User:Hcurtis0010/GSoC2014/logs

Week 1

Monday, May 19

I re-read the Hacking file, and that led me to do research on binaries, regression testing, and other topics. Also, I had a good IRC conversation with my mentor, Sean Morrison, about how best to interact with one another and what I will need to do to succeed during GSoC.

Tuesday, May 20

Sean and I had an enlightening IRC conversation in which he pointed out the danger of relying too much on examples when dealing with code.

Afterward, I wrote some programs involving arrays. Although I finished the first one, I ran into problems with the second. I did some research as I attempted to solve it; the topics I investigated included dynamic allocation, vectors, and heaps. Sean had asked me to create the programs in order to learn more about dynamic and stack memory and be able to apply that knowledge to future GSoC activities.

Wednesday, May 21

I am happy to say that I learned a lot today. One of the more memorable things I learned was that I should not put the "using namespace" construct in my programs. I conducted research to find out why. Also, I read about malloc(), pointers, sizeof, and the differences between ANSI C, C99, and C++.

I showed to the community the program that I completed yesterday, and I received feedback on it. That evening, I worked on the second program, the one that had been giving me problems. In it I used malloc() for the first time. At first it wouldn't compile, and later it would compile but would crash at runtime. However, I finally got it to work after a fellow GsoCer, raj12lnm, told me what I was doing wrong.

The work I did today is preparing me to address problems with BRL-CAD’s fast4-g.c program as well as produce the conversion library that will be the focus of my GSoC proposal. We'll see how it goes.

Thursday, May 22

I converted yesterday's C++ programs to C. At first, they refused to compile, but after some research and a little trial and error, I was able to get them to work. A fellow GSoC student, oana_, helped me remedy a problem with one of them. The process was a good lesson. One interesting thing I learned was that I should avoid using certain code elements such as conio.h, getch(), and scanf_s because they work solely in Microsoft compilers and thus would make my programs less portable.

Next, I will create a version of my dynamic allocation program that uses functions from BRL-CAD’s libbu library API instead of those of the standard library. As I do so, I am sure that I will use plenty of what this week’s C++ and C exercises have taught me.

Friday, May 23

Today, I worked on a version of my dynamic allocation program that features libbu elements in place of stdlib functions. This is one more activity will help prepare me to tackle the fast4-g task. Unfortunately, I ran into a problem: I could not get the compiler to locate all of the interdependent header files that the program needs in order to run.

Saturday, May 24

I re-read the GSoC checklist to identify the items on it that I have not yet done. Also, I re-read and analyzed BRL-CAD’s fast4-g.c program and worked on my plan to improve it.

Sunday, May 25

Today, I continued to analyze the fast4-g.c program and work on my plan to improve it. As a part of this, I researched elements in it that I was not familiar with. This process is teaching me skills that will help me complete my GSoC project.

Also, I read the online document "How To Ask Questions The Smart Way." It taught me how to ask well-researched questions when requesting other developers' help with problems.

Week 2

Monday, May 26

I read more about pointers, malloc, and other topics in order to understand them better. Also, I continued to analyze fast4-g.c so that I could put myself in a better position to improve it.