Re: [boost] [gsoc18] New Astronomy Library

Subject: Re: [boost] [gsoc18] New Astronomy Library
From: Pranam Lashkari (plashkari628_at_[hidden])
Date: 2018-01-23 14:03:17

As boost mentioned in policies and processes of this year to qualify for
GSoC, students are supposed to take a C++ aptitude test.

So which aptitude test I am supposed to take...?

On 22-Jan-2018 6:58 AM, "Pranam Lashkari" <plashkari628_at_[hidden]> wrote:

> Dear Jean-Claude,
> Thank you very much for showing interest.
>
> Don't worry about the needs of amateur astronomers as I have been one
> since last 8 years. This community does not need much of attention as their
> requirements are less compared to professionals. And obviously they can get
> benefit from whatever we implement for professionals also.
>
> So at this point let's focus more on professionals and list out what they
> require and what can be done...
>
> On 22-Jan-2018 1:40 AM, "JC Passy" <jcpassy_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>
>> Dear Pranam, dear Vinicius,
>>
>> not sure that my initial email made it to the mailing list. If it did,
>> sorry for repeating myself.
>> I am working as a computer scientist at the MPI for Intelligent Systems
>> in Tübingen. Before that, I did my PhD in astrophysics and a postdoc. In
>> general, I am also interested in using boost and developing a library that
>> could be used by astronomers and astrophysicists.
>>
>> Looking at your proposal, I would second Vinicius’ opinion in the sense
>> that one should try to make it a bit more specific. In particular, you
>> should emphasize the *why* (what do you wish to accomplish? why would
>> someone need/use it?) and the *who* (who is your target audience?).
>> Regarding the latter, I see two options:
>>
>> 1) *amateur astronomers*: I personally do not know what their needs are,
>> but I could try to find out. There are some open source projects dedicated
>> to amateur astronomers (for instance https://openphdguiding.org to which
>> we contributed), so that could be an option;
>>
>> 2) *professional astronomers*: I think a lot can be done, in particular
>> regarding observational data analysis. They used *REALLY* old tools
>> (IDL, IRAF, …) and given the future and upcoming surveys that will produce
>> very large amount of data, they might have serious performance issues. This
>> is why I believe they might benefit from using cutting-edge C++ libraries.
>>
>> I would be quite interested in option 2, and it could impact potentially
>> a large audience IMHO. Of course, the “selling” part won’t be easy (people,
>> especially astrophysicists :) won’t give up their old methods easily even
>> though the new method is 10x faster) but we can facilitate this process by
>> pin-pointing features that they really need. I will try to talk to some of
>> my former colleagues this week and see what they think about that. In this
>> case, this is a project that would need a bit of time to be properly
>> defined and the deadline for GSoC18 is coming too soon. As far as I am
>> concerned, this is no problem as this project does not need to be tied to
>> it.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Jean-Claude
>>
>>
>> On 21. Jan 2018, at 15:00, Vinícius dos Santos Oliveira via Boost <
>> boost_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>>
>> 2018-01-21 8:07 GMT-03:00 Pranam Lashkari <plashkari628_at_[hidden]>:
>>
>> I have made this proposal for this new library(check attachment)
>> Suggestions are invited.
>>
>>
>> You need to focus more on "selling your project". Why is it important to
>> have such library in C++ specifically? Isn't this one of those projects
>> where other languages will do just fine? What market are we missing by not
>> having this library? What C++ have to offer to make such library be
>> inviting to write in C++?
>>
>> You mention "gather information from observation data". Does this mean
>> you'll include a parser for some format?
>>
>> Can you compare this library with some non-C++ library and detail a little
>> how will scope between the two differ (e.g. your library will focus
>> initially only on X given the library is only starting)?
>>
>> For now, this should be good. When it's time to submit the student form
>> through the GSoC platform, you'll also focus on selling yourself. I'll
>> give
>> more feedback on this when the time comes. Don't worry.
>>
>> Should I publish this on the wiki page of Boost GSoC 2018?
>>
>>
>>
>> Yes, please. You can put my name as a potential mentor.
>>
>> --
>> Vinícius dos Santos Oliveira
>> https://vinipsmaker.github.io/
>>
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