Summer of Code - Getting Started: Difference between revisions

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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.
{{Note|GNU Octave is a [https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/programs/2024/organizations/gnu-octave mentoring organization for GSoC 2024].}}
 
Since 2011 the GNU Octave project has successfully mentored:
* [[Summer of Code | '''42 participants''' 🙂]]
* [[Summer of Code | '''44 projects''' 📝]]
in [[Summer of Code]] (SoC) programs by [https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/ Google] and [https://esa.int/ ESA].
 
Those SoC programs aim to advertise open-source software development and to attract potential new Octave developers.


= Steps toward a successful application =
= Steps toward a successful application =


# 😉💬 '''We want to get to know you.  Communicate with us.'''
# 😉💬 '''We want to get to know you (before the deadline).  Communicate with us.'''
#* Join [https://octave.discourse.group/ '''Octave Discourse'''] or our [https://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=#octave '''IRC channel'''].
#* Join [https://octave.discourse.group/ '''Octave Discourse'''] or [[IRC]] for general discussion and to ask questions (Please do not use the bug tracker for general GSOC inquiries unrelated to specific bugs found with Octave.) Using a nickname is fine.
#* 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.  
#* Show us that you're motivated to work on Octave 💻. There is no need to present an overwhelming CV 🏆; evidence of involvement with Octave is more important.
#* If your first question is "Hi I'm new to Octave. What should I do?" '''you are out''' 🤦
#* '''<span style="color:darkblue;">If you never talked to us, we will likely reject your proposal</span>''', even it looks good 🚮
#* 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.
#** Your application will be much stronger if you [https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=octave fix Octave bugs] or [https://savannah.gnu.org/patch/?group=octave submit patches] before or during the application period.
#** Take a look at the [[Short projects]] for simple bugs to start with.
#** You can take a look at the [[short projects]] for some 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 you come across a missing function ➡️ try to implement it.
#** Or if you find a missing function ➡️ try to implement it.
# 📝💡 '''Tell us what you are going to do.'''
#* Do not write just to say what project you're interested in.  Be specific about what you are going to do, include links 🔗, show us you know what you are talking about 💡, and ask many [http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html smart questions] 🤓
#* Remember, '''we are volunteer developers and not your boss''' 🙂
# 📔 '''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].
#* Try to show us as early as possible a draft of your proposal 📑
#* 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 😓
#* If we see your proposal for the first time after the application deadline, it might easily contain some paragraphs not fully clear to us.  Ongoing interaction will give us more confidence that you are capable of working on your project 🙂👍
#* Try to show us as early as possible a draft of your proposal 👍
#* Here’s a sample proposal outline that you can use as a reference when drafting your own application. [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kGtT9_f0FrXdCKwyKEWwOV6R-AU90bkd/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=115736651221450989198&rtpof=true&sd=true Sample Proposal]
#* Then submit the proposal following the applicable rules, e.g. for [https://google.github.io/gsocguides/student/writing-a-proposal GSoC]. 📨


= How do we judge your application? =
= How do we judge your application? =
Line 40: Line 48:


You should know:
You should know:
# How to build Octave from it's source code using [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_build_system the GNU build system].
# How to build Octave from its 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]
Line 49: Line 57:
= Suggested projects =
= Suggested projects =


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.
The following suggested projects are distilled from the [[Projects]] page for the benefit of potential SoC participants.  You can also look at our [[Summer of Code|completed past projects]], or the current [https://hg.savannah.gnu.org/hgweb/octave/file/tip/etc/ROADMAP.md | Octave Development Roadmap] for more inspiration.
 
{{Note|Do you use Octave at your working place or university? 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. Please note that for such a proposal to be successful it will almost certainly involve initiating pre-proposal discussion over at the [https://octave.discourse.group Octave Discourse forum].}}
 
== Adding more Classification classes and implementing missing methods in statistics package ==
 
Although a ClassificationKNN class was added in the latest statistics release (1.6.1), it still lacks several methods (only `predict` is available at the moment). This GSoC project aims at implementing more methods, such as crossval, cvloss, lime, loss, margin, partialDependence, plotPartialDependence, etc., as well as adding more classdefs related to classification classes, such as ClassificationGAM, ClassificationDiscriminant, ClassificationSVM, ClassificationNeuralNetwork, ClassificationNaiveBayes, etc. The statistics package, although heavily developed during the past years, still lacks a lot of classdef functionality. The scope is to implement classification classdef objects and their relevant methods in a MATLAB-compatible way.
 
* '''Project size''' [[#Project sizes | [?]]] and '''Difficulty'''
: ~350 hours (hard)
* '''Required skills'''
: Octave, classdef, good knowledge of statistical methods
* '''Potential mentors'''
: [https://octave.discourse.group/u/pr0m1th3as Andreas Bertsatos]


{{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.}}
== Custom re-implementation of the texi2html (v.1.82) command line tool ==


== ode15{i,s} : Matlab Compatible DAE solvers ==
Implement a compiled .oct function to relax the dependency of the pkg-octave-doc package on texi2html (v.1.82) command line tool, which is no longer maintained or further developed but also not readily available to all linux distributions. The idea is to have a `texi2html` function within the pkg-octave-doc package that will replace the functionality of the texi2html (v.1.82) command line tool. This will also help improve the speed of pkg-octave-doc processing large packages, which contain specific tags (such as @math) which are currently handled within Octave code.


An initial implementation of a Matlab compatible ode15{i,s} solver,
* '''Project size''' [[#Project sizes | [?]]] and '''Difficulty'''
based on [http://computation.llnl.gov/projects/sundials SUNDIALS],
: ~350 hours (hard)
was done by Francesco Faccio during GSOC 2016.
* '''Required skills'''
The blog describing the work is [http://gsoc2016ode15s.blogspot.it/ here].
: Perl, C++, Octave, Texinfo, HTML
The resulting code has been pushed into the main Octave repository in the development branch and
* '''Potential mentors'''
consists mainly of the following three files
: [https://octave.discourse.group/u/pr0m1th3as Andreas Bertsatos]
[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]
== Port Chebfun to Octave and improve classdef support ==
* 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
[https://www.chebfun.org| Chebfun] uses interpolation to approximate functions to very high accuracy, giving numerical computing that feels like symbolic computing.
to a possible project plan would be improving documentation and tests in odepkg and removing
The software is implemented as collection of "classdef" classes and is Free and Open Source Software.
overlaps with the documentation in core Octave.
However, Chebfun does not yet work with Octave, largely due to differences and issues with Octave's classdef implementation.
This project has two aims: (1) make changes to the Chebfun code to make it work on Octave and (2) improve Octave's classdef functionality.
Some initial steps toward to first goal can be found on [https://github.com/cbm755/chebfun/tree/octave_dev| this octave_dev branch].
The second goal will likely involve a collaborative effort because classdef is a priority on [https://hg.savannah.gnu.org/hgweb/octave/file/tip/etc/ROADMAP.md | Octave's Development Roadmap] and because other proposed projects also involve classdef.
   
   
* '''Project size''' [[#Project sizes | [?]]] and '''Difficulty'''
: ~350 hours (hard)
* '''Required skills'''
* '''Required skills'''
: Knowledge of Octave, C/C++; familiarity with numerical methods for DAEs
: Octave, object-oriented programming, polynomial interpolation and approximation theory, C++.
* '''Potential mentors'''
* '''Potential mentors'''
: Francesco Faccio, Carlo de Falco, Marco Caliari, Jacopo Corno, Sebastian Schöps
: [https://octave.discourse.group/u/cbm Colin B. Macdonald]


== 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.
<!--
== ode15{i,s} : Matlab Compatible DAE solvers ==


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?
An initial implementation of Matlab compatible Differential Algebraic Equations (DAE) solvers, {{manual|ode15i}} and {{manual|ode15s}}, based on [https://computing.llnl.gov/projects/sundials SUNDIALS],
was done by [https://gsoc2016ode15s.blogspot.com/ Francesco Faccio during GSoC 2016].  The code is maintained in the main Octave repository and consists mainly of the following three files: [https://hg.savannah.gnu.org/hgweb/octave/file/tip/libinterp/dldfcn/__ode15__.cc {{path|libinterp/dldfcn/__ode15__.cc}}], [https://hg.savannah.gnu.org/hgweb/octave/file/tip/scripts/ode/ode15i.m {{path|scripts/ode/ode15i.m}}] and [https://hg.savannah.gnu.org/hgweb/octave/file/tip/scripts/ode/ode15s.m {{path|scripts/ode/ode15s.m}}].


The {{manual|decic}} function for selecting consistent initial conditions for ode15i can be made more Matlab compatible by using [http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/JNMA.2002.291 another algorithm].  Another useful extension is to make ode15{i,s} work with datatypes other than double and to improve interpolation at intermediate time steps.
* '''Project size''' [[#Project sizes | [?]]] and '''Difficulty'''
: ~350 hours (medium)
* '''Required skills'''
* '''Required skills'''
: Knowledge of Octave, C/C++, Python
: Octave, C/C++; familiarity with numerical methods for DAEs
* '''Potential mentors'''
* '''Potential mentors'''
: Mike Miller, Colin B. Macdonald, Abhinav Tripathi
: Francesco Faccio, [https://octave.discourse.group/u/cdf Carlo de Falco], [https://octave.discourse.group/u/marco_caliari Marco Caliari], Jacopo Corno, [https://octave.discourse.group/u/schoeps Sebastian Schöps]
-->


== Improve TIFF image support ==
<!--
== PolarAxes and Plotting Improvements ==


[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:
Octave currently provides support 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}}.


* GM has build option {{codeline|quantum}} which defines the bitdepth to use when reading an image:
* '''Project size''' [[#Project sizes | [?]]] and '''Difficulty'''
** Building GM with '''high quantum''' means that images of smaller bitdepth will take a lot more memory when reading.
: ~350 hours (medium)
** 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.
* '''Required skills'''
* GM supports unsigned integers only, thus incorrectly reading files such as TIFF with floating-point data.
: Octave, C/C++; optional experience with OpenGL programming
* 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.
* '''Potential mentors'''
: [https://octave.discourse.group/u/rik Rik]
-->


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.
<!--
== Table datatype ==


In 2013, Matlab introduced a [https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/tables.html new table datatype] to conveniently organize and access data in tabular form.  This datatype has not been introduced to Octave yet (see bug {{bug|44571}}).  However, there are two initial implementation approaches https://github.com/apjanke/octave-tablicious and https://github.com/gnu-octave/table.
Based upon the existing approaches, the goal of this project is to define an initial subset of [https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/tables.htmlMatlab's table functions], which involve sorting, splitting, merging, and file I/O and implement it within the given time frame.
* '''Project size''' [[#Project sizes | [?]]] and '''Difficulty'''
: ~350 hours (hard)
* '''Required skills'''
* '''Required skills'''
: Knowledge of Octave, C/C++
: Octave, C/C++
* '''Potential mentors'''
* '''Potential mentors'''
: Carnë Draug
: ???
-->


== PolarAxes and Plotting Improvements ==
<!--
== TISEAN package ==


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}}.
The [[TISEAN package]] provides an Octave interface to [https://www.pks.mpg.de/~tisean/Tisean_3.0.1/index.html TISEAN] is a suite of code for nonlinear time series analysis.  In 2015, another GSoC project started with the work to create interfaces to many TISEAN functions, 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.  These are of importance for many scientific disciplines involving statistical computations and signal processing.


* '''Project size''' [[#Project sizes | [?]]] and '''Difficulty'''
: ~350 hours (medium)
* '''Required skills'''
* '''Required skills'''
: Knowledge of Octave, C/C++; optional experience with OpenGL programming
: Octave, C/C++; FORTRAN API knowledge
* '''Potential mentors'''
* '''Potential mentors'''
: Rik
: [https://octave.discourse.group/u/kakila KaKiLa]
-->


== Adding functionality to packages ==
<!--
== Better tab completion ==


=== OCS package ===
Links: [https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/index.php?62492 https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/index.php?62492] and [https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?53384 https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?53384]


The [[Ocs package | OCS package]] is a circuit simulator. The objective of this project is to increase compatibility with [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPICE SPICE] and improve compatibility with other Octave packages, e.g. the [[Control package]]. Please study the [https://octave.sourceforge.io/ocs/overview.html available functions] of this package.  
Description: currently pressing Tab at the Octave command prompt attempts autocompletion of all identifiers in scope (variables, functions, classdefs etc) as well as files and directories in the path. It is not context sensitive.


Project: Improve tab completion. For example,
* Typing
: load x
and then pressing tab should ideally give all loadable files and directories starting with x, not unrelated results like variables or functions.
* Typing
:cd
and tab should only give directories.
* Any file and directory names that are included in the results should include those with spaces and special characters including those that would be interpreted as operators by Octave.
* Typing commands like
: axis
or
: format
and pressing tab should give only those options relevant to that command. E.g. format can be followed by short / long / loose / compact etc but not by a file or variable. Similarly axis can be followed by ij / xy / tight / equal / actual limits etc but not by files or directories. And so on for other commands. This should be made possible for both preexisting commands and for yet-to-be-written commands without any rewriting of existing function code or documentation.
To get more examples, see how bash completion works. You can type git or hg and then tab and it will give the list of available commands. If you type "sort --r" and then tab, it gives the list of options to sort starting with "--r", etc.
* '''Project size''' [[#Project sizes | [?]]] and '''Difficulty'''
: ~350 hours (medium)
* '''Required skills'''
* '''Required skills'''
: Knowledge of Octave, C/C++; FORTRAN API knowledge
: ???
* '''Potential mentors'''
* '''Potential mentors'''
: Sebastian Schöps, Carlo de Falco
: ???
-->


=== Symbolic package ===
<!--
== Graphics rendering back to front sorting ==


The [[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.  In 2016 another GSoC project successfully re-implemented this communication using the new [[Pythonic|Pythonic package]].
Several incompatibilities have been identified in how Octave plots transparent objects in 3D, causing certain transparent objects to hide opaque objects behind them even though they're not supposed to. The vast majority of them were isolated to one problem: if the objects to be drawn are rendered such that the one farthest away from the viewer is rendered first and nearer objects are rendered on top of that, then transparency would be automatically achieved, but this needs very careful coding to stay performant and to avoid rendering objects that will be overwritten fully by others. See [https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?57980] for a summary.
 
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 <code>f.diff(x)</code> instead of <code>diff(f, x)</code>.


* '''Project size''' [[#Project sizes | [?]]] and '''Difficulty'''
: ~350 hours (medium)
* '''Required skills'''
* '''Required skills'''
: Knowledge of Octave, C/C++, Python; object-oriented programming (OOP) in Octave
: ???
* '''Potential mentors'''
* '''Potential mentors'''
: Colin B. Macdonald, Mike Miller, Abhinav Tripathi
: ???
-->


=== TISEAN package ===
<!--
== Symbolic 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.
The [[Symbolic package]] provides symbolic computing and other [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_algebra_system computer algebra system] tools via the [https://sympy.org SymPy Python library]. GSoC projects in 2016 and 2022 improved the 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.
There are no specific plans for Symbolic in GSoC 2023, but improvements elsewhere that would help Symbolic include:
* Developing the Octave-Pythonic package.
* [http://octave.sourceforge.net/tisean/overview.html Package help at source forge.]
* Fix the storage of non-expressions by working with upstream SymPy: currently we rely on deprecated functionality in SymPy.
* [https://sourceforge.net/p/octave/tisean/ci/default/tree/ Package repository at source forge.]
* Improvements and fixes to classdef-related issues in Octave itself.
* Developing the Octave Jupyter kernel.


* '''Project size''' [[#Project sizes | [?]]] and '''Difficulty'''
: ~350 hours (medium)
* '''Required skills'''
* '''Required skills'''
: Knowledge of Octave, C/C++; FORTRAN API knowledge
: ???
* '''Potential mentors'''
* '''Potential mentors'''
: [[User:KaKiLa|KaKiLa]]
: ???
-->
 
= Project sizes =
 
As of 2024, possible project sizes are 90 (small), 175 (medium), or 350 hours (large) <ref>https://developers.google.com/open-source/gsoc/faq#how_much_time_does_gsoc_participation_take</ref>.
 
= Footnotes =
 
<references />
 
= See also =
 
* https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/
* [https://google.github.io/gsocguides/student/ GSoC Student Guide]
* [https://google.github.io/gsocguides/mentor/ GSoC Mentor Guide]
* [https://developers.google.com/open-source/gsoc/timeline GSoC Timeline]


[[Category:Summer of Code]]
[[Category:Summer of Code]]
[[Category:Project Ideas]]
[[Category:Project Ideas]]

Latest revision as of 05:22, 22 September 2024

Info icon.svg

Since 2011 the GNU Octave project has successfully mentored:

in Summer of Code (SoC) programs by Google and ESA.

Those SoC programs aim to advertise open-source software development and to attract potential new Octave developers.

Steps toward a successful application[edit]

  1. 😉💬 We want to get to know you (before the deadline). Communicate with us.
    • Join Octave Discourse or IRC for general discussion and to ask questions (Please do not use the bug tracker for general GSOC inquiries unrelated to specific bugs found with Octave.) Using a nickname is fine.
    • Show us that you're motivated to work on Octave 💻. There is no need to present an overwhelming CV 🏆; evidence of involvement with Octave is more important.
    • If you never talked to us, we will likely reject your proposal, even it looks good 🚮
  2. 👩‍🔬 Get your hands dirty.
    • We are curious about your programming skills 🚀
    • Use Octave!
      • If you come across something that does not work the way you like ➡️ try to fix that 🔧
      • Or if you find a missing function ➡️ try to implement it.
  3. 📝💡 Tell us what you are going to do.
    • Do not write just to say what project you're interested in. Be specific about what you are going to do, include links 🔗, show us you know what you are talking about 💡, and ask many smart questions 🤓
    • Remember, we are volunteer developers and not your boss 🙂
  4. 📔 Prepare your proposal with us.
    • Try to show us as early as possible a draft of your proposal 📑
    • If we see your proposal for the first time after the application deadline, it might easily contain some paragraphs not fully clear to us. Ongoing interaction will give us more confidence that you are capable of working on your project 🙂👍
    • Here’s a sample proposal outline that you can use as a reference when drafting your own application. Sample Proposal
    • Then submit the proposal following the applicable rules, e.g. for GSoC. 📨

How do we judge your application?[edit]

Depending on the mentors and SoC program there are varieties, but typically the main factors considered would be:

  • You have demonstrated interest in Octave and an ability to make substantial modifications to Octave
    The most important thing is that you've contributed some interesting code samples to judge your skills. It's OK during the application period to ask for help on how to format these code samples, which normally are Mercurial patches.
  • You showed understanding of your topic
    Your proposal should make it clear that you're reasonably well versed in the subject area and won't need all summer just to read up on it.
  • Well thought out, adequately detailed, realistic project plan
    "I'm good at this, so trust me" isn't enough. In your proposal, you should describe which algorithms you'll use and how you'll integrate with existing Octave code. You should also prepare a project timeline and goals for the midterm and final evaluations.

What you should know about Octave[edit]

GNU Octave is mostly written in C++ and its own scripting language that is mostly compatible with Matlab. There are bits and pieces of Fortran, Perl, C, awk, and Unix shell scripts here and there. In addition to being familiar with C++ and Octave's scripting language, you as successful applicant will be familiar with or able to quickly learn about Octave's infrastructure. You can't spend the whole summer learning how to build Octave or prepare a changeset and still successfully complete your project 😇

You should know:

  1. How to build Octave from its source code using the GNU build system.
  2. How to submit patches (changesets).

Suggested projects[edit]

The following suggested projects are distilled from the Projects page for the benefit of potential SoC participants. You can also look at our completed past projects, or the current | Octave Development Roadmap for more inspiration.

Info icon.svg
Do you use Octave at your working place or university? 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. Please note that for such a proposal to be successful it will almost certainly involve initiating pre-proposal discussion over at the Octave Discourse forum.

Adding more Classification classes and implementing missing methods in statistics package[edit]

Although a ClassificationKNN class was added in the latest statistics release (1.6.1), it still lacks several methods (only `predict` is available at the moment). This GSoC project aims at implementing more methods, such as crossval, cvloss, lime, loss, margin, partialDependence, plotPartialDependence, etc., as well as adding more classdefs related to classification classes, such as ClassificationGAM, ClassificationDiscriminant, ClassificationSVM, ClassificationNeuralNetwork, ClassificationNaiveBayes, etc. The statistics package, although heavily developed during the past years, still lacks a lot of classdef functionality. The scope is to implement classification classdef objects and their relevant methods in a MATLAB-compatible way.

  • Project size [?] and Difficulty
~350 hours (hard)
  • Required skills
Octave, classdef, good knowledge of statistical methods
  • Potential mentors
Andreas Bertsatos

Custom re-implementation of the texi2html (v.1.82) command line tool[edit]

Implement a compiled .oct function to relax the dependency of the pkg-octave-doc package on texi2html (v.1.82) command line tool, which is no longer maintained or further developed but also not readily available to all linux distributions. The idea is to have a `texi2html` function within the pkg-octave-doc package that will replace the functionality of the texi2html (v.1.82) command line tool. This will also help improve the speed of pkg-octave-doc processing large packages, which contain specific tags (such as @math) which are currently handled within Octave code.

  • Project size [?] and Difficulty
~350 hours (hard)
  • Required skills
Perl, C++, Octave, Texinfo, HTML
  • Potential mentors
Andreas Bertsatos


Port Chebfun to Octave and improve classdef support[edit]

Chebfun uses interpolation to approximate functions to very high accuracy, giving numerical computing that feels like symbolic computing. The software is implemented as collection of "classdef" classes and is Free and Open Source Software. However, Chebfun does not yet work with Octave, largely due to differences and issues with Octave's classdef implementation. This project has two aims: (1) make changes to the Chebfun code to make it work on Octave and (2) improve Octave's classdef functionality. Some initial steps toward to first goal can be found on this octave_dev branch. The second goal will likely involve a collaborative effort because classdef is a priority on | Octave's Development Roadmap and because other proposed projects also involve classdef.

  • Project size [?] and Difficulty
~350 hours (hard)
  • Required skills
Octave, object-oriented programming, polynomial interpolation and approximation theory, C++.
  • Potential mentors
Colin B. Macdonald





Project sizes[edit]

As of 2024, possible project sizes are 90 (small), 175 (medium), or 350 hours (large) [1].

Footnotes[edit]

  1. ↑ https://developers.google.com/open-source/gsoc/faq#how_much_time_does_gsoc_participation_take

See also[edit]

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