iry:
Hello everyone!
My name is iry. I am a GSoC student who will be mentored by both Sukhbir (sukhe) and Patrick Schleizer!
Although I have heard this good news for a while, I still feel great excitement and happiness every time I think about it. This is because contributing to the Tor/Whonix is my dream that has been encouraging me to move on. Therefore, you can imagine how appreciated I am to the Tor community for offering me such a great opportunity to let me get more involved with Tor!
The following is a Q&A about myself and the project I will be working on this summer. I hope it will help you have a better idea about me and the project I will be working on! Also, if there is any question, feedback or anything else you would like to discuss with me, please do not hesitate to let me know! I will be more than happy to discuss them with you!
#####What project would you like to work on? I would like to work on the anon-connection-wizard. It is a Python-clone of the Tor Launcher which aims at providing Tor users with a graphical instruction on configuring the Tor. This [application](https://github.com/Whonix/anon-connection-wizard) has been developed as a part of the Whonix Project. Some of the screenshots of its old version can be found [here](https://www.whonix.org/blog/connection-bridge-wizard).
This application is especially helpful for users who live in Tor-censored area. This is because those users can only connect to the Tor network with the help of other censorship circumvention tools which include but are not limited to Tor bridges, pluggable transports and other third party Internet censorship circumvention tools like Lantern and VPN.
Currently, the Tor Launcher is shipped with the Tor Browser Bundle and heavily relies on the Tor Browser for its implementation. Although thanks to the great efforts([[1]](https://git-tails.immerda.ch/tails/tree/config/chroot_local-hooks/06-adduser...), [[2]](https://git-tails.immerda.ch/tails/tree/config/chroot_local-hooks/10-tbb?h=d...), [[3]](https://git-tails.immerda.ch/tails/tree/config/chroot_local-includes/usr/loc...), [[4]](https://git-tails.immerda.ch/tails/tree/config/chroot_local-includes/usr/loc...)) of Tails, the Tor Launcher can be run as a stand-alone XUL application currently, since the XUL will not be supported by mozilla in Firefox ESR branch anymore [some time next year](https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2016/11/23/add-ons-in-2017/), that implementation may not work for a long time. Beiseds, I agree with the Whonix core developer Patrick Schleizer that "the Tor Browser Bundle has its kind of users. system Tor (refers to Tor from packages.debian.org or deb.torproject.org) users, where Tor runs as daemon, is used in different ways for different purposes".
Therefore, although anon-connection-wizard is a Python-clone of the Tor luancher, since all its dependencies are already in Debian and already packaged, it can still serve as a really useful tool for the system Tor users or a loose coupling substituition to the Tor Launcher.
In addition, the current instructions provided by the anon-connection-wizard and Tor launcher is not clear enough for users to configure Tor correctly. Therefore I would like to implement and redesign the anon-connection-wizard. I hope that my work will help more people to connect to the Tor network efficiently and successfully.
#####Your proposal should also try to break down the project into tasks of a fairly fine granularity, and convince us you have a plan for finishing it.
As mentioned above, my project goals include two main parts:
######The clone implementation of Tor Launcher: Currently, I have helped to implement the basic functions of anon-connection-wizard. However, there are still several bugs need fixing and a large number of exciting features need implementing, which include:
- The current implementation of configuring torrc file is very
rudimentary. The anon-connection-wizard should read the previous bridge/proxy configuration from the file and adjust the default UI accordingly. Just like what Tor Launcher has been doing. The ["edit marker approach"](https://forums.whonix.org/t/graphical-gui-whonix-setup-wizard-anon-connectio...) is preferred way to implement this; 2. The password for proxy setting should be covered by character *.
######The redesign of the anon-connection-wizard: I have made a specific [proposal](https://forums.whonix.org/t/a-proposal-for-redesigning-anon-connection-wizar...) for this topic. And the redesign should at least includes:
- Rearranging the instruction page orders for better usability;
- Rewriting the literal instruction so that it fits the actual
situation of people in censored areas; 3. Adding more features to the custom Tor bridges configuration input box for more clear instruction. For example, syntax highlight, tool-tips, etc; 4. Doing user behavior experiment to find out what can be helpful for better usability; 5. Modifying the anon-connection-wizard based on the result of the experiment.
You should double-check https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/21951, especially Linda et.al.'s paper in the attachment. They already made a usability study showing design changes that would significantly improve the usability. We are going to implement a lot of those findings later this year in Tor Launcher.
[snip]
Georg