Re: [boost] gsoc project

Subject: Re: [boost] gsoc project
From: Paul A. Bristow (pbristow_at_[hidden])
Date: 2011-03-25 06:07:49

> -----Original Message-----
> From: boost-bounces_at_[hidden] [mailto:boost-bounces_at_[hidden]]
> On Behalf Of ?????????
> Sent: Friday, March 25, 2011 7:10 AM
> To: boost_at_[hidden]
> Subject: [boost] gsoc project
> 
> Hello!
> I am a student from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and i wish
to
> participate in Google Summer Of Code project. Boost C++ Libraries
development
> seems really interesting for me, so that's why i decided to ask some
questions
> about details. In the list of ideas there is "Checks & Hashes" project - i
had
> experience in this area, writing a small lib for my university project,
but it was
> mostly like a simple wrapper for RFC implementations of hashing algorithms
like
> MD5 or SHA-1. As i understood this library is got to be something like a
> collection of different algorithms and it is got to be scalable, right?

I didn't envisage much 'scalability' because many algorithms are individual,
but several 'hash' algorithms are used for more than one actual 'check'
application.

So the user sees just the check function, like ISBN("0457695474x") but the
'hash' algorithm is 'under the hood'.

But it's your project, so you can define it as you think best.

> What are the requirements for me to be able to work on this project? 

You need to be able to use some current C++ compiler and have access to
Boost files via SVN.

> Do i need to write some code for a start?

There are already have five people looking at this project, but you might
like to look at

https://svn.boost.org/svn/boost/sandbox/SOC/2011/checks/

You might like to see if you can re-build the existing skeleton code (Boost
uses a rather bizarre build language called bjam - for portability).

You will need to download Boost 1.46 library, and use Tortoise SVN to get
boost-sandbox/

(you only need to top level folder structure - be very careful to clear the
box that says "include subfolder" or you will get the whole of sandbox
(big)!)

Then download (update) the /soc/2011/checks folder, *including all the
sub-folders this time*. 

and if you can, you could try coding one of the simple suggested checksums
using some literature algorithm.
(checksum of byte or int arrays modulo 256 perhaps?).

You will find that the ISBN and ISSN examples are already done.

You should also be able to add some skeleton documentation to the existing
using Doxygen.

You won't have write access to the sandbox, but you could work on a local
copy and email me a zip of your folder.

Good luck and Have fun!

Paul

---
Paul A. Bristow,
Prizet Farmhouse, Kendal LA8 8AB  UK
[phone]  07714330204
pbristow_at_[hidden]