Merge pull request #7832 from thunderboltsid/add-readme-for-gsoc-contribs

Add project overview for gsoc submission

summerofcode/2016/siddharth_shukla.md

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+Project Overview
+================
+The project, titled 'GRPC Python compatibility support', involved 
+collaborating with the GRPC team to improve the library compatibility 
+for the GRPC Python library.
+
+Python is, originally, a specification for a programming language. This
+specification has been implemented differently in different
+implementations of the [language specification](https://docs.python.org/3/reference/). 
+
+A small, and by no means exhaustive, list of some major python implementations
+is:
+
+- [CPython](https://www.python.org/): The reference implementation
+- [Jython](http://www.jython.org/): Python implemented in Java
+- [Python for .NET](http://pythonnet.sourceforge.net/): CPython implementation that enables .NET library usage
+- [IronPython](http://ironpython.net/): Python implemented in .NET
+- [PyPy](http://pypy.org/): Python implemented completely in Python
+- [Stackless](https://bitbucket.org/stackless-dev/stackless/wiki/Home): Replaces the dependency for the C call stack with it's own stack
+
+The development in this project revolved around
+introducing changes to the codebase that enable support for latest 
+stable as well as development releases of the reference implementation 
+(CPython) of the Python programming language namely `Python 3.4`,
+`Python 3.5`,and `Python 3.6` as well as the stable releases of the 
+PyPy implementation. Special changes were required to enable PyPy 
+support because PyPy has a non-deterministic garbage collector that does
+not rely on reference counting unlike the CPython garbage collector.
+
+The changes to the codebase involved changes to the library code as well
+as changes to the tests and scripts in the test infrastructure which
+resulted in both the library as well as the testing infrastructure being
+Python 3.x and PyPy compatible.
+
+The list of merged commits, as of 22.08.2016 23:59 CEST,  is summarized 
+here for the perusal of those interested:
+
+- [Enable py35 and py36 testing](https://github.com/grpc/grpc/commit/c478214e475e103c5cdf477f0adc18bba2c03903)
+- [Make testing toolchain python 3.x compliant](https://github.com/grpc/grpc/commit/0589e533cd65a2ca9e0e610cc1b284d016986572)
+- [Add .idea folder to .gitignore](https://github.com/grpc/grpc/commit/365ef40947e22b5438a63f123679ae9a5474c47c)
+- [Fix the ThreadPoolExecutor: max_workers can't be 0](https://github.com/grpc/grpc/commit/de84d566b8fad6808e5263a25a17fa231cb5713c)
+- [Add PyPy to testing toolchain](https://github.com/grpc/grpc/commit/2135a1b557f8b992186d5317cb767ac4dbcdfe5c)
+- [Switch init/shutdown: lib-wide -> per-object](https://github.com/grpc/grpc/commit/9eedb4ffd74aed8d246a07f8007960b2bc167f55)
+- [Skip test run if running with pypy](https://github.com/grpc/grpc/commit/f0f58e68738abbc317f7f449c5104f7fbbff26bd)
+
+The list of unmerged pull requests is as follows:
+
+- [Add PyPy 5.3.1 to dockerfile and template](https://github.com/grpc/grpc/pull/7763)
+- [remove skipIf from TypeSmokeTest (issue 7672)](https://github.com/grpc/grpc/pull/7831)
+  
+The list of tasks that have pending unsubmitted pull requests is as follows:
+
+- Modify run_tests.py to enable testing of new languages without
+  affecting old branches.
+
+
+Project Details
+===============
+- Title: GRPC Python compatibility support
+- Student: [Siddharth Shukla](https://github.com/thunderboltsid)
+- Mentors: [Nathaniel Manista](https://github.com/nathanielmanistaatgoogle), [Masood Malekghassemi](https://github.com/soltanmm)
+- Duration: May 23 - August 23
+- Hat tip: [Ken Payson](https://github.com/kpayson64), [Jan Tattermusch](https://github.com/jtattermusch), [Nicolas Noble](https://github.com/nicolasnoble)
+
+