User:MathPlayer

A: An introduction

My name is Bogdan and I'm an 3rd year student in Computer Science at POLITEHNICA University of Bucharest. I consider myself to be a decent person overall, quiet and self conscious, sometimes having an inferiority complex. To name some of my passions, I like music, nature, jogging, playing board games and solving logic problems. My main interests about programming are developing open-source software, mainly something that has to do with mathematics.
- Spoken Languages: English, French, Romanian
- Being a Computer Science student, some of the courses (related to this proposal) I attended are: Numerical Methods - we used Matlab/Octave as programming language, Mathematics (Analysis, Algebra, Probability and Statistics), Systems Theory, Algorithm Analysis and Design.
- I applied at GSoC 2012, but I was not accepted, I think the main reason for this is that I didn't communicate very much with people mentoring projects. I try this year to be more involved, asking questions and sending more than just a final proposal.
I'm choosing Octave because I like to do math, but also because I need it for fast and easy numerical calculus.

On IRC channel I will use the name: BogdanP and a contact email address (for mailing list): bogdan.popescu0905@gmail.com
My timezone is UTC +3 and it will remain like this all over the summer.
I feel comfortable to code around 12:00 to 20:00, but I could also stay later (~22:00) and occasionally earlier (~9:00).

This part is one of the more important ones in your application. You are allowed to be as verbose as you want, as long as you stay on topic ;-)

Please describe your experience with C++, Octave or Matlab m-scripts, OpenGL and Qt.
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.

IRC and mailing lists: I am very familiar with these concepts.
- IRC: On Arch I use XChat as an IRC client, staying online most of the time on 3 or 4 channels
- Mailing lists: I am subscribed to more mailing lists and know to respect the rules (no top posting or sending non-ASCII messages).
Source code systems: I'm using a lot versioning systems, mostly git on bitbucket, but also svn. And because Octave's sources are managed with Mercurial, I'm getting used to it.
Wiki software: I'm not very familiar with wiki software, but I'm a quick learner.
Development tools: I know how to use gcc, gdb, valgrind, ltrace/strace.

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, …

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.

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?

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.