Re: [boost] gsoc project

Subject: Re: [boost] gsoc project
From: Scott McMurray (me22.ca+boost_at_[hidden])
Date: 2011-03-25 22:16:50

On Fri, Mar 25, 2011 at 04:31, Daniel James <dnljms_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> On 25 March 2011 10:07, Paul A. Bristow <pbristow_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>>
>> 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/
>
> Have you seen Scott McMurray's hash library?
>
> http://svn.boost.org/svn/boost/sandbox/hash/
>

I saw the checks and hashes as somewhat different projects.  It would
be silly, for example, to calculate the check digit for a VISA card
using the same interface as a SHA-512 hash.

I'd encourage a potential GSOC participant to focus just on check
digits.  As the wiki mentions, there aren't any libraries out there
for it, and it'd be a very useful thing for all sorts of scenarios.
All those things like "member numbers" or "catalog item numbers" just
cry out for them to make the UX less terrible.  And pragmatically, a
check digits library probably won't have to prove competitive
performance with Crypto++, Botan, OpenSSL, etc in order to be
accepted.  It'd probably be mostly an interface-driven review.

That said, if anyone does want to work on hashes, I'd be happy to
help.  (At least as much as I can under the Work for Hire that's
prevented me from working on it lately.)

~ Scott