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Since 2011 the GNU Octave project has mentored 38 students in [[Summer of Code]] (SoC) programs by [https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/ Google] and [https://socis.esa.int/ ESA]. Those programs aim to populate open-source software development and to attract potential new Octave developers. | |||
Since 2011 the GNU Octave project has | |||
in [[Summer of Code]] (SoC) programs by [https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/ Google] and [https://esa.int/ ESA]. | |||
Those | |||
= Steps toward a successful application = | = Steps toward a successful application = | ||
# 😉💬 '''We want to get to know you | # 😉💬 '''We want to get to know you. Communicate with us.''' | ||
#* Join [https://octave.discourse.group/ '''Octave Discourse'''] or [ | #* Join [https://octave.discourse.group/ '''Octave Discourse'''] or our [https://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=#octave '''IRC channel''']. | ||
#* | #* We are interested in you as motivated developer 💻 There is no need to present an overwhelming CV with prestigious universities 🏰 and programming contest awards 🏆 in it. We are very fine if you just communicate using a nickname with us. | ||
#* ''' | #* If your first question is "Hi I'm new to Octave. What should I do?" '''you are out''' 🤦 | ||
#* Remember, '''we are mentors and not your boss 🙂''' | |||
# 📝💡 '''Tell us what you are going to do.''' | |||
#* When you contact us for the first time, do not write just to say in what project you're interested in. Be specific about what you are going to do, post many links 🔗, show us you know what you are talking about 💡, and ask many [http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html smart questions] 🤓 | |||
# 👩🔬 '''Get your hands dirty.''' | # 👩🔬 '''Get your hands dirty.''' | ||
#* We are curious about your programming skills | #* We are curious about your programming skills ⌨️ | ||
#** | #** Try to [https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=octave fix Octave bugs] or [https://savannah.gnu.org/patch/?group=octave submit patches] '''before''' the end of the application deadline. | ||
#** | #** Take a look at the [[Short projects]] for simple bugs to start with. | ||
#* '''Use Octave!''' | #* '''Use Octave!''' | ||
#** If you come across something that does not work the way you like ➡️ try to fix that 🔧 | #** If you come across something that does not work the way you like ➡️ try to fix that 🔧 | ||
#** Or | #** Or you come across a missing function ➡️ try to implement it. | ||
# 📔 '''Prepare your proposal with us.''' | # 📔 '''Prepare your proposal with us.''' | ||
#* | #* GSoC, for example, [https://google.github.io/gsocguides/student/writing-a-proposal requires to submit a proposal]. | ||
#* If we see your proposal for the first time after the application deadline, it might | #* If we see your proposal for the first time after the application deadline, you can easily imagine that it might contain ambiguities or some paragraphs are not fully clear to us. We easily get doubts if you are capable of working on your project 😓 | ||
#* | #* Try to show us as early as possible a draft of your proposal 👍 | ||
= How do we judge your application? = | = How do we judge your application? = | ||
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You should know: | You should know: | ||
# How to build Octave from | # How to build Octave from it's source code using [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_build_system the GNU build system]. | ||
#* Read in this wiki: [[Developer FAQ]], [[Building]] | #* Read in this wiki: [[Developer FAQ]], [[Building]] | ||
#* Tools to know: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Compiler_Collection gcc], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Make_(software) make] | #* Tools to know: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Compiler_Collection gcc], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Make_(software) make] | ||
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= Suggested projects = | = Suggested projects = | ||
The following suggested projects are distilled from the [[Projects]] page for the benefit of potential SoC | The following suggested projects are distilled from the [[Projects]] page for the benefit of potential SoC students. You can also look at our [[Summer of Code|completed past projects]] for more inspiration. | ||
{{Note|Do you use Octave at your | {{Note|Do you use Octave at your university or do you have some numerical project in mind? You are always welcome to '''propose your own projects'''. If you are passionate about your project, it will be easy to find an Octave developer to mentor and guide you.}} | ||
== | == ode15{i,s} : Matlab Compatible DAE solvers == | ||
An initial implementation of a Matlab compatible ode15{i,s} solver, | |||
based on [http://computation.llnl.gov/projects/sundials SUNDIALS], | |||
was done by Francesco Faccio during GSOC 2016. | |||
The blog describing the work is [http://gsoc2016ode15s.blogspot.it/ here]. | |||
The resulting code has been pushed into the main Octave repository in the development branch and | |||
consists mainly of the following three files | |||
[https://hg.savannah.gnu.org/hgweb/octave/file/tip/libinterp/dldfcn/__ode15__.cc __ode15__.cc], | |||
[https://hg.savannah.gnu.org/hgweb/octave/file/tip/scripts/ode/ode15i.m ode15i.m] and | |||
[https://hg.savannah.gnu.org/hgweb/octave/file/tip/scripts/ode/ode15s.m ode15s.m]. | |||
The list of outstanding tracker tickets concerning this implementation can be found | |||
[https://savannah.gnu.org/search/?Search=Search&words=ode15&type_of_search=bugs&only_group_id=1925&exact=1&max_rows=25#options here] | |||
Possible useful improvements that could be done in a new project include: | |||
: | |||
* Implement a better function for selecting consistent initial conditions compatible with Matlab's decic.m. The algorithm to use is described [http://faculty.smu.edu/shampine/cic.pdf here] | |||
* make ode15{i,s} work with datatypes other than double | |||
* | * improve interpolation at intermediate time steps. | ||
* general code profiling and optimization | |||
Other tasks, not strictly connected to ode15{i,s} but closely related, that could be added | |||
to a possible project plan would be improving documentation and tests in odepkg and removing | |||
overlaps with the documentation in core Octave. | |||
* '''Required skills''' | * '''Required skills''' | ||
: | : C++; C; familiarity with numerical methods for DAEs; Basic knowledge of makefiles and/or autotools. | ||
* '''Difficulty''' | |||
: Medium. | |||
* '''Potential mentors''' | * '''Potential mentors''' | ||
: | : Francesco Faccio, Carlo de Falco, Marco Caliari, Jacopo Corno, Sebastian Schöps | ||
== Using Python within Octave == | |||
[[Pythonic]] allows one to call Python functions and interact with Python objects from within Octave .m file code and from the Octave command line interface. Pythonic may eventually not be a separate package, but rather a core feature of Octave. This project aims to improve Pythonic with the goal of making the package more stable, maintainable, and full-featured. | |||
Based on a previous summer project related to Pythonic, this work will consist of fast-paced collaborative software development based on tackling the [https://gitlab.com/mtmiller/octave-pythonic/issues Pythonic issue list]. You would also be expected to participate in software design decisions and discussion, as well as improve documentation, doctests, and unit tests. As an example of the sorts of decisions being made, note that Octave indexes from 1 whereas Python typically indexes from 0; in which cases is it appropriate to make this transparent to the user? | |||
* '''Mentors''' | |||
: Mike Miller, Colin B. Macdonald, Abhinav Tripathi, others? | |||
== Improve TIFF image support == | |||
== | |||
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIFF Tag Image File Format (TIFF)] is the de facto standard for scientific images. Octave uses the [http://www.graphicsmagick.org/ GraphicsMagic] (GM) C++ library to handle [http://www.graphicsmagick.org/formats.html TIFF and many others image formats]. However, GM still has several limitations: | |||
: | |||
: | |||
* GM has build option {{codeline|quantum}} which defines the bitdepth to use when reading an image: | |||
** Building GM with '''high quantum''' means that images of smaller bitdepth will take a lot more memory when reading. | |||
** Building GM with '''low quantum''' will make it impossible to read images of higher bitdepth. It also means that the image needs to always be rescaled to the correct range. | |||
* GM supports unsigned integers only, thus incorrectly reading files such as TIFF with floating-point data. | |||
* GM hides details of the image such as whether the image file is indexed. This makes it hard to access the real data stored on file. | |||
This project aims to implement better TIFF image support using [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libtiff libtiff], while leaving GM handle all other image formats. After writing a [https://octave.org/doc/v6.1.0/classdef-Classes.html classdef] interface to libtiff, improve the Octave functions {{manual|imread}}, {{manual|imwrite}}, and {{manual|imfinfo}} to make use of it. | |||
* '''Required skills''' | * '''Required skills''' | ||
: Octave, | : Knowledge of Octave, C++ and C. | ||
* '''Potential | * '''Difficulty''' | ||
: | : Medium. | ||
* '''Potential mentor''' | |||
: Carnë Draug | |||
== PolarAxes and Plotting Improvements == | |||
== | |||
Octave currently provides supports for polar axes by using a Cartesian 2-D axes and adding a significant number of properties and callback listeners to get things to work. What is needed is the implementation of a dedicated "polaraxes" object in C++. This will require creating a new fundamental graphics object type, and programming in C++/OpenGL to render the object. When "polaraxes" exists as an object type, then m-files will be written to access them, including polaraxes.m, polarplot.m, rticks.m, rticklabels.m, thetaticks, thetaticklabels.m, rlim.m, thetalim.m. This relates to bug {{bug|49804}}. | |||
* ''' | * '''Minimum requirements''' | ||
: | : Ability to read and write C++ code. Ability to read and write Octave code. Experience with OpenGL programming is optional. | ||
* ''' | * '''Difficulty''' | ||
: | : Medium. | ||
* ''' | * '''Mentor''' | ||
: | : Rik | ||
== Adding functionality to packages == | |||
== | |||
=== TISEAN package === | |||
[http://www.mpipks-dresden.mpg.de/~tisean/Tisean_3.0.1/index.html TISEAN] is a suite of code for nonlinear time series analysis. It has been [[TISEAN package | partially re-implemented]] as libre software. The objective is to integrate TISEAN as an Octave Forge package, as was done for the Control package. | |||
[[TISEAN_package | A lot has been completed]] but [[TISEAN_package:Procedure | there is still work left to do]]. | |||
There are missing functions to do computations on spike trains, to simulate autoregresive models, to create specialized plots, etc. Do check [[TISEAN_package:Procedure#Table_of_functions|the progress of the project]] to see if you are interested. | |||
* [http://octave.sourceforge.net/tisean/overview.html Package help at source forge.] | |||
* [https://sourceforge.net/p/octave/tisean/ci/default/tree/ Package repository at source forge.] | |||
* | * '''Required skills''' | ||
: | : m-file scripting, C, C++, and FORTRAN API knowledge. | ||
and | * '''Difficulty''' | ||
: easy/medium | |||
* | * '''Mentor''' | ||
: | : [[User:KaKiLa|KaKiLa]] | ||
=== Symbolic package === | |||
Octave's [https://github.com/cbm755/octsympy Symbolic package] provides symbolic computing and other [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_algebra_system computer algebra system] tools. The main component of Symbolic is a pure m-file class "@sym" which uses the Python package [https://www.sympy.org SymPy] to do (most of) the actual computations. The package aims to expose the full functionality of SymPy while also providing a high level of compatibility with the Matlab Symbolic Math Toolbox. The Symbolic package requires communication between Octave and Python. A GSoC2016 project successfully re-implemented this communication using the new [[Pythonic|Pythonic package]]. | |||
: | |||
: | |||
This project proposes to go further: instead of using Pythonic only for the communication layer, we'll use it throughout the Symbolic project. For example, we might make "@sym" a subclass of "@pyobject". We also could stop using the "python_cmd" interface and use Pythonic directly from methods. The main goal was already mentioned: to expose the *full functionality* of SymPy. For example, we would allow OO-style method calls such as "f.diff(x)" instead of "diff(f, x)". | |||
* '''Required skills''' | * '''Required skills''' | ||
: | : OO-programming with m-files, Python, and possibly C/C++ for improving Pythonic (if needed). | ||
* ''' | * '''Difficulty''' | ||
: | : easy/medium | ||
* '''Mentors and/or other team members''' | |||
: Colin B. Macdonald, Mike Miller, Abhinav Tripathi | |||
=== OCS === | |||
== | |||
[[Ocs package | OCS]] is a circuit simulator for Octave. The objective of this project is to update the code to use modern features of Octave (e.g. classdef), [https://savannah.gnu.org/search/?Search=Search&words=%28ocs%29&type_of_search=bugs&only_group_id=1925&exact=1&max_rows=25#options fix open bugs], increase compatibility with SPICE and improve compatibility with other Octave packages (odepkg, control etc). | |||
* [http://octave.sourceforge.net/ocs/overview.html Package help at source forge.] | |||
* | |||
: | |||
* '''Required skills''' | * '''Required skills''' | ||
: | : m-file scripting, C, C++, and FORTRAN API knowledge. | ||
* ''' | * '''Difficulty''' | ||
: | : easy/medium | ||
* '''Mentor''' | |||
: Sebastian Schöps, Carlo de Falco | |||
* | |||
[[Category:Summer of Code]] | [[Category:Summer of Code]] | ||
[[Category:Project Ideas]] | [[Category:Project Ideas]] |