Re: Contribution

[Ben Abbott]

On Jul 4, 2014, at 2:47 AM, Mahyar Abbaspour <address@hidden> wrote:

> On Fri, Jul 4, 2014 at 2:02 AM, Ben Abbott <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
>> On Jul 3, 2014, at 2:44 PM, Mahyar Abbaspour <address@hidden> wrote:
>> 
>> > On Thu, Jul 3, 2014 at 4:32 PM, Ben Abbott <address@hidden> wrote:
>> > *** For the mail-list please bottom post to make it easier for others to 
>> > read along ***
>> >
>> >> On Jul 3, 2014, at 6:25 AM, Mahyar Abbaspour <address@hidden> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> > On Thu, Jul 3, 2014 at 9:04 AM, Ben Abbott <address@hidden> wrote:
>> >> >
>> >> >> On Jul 2, 2014, at 7:15 PM, Mahyar Abbaspour <address@hidden> wrote:
>> >> >>
>> >> >> > Hi, I'd like to contribute to octave but I have no experience 
>> >> >> > working on such projects. Is there anybody that I can work with for 
>> >> >> > learning and contribution?
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> > Thanks
>> >> >>
>> >> >> Please tell us about your programming skills and experience with 
>> >> >> Octave/Matlab.  If you have some topic you are interested in, tell us 
>> >> >> about that as well.
>> >> >>
>> >> >> Some information about getting involved is at the link below.
>> >> >>
>> >> >>         http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/get-involved.html
>> >> >>
>> >> >> There's list of ideas for contribution projects at the link below.
>> >> >>
>> >> >>         http://wiki.octave.org/Projects
>> >> >>
>> >> >> For ideas on small projects, you can browse the list of bugs.
>> >> >>
>> >> >>         https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/index.php
>> >> >>
>> >> >> Ben
>> >> >
>> >> > My programming skills are: C, C++. I can use version control systems. I 
>> >> > have good knowledge of numerical analysis and algorithms. I've used 
>> >> > both Matlab and Ocatve for implementing some numerical algorithms. My 
>> >> > main problem is lack of experience in real projects. I'll be very 
>> >> > grateful if I can work with somebody for learning and contribution.
>> >> >
>> >> > Thanks
>> >>
>> >> I suggest you start by creating your own local archive and by building 
>> >> Octave.  If your OS is Linux or MacOS, this is fairly straight forward.  
>> >> If you are using Windows, this is more difficult.  Which OS are you 
>> >> running?
>> >>
>> >> Ben
>> >
>> > I'm using Linux (Ubuntu 14.04). I've already downloaded Octave's source 
>> > code and installed it on my machine.
>> 
>> You're still not bottom posting.  Perhaps, you are using Gmail?
>> 
>> Did you download a tar-ball or have you cloned the developers sources using 
>> mercurial?
>> 
>> By "installed", do you mean you've already built and installed Octave?
>> 
>> Ben
> 
> Sorry I don't know what bottom posting is and yes I'm using Gmail.

Bottom posting means you reply at the bottom of the email. By doing that the 
email can be conveniently read from top to bottom.  This is important since 
these emails are archived, are searchable, and will be read by others in the 
future.

In Gmail you can respond at the bottom by clicking the ellipses in the lower 
part of the frame where you type the response in and then inserting your 
response below the existing exchange.

You should also respond in plain text.  Under Gmails settings at the bottom 
you'll see "Outgoing message encoding" this should be set to "Use Unicode 
(UTF-8) encoding for outgoing messages".

> I have cloned developers sources using mercurial and built it successfully.


Great.  I suggest you browse the projects page for something that looks 
interesting. 

        http://wiki.octave.org/Projects

To get started, you may also want to browse the bug tracker for something that 
is easily done.  This would allow you to become familiar with submitting 
patches etc.

This list is often slow over the weekend, so don't be discouraged if you don't 
hear from anyone immediately.  If someone doesn't take up your offer to help. 
don't be discouraged, but do reply again with more questions and / or info on 
what project might interest you.

Ben