Re: [boost] [GSoC18] Astronomy Project Proposal

Subject: Re: [boost] [GSoC18] Astronomy Project Proposal
From: Vinícius dos Santos Oliveira (vini.ipsmaker_at_[hidden])
Date: 2018-03-22 04:47:44

2018-03-18 11:02 GMT-03:00 Pranam Lashkari via Boost <boost_at_[hidden]>
:

> I was in constant contact with Vinícius dos Santos Oliveira talking about
> this project.

Not a lot as I was unexpectedly too busy at work lately.

Some members of the Boost community suggested that the library might be of
limited use because researchers (a common target for astronomy libraries)
tend to focus more on exploratory analysis on a closed dataset and once the
paper is published (based on the used dataset), there is no need to
maintain the software (or fix bugs in the coded software if bugs are found
when used against new datasets[1]), so productivity is more important than
static typing and other C++ subtleties (and Python is a winner here). Also
was pointed out that scripting languages like Python are important for
other reasons (easier to use and quick to get a new member into the proper
mindset).

I then suggested to Pranam that he could do as Niall and do some little
effort to also allow the library to be usable under C[2] so bindings for
other languages such as lua, Python and more scripting languages can be
easily added and it'd be of value even to Python and lua programmers
(especially lua programmers and scripting languages that don't have much
attention or batteries included if you will). But it's also possible to
extend scripting languages just using C++ and this “C usable” suggestion
can be skipped.

Hope you go through the proposal. I will appreciate your feedback to
> improve proposal and the betterment of the project.
>
> Proposal:
> https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZdS__MZr6cSJggkK0P_w2jXQQeRWubPk

I'd like to also ask to Pranam what difficulties he would foresee in using
Boost.Units[3] as his library could be a good test case for other Boost
fundamental libraries.

[1] do not confuse software bugs with errors in researched algorithms
[2] https://ned14.github.io/outcome/tutorial/c-api/
[3] http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_66_0/doc/html/boost_units.html

-- 
Vinícius dos Santos Oliveira
https://vinipsmaker.github.io/