Re: Summer of Code ideas.

[Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso]

On 19 March 2012 18:53, Faryshta <address@hidden> wrote:
> Hi I am a math student and would like to help on the GNUoctave development
> during the summer of code. There are many areas I can help from this
> list http://octave.org/wiki/index.php?title=GSoC_Project_Ideas

Welcome.

> Numerical: I am good at linear algebra which seems to be the field
> most mentioned on the wiki and undertand the c++ language which will
> help the development.
>
> GUI: I  am familiar with Qt so I can be helpful with the new Graphic
> User Interface. I also can help if you want to create and android
> based GUI.
>
> Agora: Web development is the field I have more experience so I
> think I can be very useful there. I can go from front end to back
> end.

Of these three, the biggest priority is the GUI. It's the one thing
our users keep telling us over and over that makes Octave suck the
worst, not having a GUI. Problem is, most of us who regularly use
Octave don't see a pressing need for a GUI, so we've not put a lot of
dedicated effort into making one. We also don't know what people want
when they say they want a GUI.

Can you design one? Can you please Matlab users with a GUI? Because
that's our target demographic. Matlab users who "aren't programmers"
(this is how they frequently describe themselves) who want to be
shielded from the horrors of a CLI interface. The very minds of the
people we are trying to free, to be theatrical. ;-)

You will probably have to make most of the design choices yourself,
since most of us are happy with a CLI and don't know how to please
Matlab users with a GUI. There are a few people here who might guide
on you what it should look like. You will have to satisfy us with the
code. It must do things in a certain way and follow our standards. But
the resulting GUI has to appeal to Matlab users.

If you want inspiration besides Matlab, the non-free "GUI Octave" is
often highly praised by its users for its interface, and it's seducing
its users into not valuing source code and not valuing free software.
We need to demonstrate that hiding source is not necessary for
producing a quality GUI.

> This is the first time I try to participate on the GSoC so I have
> not a good notion on how to submit ideas or what it needs to be
> taken into account. I was told to first discuss it on this mail
> list.

Since we're likely to have to choose just one project, maybe two, at
this point I think we really need to prioritise the GUI. You already
have competition, though, since Atul Jangra is also interested on
working on it, and he's already submitted a couple of patches, not to
mention that the GUI's principal author, Jacob Dawid, might also apply
to GSoC as a student. If you want, you may attempt one of the other
two projects you mentioned instead, if you think you can impress more
with them.

I wish we could have you all three working together instead of
competing, but at least this year, since Octave didn't get accepted on
its own, we will probably only be able to accept on or two people to
work on this GUI, if any at all.

If you want to be seriously considered for the GUI, or any other
project, you need to get the Octave code and compile it, along with
the rest of Octave. We can offer some guidance to do that. Some
instructions can be found here:

    
http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/doc/interpreter/Contributing-Guidelines.html
    http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/doc/interpreter/Installation.html

The GUI is on its own branch and its build is currently independent of
Octave's build (this is something that needs to be fixed), but it does
need a working Octave installation before it can be built, so you
should get the gui branch of Octave fully built anyways. The gui is
under the gui/ directory of the gui branch and is built with qmake.

I am usually found in #octave in Freenode, along with other Octave
devs and users, if you need help on how to do these things. This is
easiest to do on a GNU-based system like Debian or Ubuntu, but ideally
you will also be able to compile Octave on Windows and Mac OS X so you
can compare the appearance of the GUI for the people it matters the
most. Don't worry too much about that for now. Whatever task you take,
first make sure you can get an Octave build up.

HTH,
- Jordi G. H.