[Mesa-dev] Participate in X.Org Endless Vacation of Code

Fri Apr 27 07:03:43 PDT 2012

On Fri, Apr 27, 2012 at 06:06:01PM +0530, Lakmal padmakumara wrote:
> Hey Devs ,
> 
> I'm Lakmal ,a Computer Science & Engineering student from University of
> Moratuwa ,Sri Lanka . Next few months going to be my term vacation and I
> was searching for opportunities where I could get the experience of a real
> world project while improving my technical skills .X.org Endless Vacation
> of code seemed to match my targets perfectly .
> 
> I had a conversation with Matt Dew and Alex Deucher about my past
> projects,interests ,availability .You can refer to that conversation in the
> quoted parts below.When I express my interest in working with the project
> on *adding an OpenCL test framework for piglit* which was suggested in the
> summer ideas list, Alex asked me to direct my request to this mailing list
> for more help .
> 
> I see *piglit *is written in python. I posses a good knowledge in Python
> and very much interested in working with the language.That was one of the
> reason I preferred this project .I would be grateful if anyone of you can
> provide some more details on how should I proceed further , whether this
> project would be suitable for a summer project (Of course it is suggested
> in the summer ideas list  :-) .But would like to get a comment on that as
> well ) and any other technologies I should be familiar with to work with
> the project .
> 
> I have my semester exams going on until the end of 3rd week of May . So I
> am hoping to utilize these weeks to make my self familiar with the
> community and to build up a good proposal.So any help would be greatly
> appreciated .
> 
> Thanks in advance
> 
>

Hi Lakmal,

Glad to hear that you are interested.

I would suggest you start by getting familiar with piglit and do a test
run or two.  Typically, we use the quick-driver.tests suite for testing
graphics drivers.  Once your are familiar with how piglit works then you
can start to take a look at the internals of piglit and how the testing
infrastructure for other APIs is designed.  This will help you get a
sense of the work involved in adding support for OpenCL.

There was some work done in the past on adding OpenCL infrastructure
to piglit.  The code is here: https://github.com/rakadam/piglit
It might be useful to take a look at that too.

For the OpenCL piglit project, I think the work could be divided up into
three major tasks:

1. Add OpenCL infrastructure to piglit
2. Write OpenCL tests
3. Fix the Open Source OpenCL implementation when tests fail

Number 3 is optional, but would be a good way to get involved in Open
Source driver development.

Once you get a sense for what you want to do and how long it might
take, you should make a draft of your proposal and send it to the mailing
list for some feedback.

Most of the piglit developers hang out in the #dri-devel irc channel @
irc.freenode.net, so that is also a good place to go if you have
questions.

I hope this helps.

-Tom

> On Wed, Apr 25, 2012 at 8:46 PM, Lakmal padmakumara <rclakmal at gmail.com>wrote:
> 
> > Hi Alex ,Matt & Everyone ,
> >
> > Thanks for the ideas list Alex. I did encounter this link previously when
> > I was going through the mail archives .
> >
> > I'm not sure whether all these projects are available or not .But after
> > having an initial look I'm pretty much interested in the two projects
> > mentioned here .
> >
> > First one is the project regarding adding an OpenCL test framework for
> > piglit .Piglit seems to be implemented in python .So I would be very much
> > interested in working with it .
> >
> > And as another option I'm interested in the project focusing adding more
> > input support for XCB .I dont have much background knowledge needed for
> > this project .But when I read about it sounded really interesting and also
> > got the feeling I would enjoy this type of a project .
> >
> > You might have some comments on my interested ideas .If you think they are
> > feasible Please guide me on how should I proceed further with each one .
> > One thing I experienced in the past was when you try to contribute to a
> > open source project most difficult part is setting up the required
> > environment/tools for the development . I would kindly request some
> > guidance and help on these steps focusing on above projects .
> >
> > As I mentioned in my first email message , I will be having my exams until
> > the end of third week of May .I believe it will be great if I can use these
> > 3 weeks to get to know the community and move with one of my selected idea
> > until I can come up with a good proposal with the feedback of the
> > developers . So I would be able to start my developing phase right after
> > I'm done with my exams .
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Apr 25, 2012 at 6:11 PM, Alex Deucher <alexdeucher at gmail.com>wrote:
> >
> >> Hi Lakmal,
> >>
> >> On Wed, Apr 25, 2012 at 1:30 AM, Lakmal padmakumara <rclakmal at gmail.com>
> >> wrote:
> >> >
> >> > Yes Matt , as you have mentioned I am more interested in non-graphic
> >> backend
> >> > stuff . During my last internship I mainly worked with Python and Ruby
> >> where
> >> > I used these scripts to access several remote servers ,download data
> >> ,create
> >> > databases and finally to analyze and present these data. I found python
> >> to
> >> > be a very interesting programming language although I hadn't work with
> >> it
> >> > before my internship .
> >> >
> >> > I developed an extension to OpenOffice which can be used to do basic
> >> image
> >> > manipulation using Java .Most of the features of this extension were
> >> > depending on pixel manipulation ( Etc Rotation Image , Scale ) where I
> >> could
> >> > use my solid mathematics background .
> >> >
> >> > As one of the project in the university I'm working in developing a
> >> > Distributed System Management Framework using Apache Zookeeper and
> >> Apache
> >> > Thrift with 3 other team members. Language of implementation is Java and
> >> > this involves working with some major topics in distributed computing
> >> like
> >> > election algorithms ,resource allocation algorithms .
> >> >
> >> > In the recent past , I worked a little bit with GNOME shotwell project
> >> as I
> >> > was very excited with its lightweight appearance and good set of
> >> features
> >> > which made me to hack their code a little bit . So I could make myself
> >> > familiar with their main implementation language Vala (which I believe
> >> very
> >> > similar to C#) .
> >> >
> >> > Although I haven't worked with a major project in "C" that is one other
> >> > language I'm comfortable at, as I used it and still using it in our
> >> > university assignments.
> >> >
> >> > So as the bottom line at the moment I'm very much familiar with
> >> languages
> >> > like Python , Java,  C ,C++  and Vala and also with PHP as I have
> >> written
> >> > some web services during my internship . I have a solid knowledge in
> >> > database query languages like MySQL and SqLite .But if the task is
> >> > interesting I will find it extremely exciting to learn new things
> >> related to
> >> > it .
> >> >
> >> >>
> >> >> For instance, we have a python script that generates C bindings.
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > This sounds interesting and looks like it matches to my current skill
> >> set .
> >> > Let me know more about it and similar sub projects .
> >>
> >> You might also want to take a look at this page:
> >> http://www.x.org/wiki/SummerOfCodeIdeas
> >> Find something that interests you and send us a preliminary proposal.
> >> You might want to run your ideas past the xorg mailing lists for
> >> additional input from other developers familiar with Xorg.  That may
> >> help you narrow down what you want to focus on.  Feel free to ask lots
> >> of questions about possible ideas as the goal is for this to be
> >> something interesting to you that you will learn something from and be
> >> able to complete successfully over the summer.
> >>
> >> Alex
> >>
> >
> > Best Regards
> > Lakmal
> >
> 
> Best Regards
> Lakmal

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