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

Sun Aug 16 15:40:27 CEST 2015

Thank you for all advice.

I think I will spend some time on the bugs tracker
to have a look at how developers make changes to the Blender system.
I have to understand the relationships among different subsystems
even would I focus on only one of them in the future.

Being able to fix bugs seems to be difficult for me now.
But I can start with understanding others' work.

I will also try to collect proposal ideas
from papers reading, our course projects or Blender's issue tracker.

> Message: 1
> Date: Sat, 15 Aug 2015 00:29:25 +0200
> From: Julian Eisel <eiseljulian at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Bf-committers] Ask for advice to prepare applying
>         Blender GSOC
> To: bf-blender developers <bf-committers at blender.org>
> Message-ID:
>         <
> CADUt0s_x0NJ1HaGTwVffjjgwJQLjUpbKah41+-HUUyNKBg9T9Q at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>
> 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.
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Bf-committers mailing list
> >> Bf-committers at blender.org
> >> http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
> > _______________________________________________
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> > Bf-committers at blender.org
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>
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