November. Deliverables 5 and 6 will be done shortly
after that, meaning this entire project should be finished sometime in late
December.

Report Schedule

Blog posts will be made throughout the duration of the work on a blog which is
aggregated by Planet Perl 6.

Public Repository

All code, documentation and other relevant files that relate to Rakudo will be
checked into the Rakudo repository. The new P6object replacement will be
developed in the nqp-rx repository. All code, documentation and other
relevant files relating to Parrot fixes or additions will be checked
into the Parrot repository. All contributions to the specification
and specification tests will be checked into the Pugs repository.

Grant Deliverables ownership/copyright and License Information

All work on produced as a result of this grant will be licensed under
the Artistic License Version 2.0. I already have signed the relevant
CLAs for both The Perl Foundation and The Parrot Foundation regarding
my contributions.

Bio

I first started contributing to Parrot in 2003, and have previously
contributed to Parrot core development. I have been involved in Rakudo
development since December 2007, and have implemented a wide range of
features, with a primary focus on the object model, multiple dispatch,
and the type system. I am also a frequent speaker on Perl 6 and Parrot
at European Perl conferences and workshops. I have successfully completed
3 previous Hague Grants.

I also have strong academic underpinnings, holding a first class Computer
Science degree with honours from the University of Cambridge.

My unique combination of Parrot internals knowledge, in-depth
knowledge of Rakudo Perl 6, academic background, and previous
contributions to Rakudo and Parrot put me in a very strong position to
successfully deliver an implementation of the features described in
this proposal.

Country of Residence

Sweden

Nationality

United Kingdom

Amount Requested

$9000 USD (50% paid after D1 and D2 are completed; remainder when all complete)

Before the Board votes on this proposal we would like to have a period of community consultation. Please leave feedback in the comments or if you prefer send email with your comments to karen at perlfoundation.org.

Name:

Patrick Michaud

Project Title:

Lists, Iterators, and Parcels -- Synopsis 7, 8, and other general Rakudo improvements

Project Overview:

This project will focus on solidifying the design of lists, iterators, and
Parcels in Perl 6 and Rakudo. Over the past several years the Synopses have
gone through successive designs for Perl 6 lists and iterators, and in
implementation all have been shown to have significant flaws or
contradictions to other parts of the specification. Recently I worked
with Larry to prototype a new design for Rakudo Perl 6 based on "immutable
cursors"; this new design appears to neatly resolve the many difficult
issues confounding the earlier designs. This grant proposes to
(1) complete the Rakudo implementation of the new design, (2) rewrite
Synopsis 7 ("Iterators") and Synopsis 8 ("Captures and Parcels") to
document the design, (3) update all remaining Synopses to be consistent
with the design, (4) document key details of Rakudo's implementation of
lists and iterators, and (5) review and update the test suite as appropriate.

Benefits to Perl 6 Development:

Lists and iterators are at the core of many of Perl 6's basic features.
Much of the power of Perl 6 comes from its ability to aggressively combine
and exploit the fundamental behaviors of its list structures across
many language features, including laziness, eagerness, flattening
behavior, slices, slurpy lists, pipes and feeds, etc. However, our
experience in implementation has shown that it's quite challenging to
come up with a completely workable design, such that the core design
for lists and iterators has changed many times in the Synopses. As
such, over time the Synopses have accumulated many inconsistencies
due to the different attempts, and the information in Synopses 7 and 8
is almost completely out of date.

In order to achieve a working Perl 6 implementation, the existing
documentation needs substantial updating to reflect the current
design. This will drive needed refinement of the existing
prototype in Rakudo Perl 6, as well as provide a clear roadmap for
other implementations of Perl 6. Having a clear description of
list and iterator semantics has also proven to be critical for the
development of the core libraries and other Perl 6 modules.

Deliverables:

D1. Completion of the new list implementation in Rakudo Perl 6.

D2. Reviewed and updated tests for iterables and lists in the official
test suite.

D3. A new version of Synopsis 7 describing Iterator, Iterable, List, and
related classes and roles.

D4. A new version of Synopsis 8 describing Parcels, Captures, and
(to the extent known) Slices.

D5. Updates to S32 API descriptions for Lists, Iterators, Parcels, etc.

D6. A compiler design document and blog postings describing the details
of Rakudo's list and iterator implementation (including how it manages
laziness and eagerness, list flattening and itemization, Parcels
and other list-like structures, vivification of list elements, etc.).

Project Details:

The primary focus and work to be performed in this grant will be
to develop a robust specification for Perl 6 iterators and lists
in the Synopses, based on the prototype implementation in Rakudo Perl 6.
Drafts of the updated Synopses will be maintained in the Pugs repository
to invite comments, updates, and feedback from the Perl 6 design team
and other members of the Perl community. There will also be design
team meetings on the phone, in person at conferences, and via email and
IRC.

Updating the synopses with the new iterator and list details will also
undoubtedly require additional refinements and improvements to the
prototype implementation in Rakudo. And, throughout the project the
test suite will be reviewed and updated to improve coverage and quality
of the iterator, list, and related tests.

Project Schedule:

The entire project should be completed within approximately two months
from its start date. Work will officially begin as soon as the project
is approved (although some items may start before then to meet other
Rakudo Perl 6 needs).

Report Schedule:

At least three interim reports will be provided during this project;
these will typically be in the form of blog postings describing the
grant work and/or many of the details of the design and implementation.
A new report will be posted approximately every other week to use.perl.org.

Public Repository and License:

All code and documentation will be developed and stored either in the
standard repository for each component (typically either the Rakudo Perl
or Pugs repositories). All copyrights for this work will be held by
The Perl Foundation, and licensed under the Artistic License 2.0.

Bio:

Since 2004 I have been the lead architect, developer, and project
manager for what is now Rakudo Perl (Perl 6 on Parrot), and I recently
led the development of the new design for iterators and lists in
Perl 6. My previous work on Perl 6 and Rakudo provides me with
unique experience and background for achieving the critical deliverables
described by this project.

Country of Residence:

United States

Amount Requested:

USD $3000

Before the Board votes on this proposal we would like to have a period of community consultation. Please leave feedback in the comments or if you prefer send email with your comments to karen at perlfoundation.org.

Grant title:

Perl Ecosystem development group

Name:

Gabor Szabo

Amount requested: $25,000

Synopsis:

One of the objectives of the Ian Hague donation of 2008 was to allow The Perl Foundation to develop its own organizational capabilities that will allow The Perl Foundation to pursue additional funding opportunities.

I would like part of this donation to be used to fund me for approximately six months to devote 2/3 of my time setting up an Ecosystem Development group and enhancing the already existing Events group.

The grant is only the initial amount requested, as when considering the grant
I would like The Perl Foundation (TPF) to approve the continuation of the project until
its cancellation by either side. (See later: Beyond the grant)

Benefits to the Perl Community:

The events group will continue to participate at non-Perl events and turn it into an ongoing activity of the Perl Community. It will provide a platform for the Perl community to interact with thousands of developers who are not (yet) attending YAPCs, Perl Workshops,
or Perl Monger meetings.

Members of the Ecosystem Development group will provide ongoing financing to the activities of TPF. This should provide funding for promotional activities such as the Events group and TPF's development grants process.

Deliverables:

While some of the deliverables are easy to identify their impact will only be felt in the long term.

During the 6 months of the grant period the Events group will participate at 15 events, which means about 5,000 people will visit the Perl stands.

By the end of the first 6 months the Ecosystem Development Group will have 18 members paying a total of 72,500 USD to the TPF in annual fees which will leave the project with about 33,000 in the bank.

During the first 6 months the group will deliver at least 6 Press Releases of various Perl related open source projects.

While these deliverables are quite easy to measure it will still be important, due to the size of the grant, to closely monitor my progress (see below in the Plans).

Project details and schedule:

The Events group, before the grant

Since the organization of the events group we have setup Perl booths at two major events in Europe FOSDEM in Brussels, Belgium in February, CeBIT in Hannover, Germany in March 2010.

and there is a third coming soon: LinuxTag in Berlin, Germany in June 2010.

For all 3 we got financial help from TPF and from YEF to cover the costs of the conference swag.

There was also serious Perl participation on the Russian DevConf 2010 but I was not involved in that.

Regardless of the approval I plan to participate at the German Perl Workshop, YAPC::NA and the Belgian Perl Workshop where I will talk about both the Perl Events group and the Perl Ecosystem group.

The Perl Ecosystem group, before the grant

Over the past few months I have had discussions with several people in the open source Perl community and several people from companies using Perl about the possibility of setting up a separate organization with the aims that now manifest in this proposal. The issue most people raised was that it would be better to do this within TPF.

Plans:

While the grant is planned for a 6 month period the work on both the Ecosystem Development group and the Perl Events group must continue beyond the time frame of the grant. In order to provide better control for TPF it might be beneficial to have two project managers monitoring my progress.

In order to provide visibility and to make the financial issues transparent I am going to provide weekly reports about my activities via my blog.

This frequent feedback would allow the grant managers and active members of the community to observe whether time spent bears any relation to actual activity and results, and thus allow early flagging of any concerns.

Missing two weekly reports in a row without prior notice would be grounds for terminating the project.

During the grant period I plan to allocate about 110 hours each month to the project not including travel time to the various events. That would amount to 110 * 50 = 5500 USD / month compensation to me. In addition there will be travel expenses, costs of the conference swag and costs of participating on the various events.

In order to allow the $25,000 grant to cover 6 months and to reduce the risk of running out of money the payment will be structured differently. I will only receive 1,500 USD base compensation plus expenses I paid out of my pocket. The rest of my compensation will come in the form of a bonus up to 50% of the membership fees paid and up to 5500/month. That will ensure that I need to work very hard to find and sign up the members.

At the end of every month I'll update the budget and the financial reports and claim the fee and any expenses I paid out of my pocket.
(See separate spreadsheet for initial budget).

Plan for July-September:

There is a whole list of potential events to attend and there are many more events that are not yet listed. One of the first things to do will be to update that list and to determine the
events for October-December where we want to participate.

Planned participation at the following events:

2010.07.19-23 OSCON, Portland, USA, Oregon at the TPF booth (Gabor Szabo)

2010.07.21-24 FISL, Porto Alegre, Brazil, RS (Nelson Ferraz)

2010.08.4-6 YAPC::EU, Pisa, Italy (Gabor on personal expense)

2010.08.21-22 FrOSCon, St. Augustin, Germany (Renee Baecker)

2010.09.2-3 WebGUI Users Conference, Madison, USA, Wisconsin (Gabor Szabo)

2010.09.10-12 Ohio LinuxFest Columbus, USA, Ohio (local Perl mongers)

2010.09.17-18 FrOSCamp, Zurich, Switzerland (Renee Baecker)

Before the events, in addition to planning the event, finding people to be at the booth and preparing the materials, I plan to contact companies that are going to be present at the event. I would invite them to our booth and try to setup meeting at CTO/CIO/VP RnD or CEO level to introduce the work of The Perl Foundation and the Perl Ecosystem group. In some cases this will lead to signing them up to the group.

While not at the conferences I'll use the contacts of the Perl community to find companies that could be interested in joining the Ecosystem Development group.

Proposed annual fee levels:

Individual or SMB member (1-4 employees): $1,250

Small Companies (5-50 employees): $6,000

Large Companies (51- employees): $12,000

Membership advantages:

A few words about why companies will want to become members:

1) They will mentioned on the web site of the Ecosystem group on the web site of TPF

2) They will be mentioned (up to one A4 page) in the materials we hand out during the various events

3) They will show the appreciation to Perl and in general help the Perl community

4) They will be provided an exclusive forum where they can raise suggestions on how to spend the money collected from the members. (e.g. suggestions for grants for the development of Perl 5, Perl 6, CPAN, etc.)

5) They will be provided with a platform to reach the Perl community that will make it easier for them to find new employees
( in addition to jobs.perl.org )

6) They will have an exclusive forum for their managers to discuss their successes and issues with Perl development.

Beyond the grant:

Both the Ecosystem Development group and the Events group need long term committed work. Preparations for events need to be started several months before the event so I'll have to be sure I can continue the effort even after successfully finishing of the grant.

Therefore the effort will continue until either side cancels the arrangement. After the initial 6 months grant phase the payment structure will change. For the second 6 months I will receive $3,000 base compensation and the other 2,500 will come as bonus from the payments of members in excess of the first $72,500. After the first year the base compensation will be $5,500 and we will work out a bonus mechanism.

The objectives for these periods will be decided together with the board of TPF but to give ballpark numbers: In the second 6 months I'd like to get additional members with annual fee between $70,000-$100,000 bringing the total annual income of TPF to $140,000-170,000. A part of that money can already go to finance development grants as well.

In the second year I'd like reach a total budget of $240,000.

During the period of the grant the membership fees will automatically become part of the budget of the Ecosystem and Events groups.

After the grant period, in consultation with the member companies, the TPF board will decide a new allocation of the funds to allow the group to grow further but allowing any additional income to be part of the general budget of TPF. The same process will be repeated after completing the first year and then annually.

Bio:

I was born in Hungary and currently live in Israel.

I have been using Perl since 1995, teaching Perl since 2000 and have been involved in the Perl community since 2001.

I've (re)organized the Israeli Perl community and was the main organizer of YAPC::Israel::2003, 2004, 2005, OSDC::Israel::2006 and the Israeli Perl Workshop in 2007. I've attended and spoke at numerous YAPCs, Perl Workshops
and QA Hackathons. I was also the co-organizer of the three Hungarian Perl Workshops between 2003-2005.

In the development area I started Padre, the Perl IDE, and have participated in a number of Perl projects in both Perl 5 and Perl 6.

For my community involvement I received the White Camel Award in 2008. In 2009 I received the community award of HaMakor, the Israeli NPO for the advancement of Free and Open Source Software.

In the last year I've been one of the advocates of the "marketing" of Perl and organized the Perl events group.

This community initiative was started last year by Edmund von der Burg and this year is being run by the Enlightened Perl Organisation. Its aim is to provide financial assistance to community members who would love to attend YAPC::Europe and have never attended any large Perl conference before.

Donations to the program can be made on their web-site via PayPal or by sending email to send-a-newbie@enlightenedperl.org. Applications for the program are being accepted until the 30th June.