User:Siko1056

A: An introduction

• I'm Kai Torben Ohlhus, a computer science and engineering student in the final master semester from Hamburg, Germany. During my studies I specialized on software systems and communication networks and discovered a passion for computer arithmetic and algorithms, which will now be topic of my master thesis. I speak German (native), English (fluent) and Spanish (basic).
• My intention to participate in the GSoC 2013 is to work on a software project that can be part of my master thesis, which I start now in April. Till now I haven't participated in any GSoC and this year will be my last chance to do so.
• The choice for Octave came during the planning of my thesis schedule. My master thesis will deal with accurate fast scalar products and matrix-vector products for big sparse linear systems, usually coined to be called with MATLAB's MEX-Interface. But I prefer to use software where I can read the source code of how something is done, rather than a sparse documentation. So don't be afraid to disapprove my application, I'll stick to Octave.

C: Contact

• I know how to use IRC and I will be online as often as possible under the nick siko1056 on #octave.
• GMT+02:00 (CEST)
• I use to work from 10.00 to 18.00 +/- 2 hours.

E: Coding experience

• Since the beginning of my studies (so more than four years) I work with C, C++, and m-scripts. I attended many courses and laboratories dealing with these three languages. From my 3rd semester on I'm a student tutor for these courses:Software part of a laboratory course (MATLAB),

Computer Programming (C) and Introduction to Programming (C). I have little laboratory experience with Qt4 and with OpenGL I have no experience so far, but I worked with SDL.

• Also a big part of my studies was Java
• Please describe your experience with other programming languages.
• Please describe your experience with being in a development team. Do you have experience working with open source or free projects?
• Please describe the biggest project you have written code for and what you learned by doing so. Also describe your role in that project over time.
• Please state the commits and patches you already contributed to Octave. This question (one of the most important parts by the way) is the only part of your application our wiki admins will edit for you even after the application deadline. Code sometimes speaks louder than many words do.

F: Feeling fine

• Please describe (in short) your experience with the following tools: We only use this question to determine where you need guidance, not for rating! We by no means expect you to be familiar with all of these and you'll won't necessarily need them while working with us.
  • IRC and mailing lists
• I worked a lot with GIT, Subversion and Mercurial
  • Mercurial or other source code management systems
  • Mediawiki or other wiki software
  • make, gcc, gdb or other development tools
• What will make you actively stay in our community after this GSoC is over? You can also tell us after applications close and we'll happily try to fulfill :-)

O: Only out of interest

• Did you ever hear about Octave before?
  • If so, when and where? How far have you been involved already?
  • If not, where would you expect or advise us to do advertising?
• What was the first question concerning Octave you could not find an answer to rather quickly? Of course more than one question can be stated. We try to improve based on this each year! Includes learning how to use it, code, website, GSoC application, …

P: Prerequisites

• Please state the operating system you work with.
  • If you have access to more than one, please state them and the conditions under which you are granted this access.
• Please estimate an average time per day you will be able to (if separated) access
  • an internet connection
  • a computer
  • a computer with your progressing work on
• Please describe the degree up to which you can install new software on computers you have access to.

S: Self-assessment

• Please describe how useful criticism looks from your point of view as committing student.
• How autonomous are you when developing? If you answer both subquestions with "Yes, definitely", we are a tad confused. ;-)
  • Do you like to discuss changes intensively and not start coding until you know what you want to do?
  • Do you like to code a proof of concept to 'see how it turns out', modifying that and taking the risk of having work thrown away if it doesn't match what the project or original proponent had in mind?

Y: Your task

• Did you select a task from our list of proposals and ideas?
  • If yes, what task did you choose? Please describe what part of it you especially want to focus on if you can already provide this information. Please also wiki-link the page for your elaborated proposal here.
  • If you apply for a task you have added yourself instead, please describe this task, its scope and people you already talked to concerning it. What field of tasks did you miss on the list?
• Please provide a rough estimated timeline for your work on the task. This should include the GSoC midterms and personal commitments like exams or vacation ("non-coding time"). Optionally include two or three milestones you expect.