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{{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 mentored 38 students in [[Summer of Code]] (SoC) programs by [https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/ Google] and [https://socis.esa.int/ ESA].ย  Those programs aim to populate open-source software development and to attract potential new Octave developers.


Since 2011 the GNU Octave project has successfully mentored:
= Steps Toward a Successful Application =
* [[Summer of Code | '''42 participants''' ๐Ÿ™‚]]
* [[Summer of Code | '''44 projects''' ๐Ÿ“]]
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.
# We want to get to know you.ย  Communicate with us ๐Ÿ˜‰๐Ÿ’ฌ
ย 
#* Join [https://octave.discourse.group/ '''Octave Discourse'''] or our [https://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=#octave '''IRC channel''']
= Steps toward a successful application =
#* We are interested in you as motivated developer ๐Ÿ’ปย  There is no need to present an overwhelming CV with prestigious universities ๐Ÿฐ and programming contest awards ๐Ÿ† in it.ย  We are very fine if you just communicate using a nickname with us.
ย 
#* If your first question is "Hi I'm new to Octave. What should I do?" '''you are out''' ๐Ÿคฆ
# ๐Ÿ˜‰๐Ÿ’ฌ '''We want to get to know you (before the deadline).ย  Communicate with us.'''
#* '''Remember, we are mentors and not your boss ๐Ÿ™‚'''
#* 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.
# Tell us what you are going to do ๐Ÿ“๐Ÿ’ก
#* Show us that you're motivated to work on Octave ๐Ÿ’ป. There is no need to present an overwhelming CV ๐Ÿ†; evidence of involvement with Octave is more important.
#* When you contact us for the first time, do not write just to say in what project you're interested in.ย  Be specific about what you are going to do, post many links ๐Ÿ”—, show us you know what you are talking about ๐Ÿ’ก, and ask many [http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html smart questions] ๐Ÿค“
#* '''<span style="color:darkblue;">If you never talked to us, we will likely reject your proposal</span>''', even it looks good ๐Ÿšฎ
# Get your hands dirty ๐Ÿ‘ฉโ€๐Ÿ”ฌ
# ๐Ÿ‘ฉโ€๐Ÿ”ฌ '''Get your hands dirty.'''
#* We are curious about your programming skills โŒจ๏ธ
#* We are curious about your programming skills ๐Ÿš€
#** 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 โžก๏ธ try to fix that ๐Ÿ”ง
#** If you come across something that does not work the way you like โžก๏ธ try to fix that ๐Ÿ”ง
#** Or if you find a missing function โžก๏ธ try to implement it.
#** Or you come across a missing function โžก๏ธ try to implement it.
# ๐Ÿ“๐Ÿ’ก '''Tell us what you are going to do.'''
# Prepare your proposal with us ๐Ÿ“”
#* Do not write just to say what project you're interested in.ย  Be specific about what you are going to do, include links ๐Ÿ”—, show us you know what you are talking about ๐Ÿ’ก, and ask many [http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html smart questions] ๐Ÿค“
#* By working with us to prepare your proposal, you'll be getting to know us and showing us how you approach problems.
#* Remember, '''we are volunteer developers and not your boss''' ๐Ÿ™‚
==ย  Complete Your Application ==
# ๐Ÿ“” '''Prepare your proposal with us.'''
*: Fill out our '''''public''''' application template.
#* Try to show us as early as possible a draft of your proposal ๐Ÿ“‘
*:* This is best done by '''[[Special:CreateAccount|creating an account at this wiki]]''', and copying the '''[[Template:Student_application_template_public|template]]''' from its page.
#* 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 ๐Ÿ™‚๐Ÿ‘
*:* You really only need to copy and answer the '''''public''''' part there, there is no need to showcase everything else to everybody reading your user page!
#* Then submit the proposal following the applicable rules, e.g. for [https://google.github.io/gsocguides/student/writing-a-proposal GSoC]. ๐Ÿ“จ
*: Fill out our '''''private''''' application template.
*:* This is best done by copying the '''[[Template:Student_application_template_private|template]]''' from its page and '''adding the required information to your application at Google (melange)''' or at '''ESA'''.<br>
*:* Only the organization admin and the possible mentors will see this data.ย  You can still edit it after submitting, until the deadline!
ย 
== Things You'll be Expected to Know or Quickly Learn On Your Own ==


= How do we judge your application? =
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, successful applicants 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.


Depending on the mentors and SoC program there are varieties, but typically the main factors considered would be:
* '''The Build System'''
*: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_build_system The GNU build system] is used to build Octave.
*: While you generally don't need to understand too much unless you actually want to change how Octave is built, you should be able to understand enough to get a general idea of how to build Octave.
*: If you've ever done a {{Codeline|./configure && make && make install}} series of commands, you have already used the GNU build system.
*: '''You must demonstrate that you are able to build the development version of Octave from sources before the application deadline.''' Linux is arguably the easiest system to work on. Instructions:
*:* [[Building]]
*:* [https://octave.org/doc/interpreter/Installation.html Octave Manual on Installing Octave]
* '''The Version Control System'''
*: We use [https://www.mercurial-scm.org/ Mercurial] (abbreviated hg).
*: Mercurial is the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_Version_Control_System distributed version control system] (DVCS) we use for managing our source code. You should have some basic understanding of how a DVCS works, but hg is pretty easy to pick up, especially if you already know a VCS like git or svn.
* '''The Procedure for Contributing Changesets'''
*: You will be expected to follow the same procedures as other contributors and core developers.
*: You will be helping current and future Octave developers by using our standard style for changes, commit messages, and so on.ย  You should also read the same [[Contribution guidelines | contribution]] [https://hg.savannah.gnu.org/hgweb/octave/file/tip/etc/HACKING.md guidelines] we have for everyone.
*: [[Hg_instructions_for_mentors#Mercurial_Tips_for_SoC_students | This page]] describes the procedures students are expected to use to publicly display their progress in a public mercurial repo during their work.
* '''The Maintainers Mailing List'''
*: We primarily use [https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/octave-maintainers mailing lists] for communication among developers.
*: The mailing list is used most often for discussions about non-trivial changes to Octave, or for setting the direction of development.
*: You should follow basic mailing list etiquette. For us, this mostly means "do not [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Top-posting top post]".
* '''The IRC Channel'''
*: We also have [http://webchat.freenode.net?channels=octave the #octave IRC channel in Freenode].
*: You should be familiar with the IRC channel.ย  It's very helpful for new contributors (you) to get immediate feedback on ideas and code.
*: Unless your primary mentor has a strong preference for some other method of communication, the IRC channel might be your primary means of communicating with your mentor and Octave developers.
* '''The Octave Forge Project'''
*: [https://octave.sourceforge.io/ Octave Forge] is a collection of contributed packages that enhance the capabilities of core Octave. They are somewhat analogous to Matlab's toolboxes.
* '''Related Skills'''
*: In addition, you probably should know '''some''' mathematics, engineering, experimental science, or something of the sort.
*: If so, you probably have already been exposed to the kinds of problems that Octave is used for.


* '''You have demonstrated interest in Octave and an ability to make substantial modifications to Octave'''
== Criteria by which applications are judged ==
*: 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'''
These might vary somewhat depending on the mentors and coordinators for a particular Summer of Code, but typically the main factors considered would be:
*: 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'''
* '''Applicant has demonstrated an ability to make substantial modifications to Octave'''
*: "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.ย  You should also prepare a project timeline and goals for the midterm and final evaluations.
*: The most important thing is that you've contributed some interesting code samples to judge you by. It's OK during the application period to ask for help on how to format these code samples, which normally are Mercurial patches.


= What you should know about Octave =
* '''Applicant shows understanding of topic'''
*: Your application 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.


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 ๐Ÿ˜‡
* '''Applicant shows understanding of and interest in Octave development'''
*: The best evidence for this is previous contributions and interactions.


You should know:
* '''Well thought out, adequately detailed, realistic project plan'''
# How to build Octave from its source code using [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_build_system the GNU build system].
*: "I'm good at this, so trust me" isn't enough. You should describe which algorithms you'll use and how you'll integrate with existing Octave code. You should also prepare a full timeline and goals for the midterm and final evaluations.
#* 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]
# How to submit patches (changesets).
#* Read in this wiki: [[Contribution guidelines]], [[Mercurial]]
#* Tools to know: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercurial Mercurial (hg)], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git git]


= Suggested projects =
= Suggested projects =


The following suggested projects are distilled from the [[Projects]] page for the benefit of potential SoC participants.ย  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.
The following suggested projects are distilled from the [[Projects]] page for the benefit of potential SoC students.ย  You can also look at our [[Summer of Code|completed past projects]] for more inspiration.


{{Note|Do you use Octave at your working place or university? Do you have some numerical project in mind?ย  You are always welcome to '''propose your own projects'''.ย  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].}}
{{Note|Do you use Octave at your university or do you have some numerical project in mind?ย  You are always welcome to '''propose your own projects'''.ย  If you are passionate about your project, it will be easy to find an Octave developer to mentor and guide you.}}


== Adding more Classification classes and implementing missing methods in statistics package ==
== ode15{i,s} : Matlab Compatible DAE solvers ==


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. ย 
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]


* '''Project size''' [[#Project sizes | [?]]] and '''Difficulty'''
Possible useful improvements that could be done in a new project include:
: ~350 hours (hard)
* '''Required skills'''
: Octave, classdef, good knowledge of statistical methods
* '''Potential mentors'''
: [https://octave.discourse.group/u/pr0m1th3as Andreas Bertsatos]


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


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.
* make ode15{i,s} work with datatypes other than double


* '''Project size''' [[#Project sizes | [?]]] and '''Difficulty'''
* improve interpolation at intermediate time steps.
: ~350 hours (hard)
* '''Required skills'''
: Perl, C++, Octave, Texinfo, HTML
* '''Potential mentors'''
: [https://octave.discourse.group/u/pr0m1th3as Andreas Bertsatos]


* general code profiling and optimization


== Port Chebfun to Octave and improve classdef support ==
Other tasks, not strictly connected to ode15{i,s} but closely related, that could be added
ย 
to a possible project plan would be improving documentation and tests in odepkg and removing
[https://www.chebfun.org| Chebfun] uses interpolation to approximate functions to very high accuracy, giving numerical computing that feels like symbolic computing.
overlaps with the documentation in core Octave.
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 [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.
ย  ย 
ย  ย 
* '''Project size''' [[#Project sizes | [?]]] and '''Difficulty'''
: ~350 hours (hard)
* '''Required skills'''
* '''Required skills'''
: Octave, object-oriented programming, polynomial interpolation and approximation theory, C++.
: C++; C; familiarity with numerical methods for DAEs; Basic knowledge of makefiles and/or autotools.
* '''Difficulty'''
: Medium.
* '''Potential mentors'''
* '''Potential mentors'''
: [https://octave.discourse.group/u/cbm Colin B. Macdonald]
: Francesco Faccio, Carlo de Falco, Marco Caliari, Jacopo Corno, Sebastian Schรถps
ย 
ย 
<!--
== ode15{i,s} : Matlab Compatible DAE solvers ==
ย 
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].ย  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}}].
ย 
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].ย  Another useful extension is to make ode15{i,s} work with datatypes other than double and to improve interpolation at intermediate time steps.
ย 
* '''Project size''' [[#Project sizes | [?]]] and '''Difficulty'''
: ~350 hours (medium)
* '''Required skills'''
: Octave, C/C++; familiarity with numerical methods for DAEs
* '''Potential mentors'''
: 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 Schรถps]
-->
ย 
<!--
== PolarAxes and Plotting Improvements ==


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.ย  What is needed is the implementation of a dedicated "polaraxes" object in C++.ย  This will require creating a new fundamental graphics object type, and programming in C++/OpenGL to render the object.ย  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.ย  This relates to bug {{bug|49804}}.
== Using Python within Octave ==


* '''Project size''' [[#Project sizes | [?]]] and '''Difficulty'''
[[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.ย  Pythonic may eventually not be a separate package, but rather a core feature of Octave.ย  This project aims to improve Pythonic with the goal of making the package more stable, maintainable, and full-featured.
: ~350 hours (medium)
* '''Required skills'''
: Octave, C/C++; optional experience with OpenGL programming
* '''Potential mentors'''
: [https://octave.discourse.group/u/rik Rik]
-->


<!--
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].ย  You would also be expected to participate in software design decisions and discussion, as well as improve documentation, doctests, and unit tests.ย  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?
== 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.ย  This datatype has not been introduced to Octave yet (see bug {{bug|44571}}).ย  However, there are two initial implementation approaches https://github.com/apjanke/octave-tablicious and https://github.com/gnu-octave/table.
* '''Mentors'''
: Mike Miller, Colin B. Macdonald, Abhinav Tripathi, others?


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.
== Improve TIFF image support ==


* '''Project size''' [[#Project sizes | [?]]] and '''Difficulty'''
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIFF Tag Image File Format (TIFF)] is the de facto standard for scientific images.ย  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:
: ~350 hours (hard)
* '''Required skills'''
: Octave, C/C++
* '''Potential mentors'''
: ???
-->


<!--
* GM has build option {{codeline|quantum}} which defines the bitdepth to use when reading an image:
== TISEAN package ==
** 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.ย  This makes it hard to access the real data stored on file.


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.ย  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]].ย  There are missing functions to do computations on spike trains, to simulate autoregresive models, to create specialized plots, etc.ย  These are of importance for many scientific disciplines involving statistical computations and signal processing.
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.


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


<!--
== PolarAxes and Plotting Improvements ==
== Better tab completion ==


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]
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.ย  What is needed is the implementation of a dedicated "polaraxes" object in C++.ย  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}}.


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.
* '''Minimum requirements'''
: Ability to read and write C++ code.ย  Ability to read and write Octave code. Experience with OpenGL programming is optional.
* '''Difficulty'''
: Medium.
* '''Mentor'''
: Rik


Project: Improve tab completion. For example,
== Adding functionality to packages ==


* Typing
=== TISEAN package ===
: 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
[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.
:cd
[[TISEAN_package | A lot has been completed]] but [[TISEAN_package:Procedure | there is still work left to do]].
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.
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.]


* Typing commands like
* '''Required skills'''
: axis
: m-file scripting, C, C++, and FORTRAN API knowledge.
or
* '''Difficulty'''
: format
: easy/medium
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.
* '''Mentor'''
: [[User:KaKiLa|KaKiLa]]


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.
=== Symbolic package ===


* '''Project size''' [[#Project sizes | [?]]] and '''Difficulty'''
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.ย  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.ย  The package aims to expose the full functionality of SymPy while also providing a high level of compatibility with the Matlab Symbolic Math Toolbox.ย  The Symbolic package requires communication between Octave and Python.ย  A GSoC2016 project successfully re-implemented this communication using the new [[Pythonic|Pythonic package]].
: ~350 hours (medium)
* '''Required skills'''
: ???
* '''Potential mentors'''
: ???
-->


<!--
This project proposes to go further: instead of using Pythonic only for the communication layer, we'll use it throughout the Symbolic project.ย  For example, we might make "@sym" a subclass of "@pyobject".ย  We also could stop using the "python_cmd" interface and use Pythonic directly from methods.ย  The main goal was already mentioned: to expose the *full functionality* of SymPy.ย  For example, we would allow OO-style method calls such as "f.diff(x)" instead of "diff(f, x)".
== Graphics rendering back to front sorting ==


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.
* '''Project size''' [[#Project sizes | [?]]] and '''Difficulty'''
: ~350 hours (medium)
* '''Required skills'''
* '''Required skills'''
: ???
: OO-programming with m-files, Python, and possibly C/C++ for improving Pythonic (if needed).
* '''Potential mentors'''
* '''Difficulty'''
: ???
: easy/medium
-->
* '''Mentors and/or other team members'''
: Colin B. Macdonald, Mike Miller, Abhinav Tripathi


<!--
=== OCS ===
== Symbolic 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.
[[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.]


There are no specific plans for Symbolic in GSoC 2023, but improvements elsewhere that would help Symbolic include:
* Developing the Octave-Pythonic package.
* Fix the storage of non-expressions by working with upstream SymPy: currently we rely on deprecated functionality in SymPy.
* 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'''
: ???
: m-file scripting, C, C++, and FORTRAN API knowledge.
* '''Potential mentors'''
* '''Difficulty'''
: ???
: easy/medium
-->
* '''Mentor'''
ย 
: Sebastian Schรถps, Carlo de Falco
= Project sizes =
ย 
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>.
ย 
= Footnotes =
ย 
<references />
ย 
= See also =
ย 
* 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]]
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