[Mesa-dev] Google Summer of Code ideas needed

[Tom Stellard]

On Mon, Mar 18, 2013 at 01:45:26PM -0700, Ian Romanick wrote:
> On 03/13/2013 10:11 AM, Tom Stellard wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > It's time again for Google Summer of Code, so we need to start updating
> > the X.Org ideas page (http://www.x.org/wiki/SummerOfCodeIdeas) with new
> > ideas.  Since there have been a few issues with the wikis lately, if you
> > have any ideas please respond to this thread, and I will make sure they
> > get onto the official ideas page (but still feel free to update the wiki
> > page yourself if you can).  A good project description should contain:
> 
> I've been trying to update the wiki... I don't seem to have an account 
> (seems unpossible), and the account creation page is broken.
> 
> https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=62383
> 

This is due to the recent spam problems on the wiki, keithp can
re-enable your account.


> In the mean time, I have a couple ideas that someone could add.
> 
> #1. Find common patterns in real GLSL shaders.
> 
> Difficulty: Medium
> Skills Required: C, C++
> Helpful, but optional skills: GLSL, compilers
> Possible Mentor: IanRomanick (idr on IRC)
> Where to ask questions: mesa-dev at lists.freedesktop.org, #dri-devel on 
> irc.freedesktop.org
> Descrition:
> 
> Using Mesa's stand-along GLSL compiler as a basis, generate a database 
> of IR from a large number of existing shaders (e.g., from shaderdb). 
> Write a piece of software that will mine this database for "large" 
> patterns that commonly occur in shaders.  This information will be used 
> by people working on the GLSL compiler to improve code generation for 
> these sequences.
> 
> #2. Improved application of GLSL complier optimizations
> 
> Difficulty: Easy
> Skills Required: C, C++
> Helpful, but optional skills: GLSL, compilers
> Possible Mentor: IanRomanick (idr on IRC)
> Where to ask questions: mesa-dev at lists.freedesktop.org, #dri-devel on 
> irc.freedesktop.org
> Descrition:
> 
> Mesa's GLSL compiler contains a large number of optimization passes. 
> Each pass may change the code of a shader, and this may result in 
> opportunities for other passes to make more changes.  As a result, we 
> run all of our optimization passes in a loop until the shader code 
> stabilizes.  This is expensive, and, though we have never observed this 
> in the wild, it is possible that a shader may never stabilize.
> 
> Find a static ordering, with possible repeats, of optimization passes 
> that does not compromise the quality of the generated code.  Measure the 
> before and after speed of compiling a large set of real-world shaders.
> 

Thanks, I've added your ideas to the wiki page.

-Tom
> > - A brief description of the project
> > - A difficulty rating (e.g. easy, medium, hard)
> > - The skills / programming languages required
> >
> > Also, I am going to purge all the old ideas from the ideas page in the
> > next week, so if there are any of the old ideas that you think are
> > still relevant, let me know and I will keep it.
> >
> > The ideas page is used as one of the criteria by Google for selecting
> > mentoring organizations and part of the reason X.Org was not selected
> > last year was that the ideas page was not up to par, so if we want to
> > participate in Google Summer of Code this year, it is important we
> > have a good ideas page with lots of ideas.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Tom Stellard
> > _______________________________________________
> > mesa-dev mailing list
> > mesa-dev at lists.freedesktop.org
> > http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/mesa-dev
> >
>