User:Michele ginesi

A: An introduction

• Please describe yourself in three sentences, one of them regarding your current studies.

  My name is Michele Ginesi. I'm a Master Degree student in Applied Mathematics at the University of Verona. I like to work on problems (and, hopefully, to find a solution) about Numerical Analysis and Approximation Theory.

  • Which languages do you speak?

    I'm Italian but I have a quite good knowledge of the English language.

  • What's your overall background?

    I'm studying Applied Mathematics concentrating my study on Numerical Analysis

• Why do you want to participate in the Google Summer of Code? What do you hope to gain by doing so?

  I want to participate to the GSoC to have an opportunity to work on a topic that interest me in a quite deep way. As a mathematician I know the importance of the special functions in a lot of different field (Calculus, Probability, etc.) and I want to make these more accurate.

  • Please also describe your previous experience with the GSoC, if any.

    I have no previous experience with the GSoC: this is my first application

• Why are you choosing Octave?

  Because it is a software that I used a lot in my Bachelor Degree and I'm using a lot in the Master Degree, and I would like to help this by contributing in its development.

C: Contact

• Please state the (unique and identical where possible) nick you use on IRC and any other communication channel related to Octave. We really want unique nicks. You might want to bold it.

  IRC michele_g

  Savannah m_ginesi

• Which time zone do you live in? Will that change over GSoC duration? Perhaps DST adjustment or a relocation. Note that both UTC and GMT are not aware of daylight saving time! Please state UTC+x or -x.

  UTC+1. It will not change during the GSoC period

• Please state the timeframe (in UTC+0) when you feel most comfortable working during GSoC. Where are your time buffers?

  I can work in the timeframe 9-19 (with some break). During the exam session (July) I would like to use this time both for working on the project and for studying, while during all the month of August I could work without other stuff to do.

E: Coding experience

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

  I have a quite good knowledge of m-coding thanks to the different courses in Numerical Analysis that I followed during my Degree. I have no knowledge of C++, OpenGL or QT. This is also a reason on why the Special Functions project seems to be suitable for me: are required mathematical knowledges and m-files programming but almost no C++.

• Please describe your experience with other programming languages.

  I followed a course in Java during my Bachelor Degree.

• Please describe your experience with being in a development team. Do you have experience working with open source or free projects?

  The only experience of this kind that I posses derives on working on Octave: I worked on expint (bug #47738) and gammainc (bug #47800).

• Please state the commits and patches you already contributed to Octave.

  bug #47738 expint

  bug #47800 gammainc

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'm subscribed to both Octave mailing lists from at least one year. In the last period, I'm often online on the IRC channel.

  • Mercurial or other source code management systems

    I know Mercurial from a year (more on less) in a non-deep way, but I like to use it also for my personal stuff (like writing a report for some course). I know all the most important commands (push, pull, commit, strip) and I'm trying to expand these knowledges (for example, recently, I started to understand how to create new branches)

  • Mediawiki or other wiki software

    None

  • make, gcc, gdb or other development tools

    I just know the idea behind Makefiles.

• What will make you actively stay in our community after this GSoC is over?

  I think I will stay: I already meet different developers of the community and it had a beautiful impression.

O: Only out of interest

• Did you ever hear about Octave before?

  Yes

  • If so, when and where? How far have you been involved already?

    I started using Octave during my Bachelor Degree, initially as a free alternative of Matlab. Now I use only Octave.

P: Prerequisites

• Please state the operating system you work with.

  Linux Mint 17.3 64b. Maybe I will switch to version 18.2 before the GSoC but I'm not sure.

• Please estimate an average time per day you will be able to access
  • an internet connection

    24 h

  • a computer

    24 h

  • a computer with your progressing work on

    24 h

• Please describe the degree to which you can install new software on computers you have access to.

  Any software

S: Self-assessment

• Please describe how useful criticism looks from your point of view as committing student.

  I'm open-minded to critics since I think they are always useful: through discussion they help to make better any kind of work.

• How autonomous are you when developing:
  • Do you like to discuss changes intensively and not start coding until you know what you want to do?

    I usually start with the coding phase only after having studied at least the main aspects of the task. Then, if I find a problem or a difficulty, I will not try until I will found a solution, but I will study in a more deep way the problem to solve until I'm almost sure to be able to correct the problem.

  • 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?

    Since I use Mercurial also in local, I've no fear to make big changes in my work since, if needed, I can just revert. Also, I have no the idea of "work thrown away", since, in my opinion, the work no more needed is still work, and it has helped me to become a better coder/developer.

Y: Your task

• Did you select a task from our list of proposals and ideas?

  Yes

  • If yes, what task did you choose?

    Make specfuns special again.