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My Google Summer of Code 2022 summary

What and for whom

Organization: MetaBrainz Foundation

Project: MusicBrainz Picard

Mentors: Laurent Monin (zas) & Philipp Wolfer (phw)

Main focus: Introducing single-instance mode in Picard 3.0

GSoC website: Link

What has been done: TL;DR edition

  • Picard works in single-instance mode by default, allowing to force-spawn a new instance
  • Picard accepts not just file paths but also URLs, MBIDs and commands as command-line arguments
  • The command-line arguments are sent to the existing instance (and processed by it) if possible
  • Picard can execute commands passed by the command-line interface; e.g. save all files, show the Picard window or close the app
  • Picard can also load the commands from a text file

List of PRs

Single instance mode:

Picard remote commands enhancements:

Code refactoring:

  • metabrainz/picard#2080: Code explicitly marked as deprecated got removed, my initial commit to get to know the Picard codebase and workflow
  • metabrainz/picard#2127: Minor patch, unparsed args are now ignored as they were not used anywhere
  • metabrainz/picard#2139: Refactored the whole process of passing arguments to Picard, replaced '%'-formatted strings with f-strings, more than one arguments can be passed correctly to a command

Other:

What I have learnt during GSoC 2022

  • How to work with other people on GitHub
  • How to improve my git experience (e.g. hooks)
  • How one can handle inter-process communication, basically I have researched:
    • pipes
    • named pipes
    • sockets
    • dbus
  • How to use Windows API with Python
  • Differences between Windows and Unix pipes
  • \0 is the only character that is prohibited on both Windows & Unix in path names
  • /tmp is not the recommended way to store non-persistent app data on *nix
  • os._exit might be useful when pythonic threads get broken
  • Importing a tuple in Python is underrated. git diff gets cleaner, as one sees only the additions

Some personal thoughts

  • Python is a really decent language that helps with starting one's programming journey but the deeper I went, the more annoyances I have encountered (that is why I ended up starting to work as a C++ dev)
  • Ultra-safety is a double-edged sword: good luck terminating Pythonic futures/threads with file operations
  • CI/CD and testing in general is as important as decent codebase
  • If one can plan their time well, flexible work hours make their work both more effective and more enjoyable
  • Python sometimes change for worse or breaks the code without any reason (e.g. they have switched from using a mode into w on pipes, ref: LINK)
  • I will not start any new personal project in Python (especially one using multi-threading, multiple processes etc.), unless forced to do so. Nu for scripting, filling the niche & exploring the functional programming, some statically-typed languages for bigger projects, games, research, etc.
  • Impostor syndrome is just an another excuse to procrastinate. Do not be scared to learn & do new things but also ask smart questions. Everyone makes mistakes but if you made it to this org, you are a good fit and have enough qualifications

Special thanks

The whole MetaBrainz community is awesome and I am glad I have become a part of it, but I would like to express my special gratitude to the people I have directly worked with in any way :) (alphabetical order by github username)