I would like to work on this task.

The claim on this task has been removed, someone else can claim it now.

I would like to work on this task.

This task has been assigned to Kristaps. You have 72 hours to complete this task, good luck!

So let's start with a simple spreadsheet, just two columns: file and category.  You're going to itemize every file installed into our 'bin' directory (like you started in your spreadsheet).  For each of those files, categorize it.

It should be possible to characterize nearly all of the commands into a set of useful independent categories.  Here are some examples:

The first one I find is "3dm-g", that's easily identified as a "geometry converter" and that's the category you mark.

Second one is "a-d".  Maybe you don't know what that is but you run it, you see the usage statement and understand that it converts ascii strings to numbers.  So you make a "data conversion" category.  Later you might need to redefine that category, but for now it works.

Third is "alias-pix", and we see in the manpage (brlman alias-pix) that it converts an image, so we create a new "image conversion" category.

And so on ...

Now WAIT .. that's not all.  You don't want to end up with too many commands in any category.  I think around 30 is probably a reasonable limit for any single category.

With that limit, you'll quickly discover that "geometry converter" was too vague and there are too many (42).  So you need to go back and recategorize them as "geometry importer" and "geometry exporter" instead.

Make sense? So when you're done, you'll have a spreadsheet with all the commands listed and categorized into useful categories.  Easy enough to understand?

The claim on this task has been removed, someone else can claim it now.

Where is the "existing spreadsheet that characterizes all of the available commands in terms of inputs, outputs, and options"? I can't find it.

Read the comment history for backstory.

I've read the comment history and I understand what you're asking for. I just can't find any existing documentation on what each command actually does, i.e. inputs, outputs, params. (maybe the intent of the task includes finding out what each command does??)

Well the original task was to define the inputs, outputs, and params because that information isn't all available in one place.  That, however, is way too much work for a single GCI task.  That's why the new goal is to just categorize them, which requires (quickly) figuring out what each command does.

There's about 400 commands total.  90% of those will give you a simple usage statement or help message when you run them without any options or with a -? or -h option.  Half or two-thirds have a detailed manual page (e.g., run brlman rt).

Once you figure out what a few of the commands do, you quickly learn what a 100 others do because they're all designed in a similar fashion.  So you'll quickly be able to infer what a command does.  For example, you might read in the bw-pix manual page that it's an image converter that converts .bw format images to .pix format images.  When you later see pix-png, it should be pretty obvious that it converts a .pix format image to a .png format image without even looking at the docs.  A quick 5-sec scan of its manual page confirms the guess.

Both of those would probably be categorized as an "image_converter" initially at least until you encountered 30+ of them.  It's also okay to put a single tool into multiple categories.

Oh, I understand now. If this isn't claimed by the weekend I think I'll try it.

I would like to work on this task.

This task has been assigned to Sushain Cherivirala. You have 72 hours to complete this task, good luck!

I have submitted what I have so far. Please advise as to whether I'm on the right direction.

and we should do the review mark the task as completed.

Sushain, that's looking spot on (good) so far.  I like how you are distinguishing between input and outputs too.  Just 375 more to go. ;)

I have uploaded what I have so far. Please advise. It's not yet quite complete (I would estimate 3/4 done). Column J lists each tag and its #of occurences (it will likely be quite useful to understand the "subtags") - its coded in so it may not work if not using excel (I'll make it plaintext after I'm done?). Also, I freezed the first 3 columns (command, location, description) to make navigation through tags easier - I hope the freeze works with whatever program you open the file with (a freeze wouldn't be needed if you had a highres or longer screen than me?). I'm fairly confused about the rt commands, can't find alot of the source files but I see them in my bin file as .exe's (perhaps I should download a linux ver and use its bin instead?):( I think I'm misunderstanding something. I did the spreadsheet as tags instead of categories because it ended up feeling more appropriate since commands tended to span multiple categories. Finally, I'm not familiar with all the terms used so I might be misunderstanding something there. Thanks! I really appreciate any help.

added utility geometry tags - ver3

I am marking the task as complete so that it can be reviewed. I know that it still needs some work.

The work on this task is ready to be reviewed.

No problem reading the table in Excel.  So you're still on the right track but some of the tags may need cleanup.  For example, you find a lot of converters, but there are geometry (3D) and image (2D) converters.

Note "convertion" is spelled wrong.  Conversion.

Given the level of work involved, we may need to break this up into multiple tasks.  Perhaps a separate task is to identify all the categories, so you can get proper credit.

One of the mentors has sent this task back for more work. Talk to the mentor(s) assigned to this task to satisfy the requirements needed to complete this task, submit your work again and mark the task as complete once you re-submit your work.

I've tried to go through and fill in some of the holes. Also, I fixed that spelling. Oops, I guess I got so used to typing convert that convertion just started to come naturally.

Anyways, I tried to split the fileConvertion tag into 3DConvertion 2DConvertion but I just quit eventually because I wasn't sure which commands dealt with 3D and which dealt with 2D. Is there somewhere I can learn about the various file types?

Also, I'm still confused about the rt commands, hence A LOT of holes in that section. Most everything else is filled. I want to finish this up but I have all my finals this week. So... I'm not sure how much time I'll have to work on non-academic things :(

The work on this task is ready to be reviewed.

Of course, the Internet!  You can learn about the various file types all over the web. :)

Still, you've put in reasonable effort and this may be a starting point so I'm going to close out the task.  I'm not sure if we can use it in its current form given so many uncertainties, holes, and several innaccuracies, but we may create a follow-on task for someone to pick up where you left off.  For you, I suggest trying to take on another task (perhaps one of the documentation tasks, now that you've spent so much time looking at documentation).

Congratulations, this task has been completed successfully.

thanks! Maybe I will (after finals) :)

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