Re: [boost] Getting started with Boost for GSoC 2014

Subject: Re: [boost] Getting started with Boost for GSoC 2014
From: Antony Polukhin (antoshkka_at_[hidden])
Date: 2014-03-04 06:10:10

2014-03-04 10:48 GMT+04:00 Yasas Charitha <yasas.b_at_[hidden]>:

> Hi,
> I'm Yasas and quite new to Open source development. First off little bit of
> introduction of myself. I'm an M.Sc student in University of Moratuwa, Sri
> Lanka and I completed my B.Sc degree in Computer Engineering in University
> of Peradeniya. I'm looking forward to participating in GSoC this year with
> Boost.
>

Hi and welcome,

Boost has a lot of students willing to contribute during GSOC.
Boost.Binaries has not been chosen by other students yet. It's a good
advantage. One of the students was willing to start working on
Boost.Document. This does not mean that he will be accepted for GSOC, so
you have all the chances.

> I browsed through the ideas page and I found Boost.Document and
> Boost.Binaries and Boost.Math Generalized Hypergeometric Functions are
> quite interesting project ideas. As a beginner for the GSoC I'm kind of
> confused and excited what to do next etc. Any help is very much
> appreciated.
>

First of all we need to make sure that you are good with C++ and that you
are full of enthusiasm. So here are some basic qualification tasks:

* If you are willing to start Boost.Document project, then I'd  like to get
a main.cpp file with a program that opens an office document using some API
of MS Office, Libre Office or Open Office. No need to use Boost libraries.

This mini task will also help you with proposal: you'll estimate the volume
of work to do and you'll find out the capabilities of Office API.

* If you are willing to start Boost.Binary project, then you need to make a
main.cpp file, that contains the following

#include <iostream>

int main() {
  std::cout << "Hello ";
  goto foo;
  PUT_HELLO_THERE_IN_BINARY
  foo:
  std::cout << "World";
}

There you must define PUT_HELLO_THERE_IN_BINARY macro to some code, that
will put the "Hello there!" string between two calls to operator << in
binary file. In disassembly there must be something like this:

    ...
    call basic_ostream::operator<<
    jmp foo
    48 65 6c 6c 6f 20 74 68 65 72 65 21 ; 'Hello there!' in raw view
foo:
    ...
    call basic_ostream::operator<<

Make your solution portable: it must work under MSVC and GCC compilers.

* I'm not aware of Boost.Math Generalized Hypergeometric Functions project,
so I can not help you there.

-- 
Best regards,
Antony Polukhin