Do something like one project per month with one topic among the above per week. Haven't found the right group of folks to experiment on with this yet.
Edit: Send me an email if you'd like and I'll think about hosting this virtually.
Done right I think that may go somewhere.
The biggest hurdle for me has been actually finding a project I'm interested in where I haven't yet gone poking around the source code for some reason or another.
It's a pain to write about because you have to find some contrived error (real or not) in a contrived app. I've got a draft of a post but without the examples filled in.
Would like to read (and share) what you've got.
Now we're having multiples of codebases to comb through.
I'm not sure it needs de nuovo examples, just general advice and techniques from long experience.
I remember finding this talk useful and general good advice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN4ZuGruiNw but would love to learn more about how others do it.
Would be great to see your impressions as you dig into it and maybe record yourself on youtube. Any way I can be of assistance, let me know.
We both do some pre reading of the topic, and "pair program" through it, changing some bits and running the code to see if the current mental model still holds. The person who drives has to be very verbose explaining what he's doing ("Let's go to this function definition, ok, we see this struct here, let's leave a mark for later and visit that struct"), because otherwise, the one watching is like "wtf, are we looking at now".
We're currently going over emacs' native compiler branch and it's been lots of fun so far. The conversational interaction of Lisps makes those explorations very lively.
I'd be interested in joining, of course :)
FWIW: I started a study group in the late 90s, which continues today.
Our original topic (theme) was Design Patterns. Took three attempts to become self-sustaining. Mostly for an in-group to congeal. We had to experiment with the format, work out the details. Stuff like meeting frequency, best way to do the food, delegating tasks.
After each book, the group gets together to choose the next book. Over the last 20+ years, we tackled most vogue programming languages, Prolog, SICP, concurrency, ML & big data, k8s, methodologies, algos. (One notable omission are the consensus algos.)
So here's my unsolicited advice:
#1 As soon as you can, delegate the discussion leader task, then step back and focus on coordination (hosting). Once you figure out a mostly working format. After showing everyone how it's done, hand it off. Ideally, do round robin with the participants. After a while it becomes clear who's good at discussions.
First reason is coordinator is a full time job itself. Preparing to lead a discussion is a lot of work and a different headspace. Reading the source material, doing background research (reading other reviews of same), distilling 3-5 essential open-ended questions about the chapter, etc.
Second reason is emotional engagement, investment. Everyone has to pull their weight. Just like with a church, there's no commitment without sacrifice. You're hosting a discussion group, not a seminar.
#2 Experiment, have a plan, make decisions democratically, do post mortems after each series. Ask each participant to write what worked, what didn't, what they'd change (aka The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly). Send all write-ups to group pre meeting. Then discuss.
As coordinator, my job was to facilitate, carry out the group's will, keep everything on track. (Well, mostly the job was to show up.) There have now been a handful of coordinators; so apparently our culture and format were successful.
So if I was going to tackle AOSP today with a new crew, I'd draft a plan, invite everyone to also propose plans, present plans to the group, have a list of open questions to be decided, keep a list of new questions raised, keep minutes, send out a recap. I'd probably host every thing on git, to ease collaboration.
My opening position would be to suggest a first "season" 4-6 months long, meet alternate weeks, use a survey to divine which chapters to cover (based on group interest), another survey to divine meeting schedule.
Ok. Enough of my brain dump.
Again, whatever you end up doing, please do a Show HN.
What you're doing is very exciting. Happy hunting.