Yesterday I found out that I’d been accepted into the Google Summer of Code 2013 to work on LibreOffice! Many thanks to the Mentors for accepting me!
My project involves implementing an SDBC driver for the Firbird SQL Database for LO Base, with a view to having this replace the current default of HSQLDB, which depends on Java, meaning that Java could the eventually be removed as a fixed dependency for full LibreOffice functionality. Further to this I’d also be looking at migratiom of files from HSQLDB to Firebird, and also implementing some unit tests for the database functionality, something that has been previously been missing from LO Base. (Currently .odb files use HSQLDB for their internal database, although it is also possible to use other external databases — this connector would mean that future .odb files would use Firebird internally.) There are a number of other developers who are also working on this at the moment, meaning development should be fast and exciting!
I’m currently concentrating on exams which finish at the end of the next week, after which I’ll be free to work on this full time. I’ll also be continuing with the Firefox OS Impress Remote which I started work on some time ago (but this will be completely independent of the GSOC). I now have a Firefox Phone meaning I can get on to testing things on actual hardware, and have also been doing some experimentation on implementing the UI using jQuery mobile, meaning something testable/usable isn’t too far away.
Continuing on from my GSOC project last year, there are two fellow students working on the Impress Remote this summer: Artur Dryomov will be working improving the Impress Remote / Current app, Siqi Liu will be working on an iOS version of the remote app.
