[Bf-committers] Ask for advice to prepare applying Blender GSOC

[Julian Eisel]

Hey Ounan,
Re: Which way is the mostly suggested to learn Blender coding in depth?
I'd recommend you to go with #2. Focusing on one part of Blender
really helps understanding how Blender works and how to navigate,
search and debug in such a big code base. From there you can expand
your knowledge step by step if you want to.
I personally (and I'm sure others disagree here) don't recommend
trying to get into Blender development by working on the bug tracker.
Easy bugs are normally closed within a short time, and l think
nowadays most bugs need to be solved by people who know the code
pretty well, since Blender has gotten really complex and a big chunk
of spaghetti-code :/ After all, trying to fix bugs can be more
de-motivating when trying to get involved than it helps. Keeping one
eye on the tracker won't hurt though ;)
So again, I'd recommend you find an area of interest and start working
on it. Check the tracker regularly for bugs you may be able to solve,
but don't loose motivation if you fail - failure is part of the
process - just continue working on something different.

One thing I also highly recommend is to read code by others. That can
be patches submitted for review (try to understand them, test them,
try to find possible issues, ...) or patches by more advanced
developers (how do they solve issues, which functions do they use, how
do they name things, how does their code style look, ...).

Interesting read:
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/User:Ideasman42/Reply_Id_Like_To_Develop_Blender

Greetings
- Julian -

On Wed, Aug 12, 2015 at 2:44 PM, Tom M <letterrip at gmail.com> wrote:
> You are definitely off to a promising start
>
> 1) You've shown that you can understand the code and write documentation
> 2) You've shown you can understand and implement advanced mathematical ideas
> 3) You've demonstrated a deep interest and commitment to contributing to blender
> 4) You've shown that you can work independently and will likely not
> need extensive mentor time commitment
>
> That places you on an extremely competitive footing.
>
> The next issue is mentoring bottlenecks - often we have more promising
> candidates than we have mentoring capacity, so it comes down to who is
> interested in (and has time for) mentoring what.
>
> Next steps I'd recommend -
> a) look through the bug tracker and see if there are things you can
> fix and submit patches to fix them, especially in areas of code that
> you might wish to contribute to
>
> b) visit/hang out in irc - perhaps even start showing up to the sunday meetings
>
> c) find out who the module owners are for areas you are interested in
> and start bouncing ideas off of them
>
> d) start submitting patches in general - new functionality; scripts;
> bug fixes; etc.
>
> As to your specific questions - proposals can go either way - you can
> develop  a proposal independently or talk with a developer about some
> ideas they have as a starting point and work from there.
>
> For learning Blender - all three approaches work - I'd focus on 1 and
> 2.  Bug fixing on whatever modules interest you the most.
>
> Tom M.
>
> On Tue, Aug 11, 2015 at 8:38 PM, Ounan Ding <ounanding at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I will be a graduate student in University of California, Riverside(UCR)
>> this fall.
>> I am eager to participate in Blender GSOC in the next year.
>> May I ask for some advice here?
>>
>> * What I have tried in Blender developing
>> During my undergraduate time I worked for a 3D printing company.
>> We use Blender's Python interface to implement tools for geometry
>> processing.
>>
>> After I finished my undergraduate study I started to work for Tencent(a
>> game company).
>> I got experience in artistic tools design(for particle system) and graphics
>> programming.
>>
>> I accepted admission from UCR and then quit my job on June, 2015.
>> At the same time I started to learn Blender coding.
>> I take notes here: http://thebusytypist.github.io/learnblenderdev-site/
>>
>> Currently I am still learning modifier's system and BMesh system.
>>
>> * How to choose a direction and then make it a proposal?
>> I have seen the plan for future 2.7x release and visions on Blender 3.0
>> from Ton.
>> Must I choose a direction that tightly adheres to Blender's release
>> schedule?
>>
>> As a applicant to GSOC,
>> am I supposed to compose a proposal independently first
>> and then discuss with a mentor to fit my ideas into Blender project?
>>
>> Or I should contact a mentor first and form a preliminary proposal idea
>> together,
>> then I refine this idea into a proposal?
>>
>> * Which way is the mostly suggested to learn Blender coding in depth?
>> Currently I have following ideas to improve my skills on Blender coding
>> before I apply GSOC:
>>
>> 1. Resolve bugs in Blender.
>> 2. Focus on one single subsystem of Blender(e.g. BMesh, Physics, or Cycles
>> renderer).
>> 3. Look at as many subsystems as I can for a broad understanding of Blender.
>>
>> Which one is the mostly suggested?
>>
>>
>> I understand there are so many competitive applicants every year that my
>> proposal may be rejected.
>> But I think the preparation for GSOC itself can be an opportunity to learn
>> Blender coding.
>> And I am always willing to contribute to Blender community.
>>
>> Any advice is appreciated. Thank you.
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