The Battle for Wesnoth Wiki - User contributions [en]

SummerOfCodeProposal Ryochan7

2009-05-04T05:23:41Z

Ryochan7: /* Personal Information/Introduction */ Deleted Email Info

===Personal Information/Introduction===

'''''Name:''''' Travis Nickles

'''''Age:''''' 25

'''''Location:''''' Normal, IL

'''''University Enrolled:''''' Illinois State University

'''''Personal website:''''' http://ryochan7.webfactional.com

'''''Forum/IRC:''''' Ryochan7/ryochan7

===Questionaire===

====Basics====

'''1.1) Write a small introduction to yourself.'''

My name is Travis Nickles and I am 25 years old. I am majoring in Computer Science at Illinois State University in Normal, IL; I also have a minor in East Asian Studies with an emphasis on Japanese language study.

'''1.2) State your preferred email address.'''

ryoohki7 AT yahoo.com

'''1.3) If you have chosen a nick for IRC and Wesnoth forums, what is it?'''

Ryochan7

'''1.4) Why do you want to participate in summer of code?'''

I want to participate in summer of code because I have wanted the experience of being a part of an open source project for a while. I would be spending most of my summer coding my own projects anyway so it would be better to use my time during the summer to give back to the open source community that I have greatly benefited from.

'''1.5) What are you studying, subject, level and school?'''

Computer Science, end of 3rd year, Illinois State University

'''1.6) If you have contributed any patches to Wesnoth, please list them below. You can also list patches that have been submitted but not committed yet and patches that have not been specifically written for Wesnoth. If you have gained commit access to our SVN (during the evaluation period or earlier) please state so.'''

None

====Experience====

'''2.1) What programs/software have you worked on before?'''

I have mostly worked on my own programs that were written in Python as a way to learn the language. My biggest currently supported program is YouTubed-2x; it is a program that downloads videos from various flash sites and transcodes them via ffmpeg into GP2X-compatible video files. Other programs that I have worked on in some capacity are PSP Video Converter (submitted some patches) and the PlayStation Portable port of Doom (maintained the main branch for a few months, added wad selector, button configuration menu, added overclocking support)

YouTubed-2x source: http://ryochan7.webfactional.com/files/projects/youtubed-2x_archive_2009-03-21.tar.gz

'''2.2) Have you developed software in a team environment before? (As opposed to hacking on something on your own)'''

No. I have always developed software on my own. I have always wanted to experience being a part of a group project.

'''2.3) Have you participated to the Google Summer of Code before? As a mentor or a student? In what project? Were you successful? If not, why?'''

I have not previously participated in Google Summer of Code.

'''2.4) Open Source'''

'''2.4.1) Are you already involved with any open source development projects? If yes, please describe the project and the scope of your involvement.'''

No

'''2.5) Gaming experience - Are you a gamer?'''

Yes

'''2.5.1) What type of gamer are you?'''

I consider myself a casual gamer nowadays because I don't have much time to play games.

'''2.5.2) What type of games?'''

I mostly play FPS's and JRPGs.

'''2.5.3) What type of opponents do you prefer?'''

I prefer to face a human opponent.

'''2.5.4) Are you more interested in story or gameplay?'''

I am generally more interested in story than gameplay. My love for the Xenosaga series is a great example of that. I am more willing to put up with a game that might not have exciting gameplay if it has a great story that keeps me interested in the game world. If a game has only great gameplay and no story, I am likely to get bored because the game will seem too repetetive and I won't think that my actions actually matter.

'''2.5.5) Have you played Wesnoth? If so, tell us roughly for how long and whether you lean towards single player or multiplayer.'''

I used to play the game a lot for over two months about a couple of years ago. I have continued to follow the project and recommend the game to friends but I have not played Wesnoth in a long time.

====Communication skills====

'''3.1) Though most of our developers are not native English speakers, English is the project's working language. Describe your fluency level in written English.'''

I am a native speaker.

'''3.2) Are you good at interacting with other players? Our developer community is friendly, but the player community can be a bit rough.'''

I am not particularly good at interacting with other players.

'''3.3) Do you give constructive advice?'''

Yes

'''3.4) Do you receive advice well?'''

Yes. I am always willing to take advice from other people.

'''3.5) Are you good at sorting useful criticisms from useless ones?'''

Yes.

====Project====

'''4.1) Did you select a project from our list? If that is the case, what project did you select? What do you want to especially concentrate on?'''

I would like to concentrate on developing the addon server idea.

'''4.2) If you have invented your own project, please describe the project and the scope.'''

NA

'''4.3) Why did you choose this project?'''

I chose this project because I feel that I have a better general understanding of this project and what can be done; programming AI is over my head and I am not that great at web development.

'''4.4) Include an estimated timeline for your work on the project. Don't forget to mention special things like "I booked holidays between A and B" and "I got an exam at ABC and won't be doing much then".'''

April 21 - May 5: Get familiar with Wesnoth code and the Wesnoth community

May 6 - May 22: Study the problem in detail and gather the requirements of the project

May 23 - June 6: Flesh out use cases and start coding a prototype server, decide how network communication will be utilized and how updates will be handled, improve standalone GUI client

June 7 - June 21: Use cases finished. Work on in-game browser and test communication with prototype server. Continue work on server program

June 22 - July 2: Work on both client programs. General design should be completely finished by this point

July 3 - July 5: Take time off for the July 4th weekend. Will spend time with my family

July 6 - August 1: Improve both client programs and server program. Test more with full set of UMC data. Start thinking about what unit tests should be made. Start spending significant time fixing any bugs

August 2 - August 9: Write tests for both the client and server. Clean up code based on tests results

August 10 - August 16: Spend more time cleaning up client and server code and fixing bugs. Write more tests

August 17: Finish cleaning up code. Prepare final submission

'''4.5) Include as much technical detail about your implementation as you can'''

If a server rewrite is required, the code will be written in Python. The server has to integrate with other Python code, the server should be easier to write and maintain by using Python, and the usage of Python is encourage in the original proposal idea. The server will be responsible for communicating with client-side programs that will request for information on addons. To do this, the server will listen on an open port for requests and send information based on the request. The server will give the download location of the campaign along with the information listed in the translation files. The server should send the WML data associated with an add-on so the client can read the information and place the information in the appropriate portions of the UI. The server will also be responsible for integrating with Wescamp to grab translations and to run programs to update UMC regarding WML code and when new content is uploaded

The client-side programs will make requests to the server program to fetch information about the various user-made campaigns and show the information to the user in an organized fashion. The client-side programs should have a way to detect the locale setting of the computer and give that information to the server so the appropriate translation can be given to the client. For each campaign in the campaign list, the UI should display at least the name of the campaign name, version, campaign type, file size, and a description of what the campaign is about. When a download is requested, some form of progress window should appear with the ability to cancel the download in progress.

'''4.6) What do you expect to gain from this project?'''

I expect to gain some experience in working with a team and get the experience of working in a community. I also expect to get mad dough from Google. :D

'''4.7) What would make you stay in the Wesnoth community after the conclusion of SOC?'''

As long as I do a good job on my project then I will stay in the Wesnoth community after the conclusion of SOC.

====Practical considerations====

'''5.1) Are you familiar with any of the following tools or languages?'''

* Subversion (used for all commits)
* C++ (language used for all the normal source code)
* Python (optional, mainly used for tools)
* build environments (eg cmake/autotools/scons)

I am familiar with C++, Python, cmake, and autotools.

'''5.2) Which tools do you normally use for development? Why do you use them?'''

I usually use Python for development. I use Python because it is a lot easier to write something fairly quickly as opposed to using C++.

'''5.3) What programming languages are you fluent in?'''

I am fluent in C++ and Python. I studied C++ in school for 3 years and I studied Python on my own for about 1.5 years. I am also fairly proficient at Java.

'''5.4) What spoken languages are you fluent in?'''

English

'''5.5) At what hours are you awake and when will you be able to be in IRC (please specify in UTC)'''

I am awake between 2 PM till 5 AM UTC. I can be in IRC between 2 AM - 4 AM UTC.

'''5.6) Would you mind talking with your mentor on telephone / internet phone? We would like to have a backup way for communications for the case that somehow emails and IRC do fail.'''

I do not mind getting calls from a mentor.

[[Category:Summer of Code]]

SummerOfCodeProposal Ryochan7

2009-04-03T17:59:47Z

Ryochan7: Update based on app

===Personal Information/Introduction===

'''''Name:''''' Travis Nickles

'''''Age:''''' 25

'''''Location:''''' Normal, IL

'''''University Enrolled:''''' Illinois State University

'''''Personal website:''''' http://ryochan7.webfactional.com

'''''Email:''''' ryoohki7 AT yahoo.com

'''''Forum/IRC:''''' Ryochan7/ryochan7

===Questionaire===

====Basics====

'''1.1) Write a small introduction to yourself.'''

My name is Travis Nickles and I am 25 years old. I am majoring in Computer Science at Illinois State University in Normal, IL; I also have a minor in East Asian Studies with an emphasis on Japanese language study.

'''1.2) State your preferred email address.'''

ryoohki7 AT yahoo.com

'''1.3) If you have chosen a nick for IRC and Wesnoth forums, what is it?'''

Ryochan7

'''1.4) Why do you want to participate in summer of code?'''

I want to participate in summer of code because I have wanted the experience of being a part of an open source project for a while. I would be spending most of my summer coding my own projects anyway so it would be better to use my time during the summer to give back to the open source community that I have greatly benefited from.

'''1.5) What are you studying, subject, level and school?'''

Computer Science, end of 3rd year, Illinois State University

'''1.6) If you have contributed any patches to Wesnoth, please list them below. You can also list patches that have been submitted but not committed yet and patches that have not been specifically written for Wesnoth. If you have gained commit access to our SVN (during the evaluation period or earlier) please state so.'''

None

====Experience====

'''2.1) What programs/software have you worked on before?'''

I have mostly worked on my own programs that were written in Python as a way to learn the language. My biggest currently supported program is YouTubed-2x; it is a program that downloads videos from various flash sites and transcodes them via ffmpeg into GP2X-compatible video files. Other programs that I have worked on in some capacity are PSP Video Converter (submitted some patches) and the PlayStation Portable port of Doom (maintained the main branch for a few months, added wad selector, button configuration menu, added overclocking support)

YouTubed-2x source: http://ryochan7.webfactional.com/files/projects/youtubed-2x_archive_2009-03-21.tar.gz

'''2.2) Have you developed software in a team environment before? (As opposed to hacking on something on your own)'''

No. I have always developed software on my own. I have always wanted to experience being a part of a group project.

'''2.3) Have you participated to the Google Summer of Code before? As a mentor or a student? In what project? Were you successful? If not, why?'''

I have not previously participated in Google Summer of Code.

'''2.4) Open Source'''

'''2.4.1) Are you already involved with any open source development projects? If yes, please describe the project and the scope of your involvement.'''

No

'''2.5) Gaming experience - Are you a gamer?'''

Yes

'''2.5.1) What type of gamer are you?'''

I consider myself a casual gamer nowadays because I don't have much time to play games.

'''2.5.2) What type of games?'''

I mostly play FPS's and JRPGs.

'''2.5.3) What type of opponents do you prefer?'''

I prefer to face a human opponent.

'''2.5.4) Are you more interested in story or gameplay?'''

I am generally more interested in story than gameplay. My love for the Xenosaga series is a great example of that. I am more willing to put up with a game that might not have exciting gameplay if it has a great story that keeps me interested in the game world. If a game has only great gameplay and no story, I am likely to get bored because the game will seem too repetetive and I won't think that my actions actually matter.

'''2.5.5) Have you played Wesnoth? If so, tell us roughly for how long and whether you lean towards single player or multiplayer.'''

I used to play the game a lot for over two months about a couple of years ago. I have continued to follow the project and recommend the game to friends but I have not played Wesnoth in a long time.

====Communication skills====

'''3.1) Though most of our developers are not native English speakers, English is the project's working language. Describe your fluency level in written English.'''

I am a native speaker.

'''3.2) Are you good at interacting with other players? Our developer community is friendly, but the player community can be a bit rough.'''

I am not particularly good at interacting with other players.

'''3.3) Do you give constructive advice?'''

Yes

'''3.4) Do you receive advice well?'''

Yes. I am always willing to take advice from other people.

'''3.5) Are you good at sorting useful criticisms from useless ones?'''

Yes.

====Project====

'''4.1) Did you select a project from our list? If that is the case, what project did you select? What do you want to especially concentrate on?'''

I would like to concentrate on developing the addon server idea.

'''4.2) If you have invented your own project, please describe the project and the scope.'''

NA

'''4.3) Why did you choose this project?'''

I chose this project because I feel that I have a better general understanding of this project and what can be done; programming AI is over my head and I am not that great at web development.

'''4.4) Include an estimated timeline for your work on the project. Don't forget to mention special things like "I booked holidays between A and B" and "I got an exam at ABC and won't be doing much then".'''

April 21 - May 5: Get familiar with Wesnoth code and the Wesnoth community

May 6 - May 22: Study the problem in detail and gather the requirements of the project

May 23 - June 6: Flesh out use cases and start coding a prototype server, decide how network communication will be utilized and how updates will be handled, improve standalone GUI client

June 7 - June 21: Use cases finished. Work on in-game browser and test communication with prototype server. Continue work on server program

June 22 - July 2: Work on both client programs. General design should be completely finished by this point

July 3 - July 5: Take time off for the July 4th weekend. Will spend time with my family

July 6 - August 1: Improve both client programs and server program. Test more with full set of UMC data. Start thinking about what unit tests should be made. Start spending significant time fixing any bugs

August 2 - August 9: Write tests for both the client and server. Clean up code based on tests results

August 10 - August 16: Spend more time cleaning up client and server code and fixing bugs. Write more tests

August 17: Finish cleaning up code. Prepare final submission

'''4.5) Include as much technical detail about your implementation as you can'''

If a server rewrite is required, the code will be written in Python. The server has to integrate with other Python code, the server should be easier to write and maintain by using Python, and the usage of Python is encourage in the original proposal idea. The server will be responsible for communicating with client-side programs that will request for information on addons. To do this, the server will listen on an open port for requests and send information based on the request. The server will give the download location of the campaign along with the information listed in the translation files. The server should send the WML data associated with an add-on so the client can read the information and place the information in the appropriate portions of the UI. The server will also be responsible for integrating with Wescamp to grab translations and to run programs to update UMC regarding WML code and when new content is uploaded

The client-side programs will make requests to the server program to fetch information about the various user-made campaigns and show the information to the user in an organized fashion. The client-side programs should have a way to detect the locale setting of the computer and give that information to the server so the appropriate translation can be given to the client. For each campaign in the campaign list, the UI should display at least the name of the campaign name, version, campaign type, file size, and a description of what the campaign is about. When a download is requested, some form of progress window should appear with the ability to cancel the download in progress.

'''4.6) What do you expect to gain from this project?'''

I expect to gain some experience in working with a team and get the experience of working in a community. I also expect to get mad dough from Google. :D

'''4.7) What would make you stay in the Wesnoth community after the conclusion of SOC?'''

As long as I do a good job on my project then I will stay in the Wesnoth community after the conclusion of SOC.

====Practical considerations====

'''5.1) Are you familiar with any of the following tools or languages?'''

* Subversion (used for all commits)
* C++ (language used for all the normal source code)
* Python (optional, mainly used for tools)
* build environments (eg cmake/autotools/scons)

I am familiar with C++, Python, cmake, and autotools.

'''5.2) Which tools do you normally use for development? Why do you use them?'''

I usually use Python for development. I use Python because it is a lot easier to write something fairly quickly as opposed to using C++.

'''5.3) What programming languages are you fluent in?'''

I am fluent in C++ and Python. I studied C++ in school for 3 years and I studied Python on my own for about 1.5 years. I am also fairly proficient at Java.

'''5.4) What spoken languages are you fluent in?'''

English

'''5.5) At what hours are you awake and when will you be able to be in IRC (please specify in UTC)'''

I am awake between 2 PM till 5 AM UTC. I can be in IRC between 2 AM - 4 AM UTC.

'''5.6) Would you mind talking with your mentor on telephone / internet phone? We would like to have a backup way for communications for the case that somehow emails and IRC do fail.'''

I do not mind getting calls from a mentor.

SummerOfCodeProposal Ryochan7

2009-03-23T22:11:48Z

Ryochan7: /* Project */

===Personal Information/Introduction===

'''''Name:''''' Travis Nickles

'''''Age:''''' 25

'''''Location:''''' Normal, IL

'''''University Enrolled:''''' Illinois State University

'''''Personal website:''''' http://ryochan7.webfactional.com

'''''Email:''''' ryoohki7 AT yahoo.com

'''''Forum/IRC:''''' Ryochan7/ryochan7

===Questionaire===

====Basics====

'''1.1) Write a small introduction to yourself.'''

My name is Travis Nickles and I am 25 years old. I am majoring in Computer Science at Illinois State University in Normal, IL; I also have a minor in East Asian Studies with an emphasis on Japanese language study.

'''1.2) State your preferred email address.'''

ryoohki7 AT yahoo.com

'''1.3) If you have chosen a nick for IRC and Wesnoth forums, what is it?'''

Ryochan7

'''1.4) Why do you want to participate in summer of code?'''

I want to participate in summer of code because I have wanted the experience of being a part of an open source project for a while. I would be spending most of my summer coding my own projects anyway so it would be better to use my time during the summer to give back to the open source community that I have greatly benefited from.

'''1.5) What are you studying, subject, level and school?'''

Computer Science, end of 3rd year, Illinois State University

'''1.6) If you have contributed any patches to Wesnoth, please list them below. You can also list patches that have been submitted but not committed yet and patches that have not been specifically written for Wesnoth. If you have gained commit access to our SVN (during the evaluation period or earlier) please state so.'''

None

====Experience====

'''2.1) What programs/software have you worked on before?'''

I have mostly worked on my own programs that were written in Python as a way to learn the language. My biggest currently supported program is YouTubed-2x; it is a program that downloads videos from various flash sites and transcodes them via ffmpeg into GP2X-compatible video files. Other programs that I have worked on in some capacity are PSP Video Converter (submitted some patches) and the PlayStation Portable port of Doom (maintained the main branch for a few months, added wad selector, button configuration menu, added overclocking support)

'''2.2) Have you developed software in a team environment before? (As opposed to hacking on something on your own)'''

No. I have always wanted to experience being a part of a group project.

'''2.3) Have you participated to the Google Summer of Code before? As a mentor or a student? In what project? Were you successful? If not, why?'''

I have not previously participated in Google Summer of Code.

'''2.4) Open Source'''

'''2.4.1) Are you already involved with any open source development projects? If yes, please describe the project and the scope of your involvement.'''

No

'''2.5) Gaming experience - Are you a gamer?'''

Yes

'''2.5.1) What type of gamer are you?'''

I consider myself a casual gamer nowadays because I don't have much time to play games.

'''2.5.2) What type of games?'''

I mostly play FPS's and JRPGs.

'''2.5.3) What type of opponents do you prefer?'''

I prefer to face a human opponent.

'''2.5.4) Are you more interested in story or gameplay?'''

I am generally more interested in story than gameplay. My love for the Xenosaga series is a great example of that.

'''2.5.5) Have you played Wesnoth? If so, tell us roughly for how long and whether you lean towards single player or multiplayer.'''

I used to play the game a lot for over two months about a couple of years ago. I have continued to follow the project and recommend the game to friends but I have not played Wesnoth in a long time.

====Communication skills====

'''3.1) Though most of our developers are not native English speakers, English is the project's working language. Describe your fluency level in written English.'''

I am a native speaker.

'''3.2) Are you good at interacting with other players? Our developer community is friendly, but the player community can be a bit rough.'''

I am not particularly good at interacting with other players.

'''3.3) Do you give constructive advice?'''

Yes

'''3.4) Do you receive advice well?'''

Yes. I am always willing to take advice from other people.

'''3.5) Are you good at sorting useful criticisms from useless ones?'''

Yes.

====Project====

'''4.1) Did you select a project from our list? If that is the case, what project did you select? What do you want to especially concentrate on?'''

I would like to concentrate on developing the addon server idea.

'''4.2) If you have invented your own project, please describe the project and the scope.'''

NA

'''4.3) Why did you choose this project?'''

I chose this project because I feel that I have a better general understanding of this project and what can be done; programming AI is over my head and I am not that great at web development.

'''4.4) Include an estimated timeline for your work on the project. Don't forget to mention special things like "I booked holidays between A and B" and "I got an exam at ABC and won't be doing much then".'''

April 21 - May 5: Get familiar with Wesnoth code and the Wesnoth community

May 6 - May 22: Study the problem in detail and gather the requirements of the project

May 23 - June 6: Flesh out use cases and start coding a prototype server, decide how network communication will be utilized and how updates will be handled, improve standalone GUI client

June 7 - June 21: Use cases finished. Work on in-game browser and test communication with prototype server. Continue work on server program

June 22 - July 2: Work on both client programs. General design should be completely finished by this point

July 3 - July 5: Take time off for the July 4th weekend. Will spend time with my family

July 6 - August 1: Improve both client programs and server program. Test more with full set of UMC data. Start thinking about what unit tests should be made. Start spending significant time fixing any bugs

August 2 - August 9: Write tests for both the client and server. Clean up code based on tests results

August 10 - August 16: Spend more time cleaning up client and server code and fixing bugs. Write more tests

August 17: Finish cleaning up code. Prepare final submission

'''4.5) Include as much technical detail about your implementation as you can'''

If a server rewrite is required, the code will be written in Python as the current server is already coded in Python and the server has to integrate with other Python code. The server will be responsible for communicating with client-side programs that will request for information on addons. To do this, the server will listen on an open port for requests and send information based on the request. The server will give the download location of the campaign along with the information listed in the translation files. The server should send the information in some structured format (maybe XML or JSON) so the client can read the information and place the information in the appropriate portions of the UI. The server will also be responsible for integrating with Wescamp to grab translations and to run programs to update UMC regarding WML code and when new content is uploaded.

The client-side programs will make requests to the server program to fetch information about the various user-made campaigns and show the information to the user in an organized fashion. The client-side programs should have a way to detect the locale setting of the computer and give that information to the server so the appropriate translation can be given to the client. For each campaign in the campaign list, the UI should display at least the name of the campaign, version, file size, and a description of what the campaign is about. The client should probably cache translation information when received so that the client does not make a request to the server after selecting a different campaign listing and then selecting a previously selected campaign. When a download is requested, some form of progress window should appear with the ability to cancel the download in progress.

'''4.6) What do you expect to gain from this project?'''

I expect to gain some experience in working with a team and get dough from Google.

'''4.7) What would make you stay in the Wesnoth community after the conclusion of SOC?'''

As long as I do a good job on my project then I will stay in the Wesnoth community after the conclusion of SOC.

====Practical considerations====

'''5.1) Are you familiar with any of the following tools or languages?'''

* Subversion (used for all commits)
* C++ (language used for all the normal source code)
* Python (optional, mainly used for tools)
* build environments (eg cmake/autotools/scons)

I am familiar with C++, Python, cmake, and autotools.

'''5.2) Which tools do you normally use for development? Why do you use them?'''

I usually use Python for development. I use Python because it is a lot easier to write something fairly quickly as opposed to using C++.

'''5.3) What programming languages are you fluent in?'''

I am fluent in C++ and Python. I studied C++ in school for 3 years and I studied Python on my own for about 1.5 years. I am also fairly proficient at Java.

'''5.4) What spoken languages are you fluent in?'''

English

'''5.5) At what hours are you awake and when will you be able to be in IRC (please specify in UTC)'''

I am awake between 2 PM till 5 AM UTC. I can be in IRC between 2 AM - 4 AM UTC.

'''5.6) Would you mind talking with your mentor on telephone / internet phone? We would like to have a backup way for communications for the case that somehow emails and IRC do fail.'''

I do not mind getting calls from a mentor.

SummerOfCodeProposal Ryochan7

2009-03-23T22:11:26Z

Ryochan7: /* Project */

===Personal Information/Introduction===

'''''Name:''''' Travis Nickles

'''''Age:''''' 25

'''''Location:''''' Normal, IL

'''''University Enrolled:''''' Illinois State University

'''''Personal website:''''' http://ryochan7.webfactional.com

'''''Email:''''' ryoohki7 AT yahoo.com

'''''Forum/IRC:''''' Ryochan7/ryochan7

===Questionaire===

====Basics====

'''1.1) Write a small introduction to yourself.'''

My name is Travis Nickles and I am 25 years old. I am majoring in Computer Science at Illinois State University in Normal, IL; I also have a minor in East Asian Studies with an emphasis on Japanese language study.

'''1.2) State your preferred email address.'''

ryoohki7 AT yahoo.com

'''1.3) If you have chosen a nick for IRC and Wesnoth forums, what is it?'''

Ryochan7

'''1.4) Why do you want to participate in summer of code?'''

I want to participate in summer of code because I have wanted the experience of being a part of an open source project for a while. I would be spending most of my summer coding my own projects anyway so it would be better to use my time during the summer to give back to the open source community that I have greatly benefited from.

'''1.5) What are you studying, subject, level and school?'''

Computer Science, end of 3rd year, Illinois State University

'''1.6) If you have contributed any patches to Wesnoth, please list them below. You can also list patches that have been submitted but not committed yet and patches that have not been specifically written for Wesnoth. If you have gained commit access to our SVN (during the evaluation period or earlier) please state so.'''

None

====Experience====

'''2.1) What programs/software have you worked on before?'''

I have mostly worked on my own programs that were written in Python as a way to learn the language. My biggest currently supported program is YouTubed-2x; it is a program that downloads videos from various flash sites and transcodes them via ffmpeg into GP2X-compatible video files. Other programs that I have worked on in some capacity are PSP Video Converter (submitted some patches) and the PlayStation Portable port of Doom (maintained the main branch for a few months, added wad selector, button configuration menu, added overclocking support)

'''2.2) Have you developed software in a team environment before? (As opposed to hacking on something on your own)'''

No. I have always wanted to experience being a part of a group project.

'''2.3) Have you participated to the Google Summer of Code before? As a mentor or a student? In what project? Were you successful? If not, why?'''

I have not previously participated in Google Summer of Code.

'''2.4) Open Source'''

'''2.4.1) Are you already involved with any open source development projects? If yes, please describe the project and the scope of your involvement.'''

No

'''2.5) Gaming experience - Are you a gamer?'''

Yes

'''2.5.1) What type of gamer are you?'''

I consider myself a casual gamer nowadays because I don't have much time to play games.

'''2.5.2) What type of games?'''

I mostly play FPS's and JRPGs.

'''2.5.3) What type of opponents do you prefer?'''

I prefer to face a human opponent.

'''2.5.4) Are you more interested in story or gameplay?'''

I am generally more interested in story than gameplay. My love for the Xenosaga series is a great example of that.

'''2.5.5) Have you played Wesnoth? If so, tell us roughly for how long and whether you lean towards single player or multiplayer.'''

I used to play the game a lot for over two months about a couple of years ago. I have continued to follow the project and recommend the game to friends but I have not played Wesnoth in a long time.

====Communication skills====

'''3.1) Though most of our developers are not native English speakers, English is the project's working language. Describe your fluency level in written English.'''

I am a native speaker.

'''3.2) Are you good at interacting with other players? Our developer community is friendly, but the player community can be a bit rough.'''

I am not particularly good at interacting with other players.

'''3.3) Do you give constructive advice?'''

Yes

'''3.4) Do you receive advice well?'''

Yes. I am always willing to take advice from other people.

'''3.5) Are you good at sorting useful criticisms from useless ones?'''

Yes.

====Project====

'''4.1) Did you select a project from our list? If that is the case, what project did you select? What do you want to especially concentrate on?'''

I would like to concentrate on developing the addon server idea.

'''4.2) If you have invented your own project, please describe the project and the scope.'''

NA

'''4.3) Why did you choose this project?'''

I chose this project because I feel that I have a better general understanding of this project and what can be done; programming AI is over my head and I am not that great at web development.

'''4.4) Include an estimated timeline for your work on the project. Don't forget to mention special things like "I booked holidays between A and B" and "I got an exam at ABC and won't be doing much then".'''

April 21 - May 5: Get familiar with Wesnoth code and the Wesnoth community

May 6 - May 22: Study the problem in detail and gather the requirements of the project

May 23 - June 6: Flesh out use cases and start coding a prototype server, decide how network communication will be utilized and how updates will be handled, improve standalone GUI client

June 7 - June 21: Use cases finished. Work on in-game browser and test communication with prototype server. Continue work on server program

June 22 - July 2: Work on both client programs. General design should be completely finished by this point

July 3 - July 5: Take time off for the July 4th weekend. Will spend time with my family

July 6 - August 1: Improve both client programs and server program. Test more with full set of UMC data. Start thinking about what unit tests should be made. Start spending significant time fixing any bugs

August 2 - August 9: Write tests for both the client and server. Clean up code based on tests results

August 10 - August 16: Spend more time cleaning up client and server code and fixing bugs. Write more tests

August 17: Finish cleaning up code. Prepare final submission

'''4.5) Include as much technical detail about your implementation as you can'''

If a server rewrite is required, the code will be written in Python as the current server is already coded in Python and the server has to integrate with other Python code. The server will be responsible for communicating with client-side programs that will request for information on addons. To do this, the server will listen on an open port for requests and send information based on the request. The server will give the download location of the campaign along with the information listed in the translation files. The server should send the information in some structured format (maybe XML or JSON) so the client can read the information and place the information in the appropriate portions of the UI. The server will also be responsible for integrating with Wescamp to grab translations and to run programs to update UMC regarding WML code and when new content is being uploaded.

The client-side programs will make requests to the server program to fetch information about the various user-made campaigns and show the information to the user in an organized fashion. The client-side programs should have a way to detect the locale setting of the computer and give that information to the server so the appropriate translation can be given to the client. For each campaign in the campaign list, the UI should display at least the name of the campaign, version, file size, and a description of what the campaign is about. The client should probably cache translation information when received so that the client does not make a request to the server after selecting a different campaign listing and then selecting a previously selected campaign. When a download is requested, some form of progress window should appear with the ability to cancel the download in progress.

'''4.6) What do you expect to gain from this project?'''

I expect to gain some experience in working with a team and get dough from Google.

'''4.7) What would make you stay in the Wesnoth community after the conclusion of SOC?'''

As long as I do a good job on my project then I will stay in the Wesnoth community after the conclusion of SOC.

====Practical considerations====

'''5.1) Are you familiar with any of the following tools or languages?'''

* Subversion (used for all commits)
* C++ (language used for all the normal source code)
* Python (optional, mainly used for tools)
* build environments (eg cmake/autotools/scons)

I am familiar with C++, Python, cmake, and autotools.

'''5.2) Which tools do you normally use for development? Why do you use them?'''

I usually use Python for development. I use Python because it is a lot easier to write something fairly quickly as opposed to using C++.

'''5.3) What programming languages are you fluent in?'''

I am fluent in C++ and Python. I studied C++ in school for 3 years and I studied Python on my own for about 1.5 years. I am also fairly proficient at Java.

'''5.4) What spoken languages are you fluent in?'''

English

'''5.5) At what hours are you awake and when will you be able to be in IRC (please specify in UTC)'''

I am awake between 2 PM till 5 AM UTC. I can be in IRC between 2 AM - 4 AM UTC.

'''5.6) Would you mind talking with your mentor on telephone / internet phone? We would like to have a backup way for communications for the case that somehow emails and IRC do fail.'''

I do not mind getting calls from a mentor.

SummerOfCodeProposal Ryochan7

2009-03-23T21:45:28Z

Ryochan7: /* Experience */

===Personal Information/Introduction===

'''''Name:''''' Travis Nickles

'''''Age:''''' 25

'''''Location:''''' Normal, IL

'''''University Enrolled:''''' Illinois State University

'''''Personal website:''''' http://ryochan7.webfactional.com

'''''Email:''''' ryoohki7 AT yahoo.com

'''''Forum/IRC:''''' Ryochan7/ryochan7

===Questionaire===

====Basics====

'''1.1) Write a small introduction to yourself.'''

My name is Travis Nickles and I am 25 years old. I am majoring in Computer Science at Illinois State University in Normal, IL; I also have a minor in East Asian Studies with an emphasis on Japanese language study.

'''1.2) State your preferred email address.'''

ryoohki7 AT yahoo.com

'''1.3) If you have chosen a nick for IRC and Wesnoth forums, what is it?'''

Ryochan7

'''1.4) Why do you want to participate in summer of code?'''

I want to participate in summer of code because I have wanted the experience of being a part of an open source project for a while. I would be spending most of my summer coding my own projects anyway so it would be better to use my time during the summer to give back to the open source community that I have greatly benefited from.

'''1.5) What are you studying, subject, level and school?'''

Computer Science, end of 3rd year, Illinois State University

'''1.6) If you have contributed any patches to Wesnoth, please list them below. You can also list patches that have been submitted but not committed yet and patches that have not been specifically written for Wesnoth. If you have gained commit access to our SVN (during the evaluation period or earlier) please state so.'''

None

====Experience====

'''2.1) What programs/software have you worked on before?'''

I have mostly worked on my own programs that were written in Python as a way to learn the language. My biggest currently supported program is YouTubed-2x; it is a program that downloads videos from various flash sites and transcodes them via ffmpeg into GP2X-compatible video files. Other programs that I have worked on in some capacity are PSP Video Converter (submitted some patches) and the PlayStation Portable port of Doom (maintained the main branch for a few months, added wad selector, button configuration menu, added overclocking support)

'''2.2) Have you developed software in a team environment before? (As opposed to hacking on something on your own)'''

No. I have always wanted to experience being a part of a group project.

'''2.3) Have you participated to the Google Summer of Code before? As a mentor or a student? In what project? Were you successful? If not, why?'''

I have not previously participated in Google Summer of Code.

'''2.4) Open Source'''

'''2.4.1) Are you already involved with any open source development projects? If yes, please describe the project and the scope of your involvement.'''

No

'''2.5) Gaming experience - Are you a gamer?'''

Yes

'''2.5.1) What type of gamer are you?'''

I consider myself a casual gamer nowadays because I don't have much time to play games.

'''2.5.2) What type of games?'''

I mostly play FPS's and JRPGs.

'''2.5.3) What type of opponents do you prefer?'''

I prefer to face a human opponent.

'''2.5.4) Are you more interested in story or gameplay?'''

I am generally more interested in story than gameplay. My love for the Xenosaga series is a great example of that.

'''2.5.5) Have you played Wesnoth? If so, tell us roughly for how long and whether you lean towards single player or multiplayer.'''

I used to play the game a lot for over two months about a couple of years ago. I have continued to follow the project and recommend the game to friends but I have not played Wesnoth in a long time.

====Communication skills====

'''3.1) Though most of our developers are not native English speakers, English is the project's working language. Describe your fluency level in written English.'''

I am a native speaker.

'''3.2) Are you good at interacting with other players? Our developer community is friendly, but the player community can be a bit rough.'''

I am not particularly good at interacting with other players.

'''3.3) Do you give constructive advice?'''

Yes

'''3.4) Do you receive advice well?'''

Yes. I am always willing to take advice from other people.

'''3.5) Are you good at sorting useful criticisms from useless ones?'''

Yes.

====Project====

'''4.1) Did you select a project from our list? If that is the case, what project did you select? What do you want to especially concentrate on?'''

I would like to concentrate on developing the addon server idea.

'''4.2) If you have invented your own project, please describe the project and the scope.'''

NA

'''4.3) Why did you choose this project?'''

I chose this project because I feel that I have a better general understanding of this project and what can be done; programming AI is over my head and I am not that great at web development.

'''4.4) Include an estimated timeline for your work on the project. Don't forget to mention special things like "I booked holidays between A and B" and "I got an exam at ABC and won't be doing much then".'''

April 21 - May 5: Get familiar with Wesnoth code and the Wesnoth community

May 6 - May 22: Study the problem in detail and gather the requirements of the project

May 23 - June 6: Flesh out use cases and start coding a prototype server, decide how network communication will be utilized and how updates will be handled, improve standalone GUI client

June 7 - June 21: Use cases finished. Work on in-game browser and test communication with prototype server. Continue work on server program

June 22 - July 2: Work on both client programs. General design should be completely finished by this point

July 3 - July 5: Take time off for the July 4th weekend. Will spend time with my family

July 6 - August 1: Improve both client programs and server program. Test more with full set of UMC data. Start thinking about what unit tests should be made. Start spending significant time fixing any bugs

August 2 - August 9: Write tests for both the client and server. Clean up code based on tests results

August 10 - August 16: Spend more time cleaning up client and server code and fixing bugs. Write more tests

August 17: Finish cleaning up code. Prepare final submission

'''4.5) Include as much technical detail about your implementation as you can'''

If a server rewrite is required, the code will be written in Python as the current server is already coded in Python and the server has to integrate with other Python code. The server will be responsible for communicating with client-side programs that will request for information on addons. To do this, the server will listen on an open port for requests and send information based on the request. The server will give the download location of the campaign along with the information listed in the translation files. The server should send the information in some structured format (maybe XML or JSON) so the client can read the information and place the information in the appropriate portions of the UI. The server will also be responsible for integrating with Wescamp to grab translations and to run programs to update UMC regarding WML code.

The client-side programs will make requests to the server program to fetch information about the various user-made campaigns and show the information to the user in an organized fashion. The client-side programs should have a way to detect the locale setting of the computer and give that information to the server so the appropriate translation can be given to the client. For each campaign in the campaign list, the UI should display at least the name of the campaign, version, file size, and a description of what the campaign is about. The client should probably cache translation information when received so that the client does not make a request to the server after selecting a different campaign listing and then selecting a previously selected campaign. When a download is requested, some form of progress window should appear with the ability to cancel the download in progress.

'''4.6) What do you expect to gain from this project?'''

I expect to gain some experience in working with a team and get dough from Google.

'''4.7) What would make you stay in the Wesnoth community after the conclusion of SOC?'''

As long as I do a good job on my project then I will stay in the Wesnoth community after the conclusion of SOC.

====Practical considerations====

'''5.1) Are you familiar with any of the following tools or languages?'''

* Subversion (used for all commits)
* C++ (language used for all the normal source code)
* Python (optional, mainly used for tools)
* build environments (eg cmake/autotools/scons)

I am familiar with C++, Python, cmake, and autotools.

'''5.2) Which tools do you normally use for development? Why do you use them?'''

I usually use Python for development. I use Python because it is a lot easier to write something fairly quickly as opposed to using C++.

'''5.3) What programming languages are you fluent in?'''

I am fluent in C++ and Python. I studied C++ in school for 3 years and I studied Python on my own for about 1.5 years. I am also fairly proficient at Java.

'''5.4) What spoken languages are you fluent in?'''

English

'''5.5) At what hours are you awake and when will you be able to be in IRC (please specify in UTC)'''

I am awake between 2 PM till 5 AM UTC. I can be in IRC between 2 AM - 4 AM UTC.

'''5.6) Would you mind talking with your mentor on telephone / internet phone? We would like to have a backup way for communications for the case that somehow emails and IRC do fail.'''

I do not mind getting calls from a mentor.

SummerOfCodeProposal Ryochan7

2009-03-23T00:54:42Z

Ryochan7: /* Personal Information/Introduction */

===Personal Information/Introduction===

'''''Name:''''' Travis Nickles

'''''Age:''''' 25

'''''Location:''''' Normal, IL

'''''University Enrolled:''''' Illinois State University

'''''Personal website:''''' http://ryochan7.webfactional.com

'''''Email:''''' ryoohki7 AT yahoo.com

'''''Forum/IRC:''''' Ryochan7/ryochan7

===Questionaire===

====Basics====

'''1.1) Write a small introduction to yourself.'''

My name is Travis Nickles and I am 25 years old. I am majoring in Computer Science at Illinois State University in Normal, IL; I also have a minor in East Asian Studies with an emphasis on Japanese language study.

'''1.2) State your preferred email address.'''

ryoohki7 AT yahoo.com

'''1.3) If you have chosen a nick for IRC and Wesnoth forums, what is it?'''

Ryochan7

'''1.4) Why do you want to participate in summer of code?'''

I want to participate in summer of code because I have wanted the experience of being a part of an open source project for a while. I would be spending most of my summer coding my own projects anyway so it would be better to use my time during the summer to give back to the open source community that I have greatly benefited from.

'''1.5) What are you studying, subject, level and school?'''

Computer Science, end of 3rd year, Illinois State University

'''1.6) If you have contributed any patches to Wesnoth, please list them below. You can also list patches that have been submitted but not committed yet and patches that have not been specifically written for Wesnoth. If you have gained commit access to our SVN (during the evaluation period or earlier) please state so.'''

None

====Experience====

'''2.1) What programs/software have you worked on before?'''

I have mostly worked on my own programs that were written in Python as a way to learn the language. My biggest currently supported program is YouTubed-2x; it is a program that downloads videos from various flash sites and transcodes them via ffmpeg into a GP2X-compatible AVI video file. Other programs that I have worked on in some capacity are PSP Video Converter (submitted some patches) and the PlayStation Portable port of Doom (maintained the main branch for a few months, added wad selector, button configuration menu, added overclocking support)

'''2.2) Have you developed software in a team environment before? (As opposed to hacking on something on your own)'''

No. I have always wanted to experience being a part of a group project.

'''2.3) Have you participated to the Google Summer of Code before? As a mentor or a student? In what project? Were you successful? If not, why?'''

I have not previously participated in Google Summer of Code.

'''2.4) Open Source'''

'''2.4.1) Are you already involved with any open source development projects? If yes, please describe the project and the scope of your involvement.'''

No

'''2.5) Gaming experience - Are you a gamer?'''

Yes

'''2.5.1) What type of gamer are you?'''

I consider myself a casual gamer nowadays because I don't have much time to play games.

'''2.5.2) What type of games?'''

I mostly play FPS's and JRPGs.

'''2.5.3) What type of opponents do you prefer?'''

I prefer to face a human opponent.

'''2.5.4) Are you more interested in story or gameplay?'''

I am generally more interested in story than gameplay. My love for the Xenosaga series is a great example of that.

'''2.5.5) Have you played Wesnoth? If so, tell us roughly for how long and whether you lean towards single player or multiplayer.'''

I used to play the game a lot for over two months about a couple of years ago. I have continued to follow the project and recommend the game to friends but I have not played Wesnoth in a long time.

====Communication skills====

'''3.1) Though most of our developers are not native English speakers, English is the project's working language. Describe your fluency level in written English.'''

I am a native speaker.

'''3.2) Are you good at interacting with other players? Our developer community is friendly, but the player community can be a bit rough.'''

I am not particularly good at interacting with other players.

'''3.3) Do you give constructive advice?'''

Yes

'''3.4) Do you receive advice well?'''

Yes. I am always willing to take advice from other people.

'''3.5) Are you good at sorting useful criticisms from useless ones?'''

Yes.

====Project====

'''4.1) Did you select a project from our list? If that is the case, what project did you select? What do you want to especially concentrate on?'''

I would like to concentrate on developing the addon server idea.

'''4.2) If you have invented your own project, please describe the project and the scope.'''

NA

'''4.3) Why did you choose this project?'''

I chose this project because I feel that I have a better general understanding of this project and what can be done; programming AI is over my head and I am not that great at web development.

'''4.4) Include an estimated timeline for your work on the project. Don't forget to mention special things like "I booked holidays between A and B" and "I got an exam at ABC and won't be doing much then".'''

April 21 - May 5: Get familiar with Wesnoth code and the Wesnoth community

May 6 - May 22: Study the problem in detail and gather the requirements of the project

May 23 - June 6: Flesh out use cases and start coding a prototype server, decide how network communication will be utilized and how updates will be handled, improve standalone GUI client

June 7 - June 21: Use cases finished. Work on in-game browser and test communication with prototype server. Continue work on server program

June 22 - July 2: Work on both client programs. General design should be completely finished by this point

July 3 - July 5: Take time off for the July 4th weekend. Will spend time with my family

July 6 - August 1: Improve both client programs and server program. Test more with full set of UMC data. Start thinking about what unit tests should be made. Start spending significant time fixing any bugs

August 2 - August 9: Write tests for both the client and server. Clean up code based on tests results

August 10 - August 16: Spend more time cleaning up client and server code and fixing bugs. Write more tests

August 17: Finish cleaning up code. Prepare final submission

'''4.5) Include as much technical detail about your implementation as you can'''

If a server rewrite is required, the code will be written in Python as the current server is already coded in Python and the server has to integrate with other Python code. The server will be responsible for communicating with client-side programs that will request for information on addons. To do this, the server will listen on an open port for requests and send information based on the request. The server will give the download location of the campaign along with the information listed in the translation files. The server should send the information in some structured format (maybe XML or JSON) so the client can read the information and place the information in the appropriate portions of the UI. The server will also be responsible for integrating with Wescamp to grab translations and to run programs to update UMC regarding WML code.

The client-side programs will make requests to the server program to fetch information about the various user-made campaigns and show the information to the user in an organized fashion. The client-side programs should have a way to detect the locale setting of the computer and give that information to the server so the appropriate translation can be given to the client. For each campaign in the campaign list, the UI should display at least the name of the campaign, version, file size, and a description of what the campaign is about. The client should probably cache translation information when received so that the client does not make a request to the server after selecting a different campaign listing and then selecting a previously selected campaign. When a download is requested, some form of progress window should appear with the ability to cancel the download in progress.

'''4.6) What do you expect to gain from this project?'''

I expect to gain some experience in working with a team and get dough from Google.

'''4.7) What would make you stay in the Wesnoth community after the conclusion of SOC?'''

As long as I do a good job on my project then I will stay in the Wesnoth community after the conclusion of SOC.

====Practical considerations====

'''5.1) Are you familiar with any of the following tools or languages?'''

* Subversion (used for all commits)
* C++ (language used for all the normal source code)
* Python (optional, mainly used for tools)
* build environments (eg cmake/autotools/scons)

I am familiar with C++, Python, cmake, and autotools.

'''5.2) Which tools do you normally use for development? Why do you use them?'''

I usually use Python for development. I use Python because it is a lot easier to write something fairly quickly as opposed to using C++.

'''5.3) What programming languages are you fluent in?'''

I am fluent in C++ and Python. I studied C++ in school for 3 years and I studied Python on my own for about 1.5 years. I am also fairly proficient at Java.

'''5.4) What spoken languages are you fluent in?'''

English

'''5.5) At what hours are you awake and when will you be able to be in IRC (please specify in UTC)'''

I am awake between 2 PM till 5 AM UTC. I can be in IRC between 2 AM - 4 AM UTC.

'''5.6) Would you mind talking with your mentor on telephone / internet phone? We would like to have a backup way for communications for the case that somehow emails and IRC do fail.'''

I do not mind getting calls from a mentor.

SummerOfCodeProposal Ryochan7

2009-03-23T00:47:16Z

Ryochan7: /* Project */ fixed minor grammar error

===Personal Information/Introduction===

'''''Name:''''' Travis Nickles

'''''Age:''''' 25

'''''Location:''''' Normal, IL

'''''University Enrolled:''''' Illinois State University

'''''Personal website:''''' http://ryochan7.webfactional.com

'''''Email:''''' ryoohki7 AT yahoo.com

'''''Forum/IRC:''''' Ryochan7

===Questionaire===

====Basics====

'''1.1) Write a small introduction to yourself.'''

My name is Travis Nickles and I am 25 years old. I am majoring in Computer Science at Illinois State University in Normal, IL; I also have a minor in East Asian Studies with an emphasis on Japanese language study.

'''1.2) State your preferred email address.'''

ryoohki7 AT yahoo.com

'''1.3) If you have chosen a nick for IRC and Wesnoth forums, what is it?'''

Ryochan7

'''1.4) Why do you want to participate in summer of code?'''

I want to participate in summer of code because I have wanted the experience of being a part of an open source project for a while. I would be spending most of my summer coding my own projects anyway so it would be better to use my time during the summer to give back to the open source community that I have greatly benefited from.

'''1.5) What are you studying, subject, level and school?'''

Computer Science, end of 3rd year, Illinois State University

'''1.6) If you have contributed any patches to Wesnoth, please list them below. You can also list patches that have been submitted but not committed yet and patches that have not been specifically written for Wesnoth. If you have gained commit access to our SVN (during the evaluation period or earlier) please state so.'''

None

====Experience====

'''2.1) What programs/software have you worked on before?'''

I have mostly worked on my own programs that were written in Python as a way to learn the language. My biggest currently supported program is YouTubed-2x; it is a program that downloads videos from various flash sites and transcodes them via ffmpeg into a GP2X-compatible AVI video file. Other programs that I have worked on in some capacity are PSP Video Converter (submitted some patches) and the PlayStation Portable port of Doom (maintained the main branch for a few months, added wad selector, button configuration menu, added overclocking support)

'''2.2) Have you developed software in a team environment before? (As opposed to hacking on something on your own)'''

No. I have always wanted to experience being a part of a group project.

'''2.3) Have you participated to the Google Summer of Code before? As a mentor or a student? In what project? Were you successful? If not, why?'''

I have not previously participated in Google Summer of Code.

'''2.4) Open Source'''

'''2.4.1) Are you already involved with any open source development projects? If yes, please describe the project and the scope of your involvement.'''

No

'''2.5) Gaming experience - Are you a gamer?'''

Yes

'''2.5.1) What type of gamer are you?'''

I consider myself a casual gamer nowadays because I don't have much time to play games.

'''2.5.2) What type of games?'''

I mostly play FPS's and JRPGs.

'''2.5.3) What type of opponents do you prefer?'''

I prefer to face a human opponent.

'''2.5.4) Are you more interested in story or gameplay?'''

I am generally more interested in story than gameplay. My love for the Xenosaga series is a great example of that.

'''2.5.5) Have you played Wesnoth? If so, tell us roughly for how long and whether you lean towards single player or multiplayer.'''

I used to play the game a lot for over two months about a couple of years ago. I have continued to follow the project and recommend the game to friends but I have not played Wesnoth in a long time.

====Communication skills====

'''3.1) Though most of our developers are not native English speakers, English is the project's working language. Describe your fluency level in written English.'''

I am a native speaker.

'''3.2) Are you good at interacting with other players? Our developer community is friendly, but the player community can be a bit rough.'''

I am not particularly good at interacting with other players.

'''3.3) Do you give constructive advice?'''

Yes

'''3.4) Do you receive advice well?'''

Yes. I am always willing to take advice from other people.

'''3.5) Are you good at sorting useful criticisms from useless ones?'''

Yes.

====Project====

'''4.1) Did you select a project from our list? If that is the case, what project did you select? What do you want to especially concentrate on?'''

I would like to concentrate on developing the addon server idea.

'''4.2) If you have invented your own project, please describe the project and the scope.'''

NA

'''4.3) Why did you choose this project?'''

I chose this project because I feel that I have a better general understanding of this project and what can be done; programming AI is over my head and I am not that great at web development.

'''4.4) Include an estimated timeline for your work on the project. Don't forget to mention special things like "I booked holidays between A and B" and "I got an exam at ABC and won't be doing much then".'''

April 21 - May 5: Get familiar with Wesnoth code and the Wesnoth community

May 6 - May 22: Study the problem in detail and gather the requirements of the project

May 23 - June 6: Flesh out use cases and start coding a prototype server, decide how network communication will be utilized and how updates will be handled, improve standalone GUI client

June 7 - June 21: Use cases finished. Work on in-game browser and test communication with prototype server. Continue work on server program

June 22 - July 2: Work on both client programs. General design should be completely finished by this point

July 3 - July 5: Take time off for the July 4th weekend. Will spend time with my family

July 6 - August 1: Improve both client programs and server program. Test more with full set of UMC data. Start thinking about what unit tests should be made. Start spending significant time fixing any bugs

August 2 - August 9: Write tests for both the client and server. Clean up code based on tests results

August 10 - August 16: Spend more time cleaning up client and server code and fixing bugs. Write more tests

August 17: Finish cleaning up code. Prepare final submission

'''4.5) Include as much technical detail about your implementation as you can'''

If a server rewrite is required, the code will be written in Python as the current server is already coded in Python and the server has to integrate with other Python code. The server will be responsible for communicating with client-side programs that will request for information on addons. To do this, the server will listen on an open port for requests and send information based on the request. The server will give the download location of the campaign along with the information listed in the translation files. The server should send the information in some structured format (maybe XML or JSON) so the client can read the information and place the information in the appropriate portions of the UI. The server will also be responsible for integrating with Wescamp to grab translations and to run programs to update UMC regarding WML code.

The client-side programs will make requests to the server program to fetch information about the various user-made campaigns and show the information to the user in an organized fashion. The client-side programs should have a way to detect the locale setting of the computer and give that information to the server so the appropriate translation can be given to the client. For each campaign in the campaign list, the UI should display at least the name of the campaign, version, file size, and a description of what the campaign is about. The client should probably cache translation information when received so that the client does not make a request to the server after selecting a different campaign listing and then selecting a previously selected campaign. When a download is requested, some form of progress window should appear with the ability to cancel the download in progress.

'''4.6) What do you expect to gain from this project?'''

I expect to gain some experience in working with a team and get dough from Google.

'''4.7) What would make you stay in the Wesnoth community after the conclusion of SOC?'''

As long as I do a good job on my project then I will stay in the Wesnoth community after the conclusion of SOC.

====Practical considerations====

'''5.1) Are you familiar with any of the following tools or languages?'''

* Subversion (used for all commits)
* C++ (language used for all the normal source code)
* Python (optional, mainly used for tools)
* build environments (eg cmake/autotools/scons)

I am familiar with C++, Python, cmake, and autotools.

'''5.2) Which tools do you normally use for development? Why do you use them?'''

I usually use Python for development. I use Python because it is a lot easier to write something fairly quickly as opposed to using C++.

'''5.3) What programming languages are you fluent in?'''

I am fluent in C++ and Python. I studied C++ in school for 3 years and I studied Python on my own for about 1.5 years. I am also fairly proficient at Java.

'''5.4) What spoken languages are you fluent in?'''

English

'''5.5) At what hours are you awake and when will you be able to be in IRC (please specify in UTC)'''

I am awake between 2 PM till 5 AM UTC. I can be in IRC between 2 AM - 4 AM UTC.

'''5.6) Would you mind talking with your mentor on telephone / internet phone? We would like to have a backup way for communications for the case that somehow emails and IRC do fail.'''

I do not mind getting calls from a mentor.

SummerOfCodeProposal Ryochan7

2009-03-22T20:47:24Z

Ryochan7: /* Practical considerations */

===Personal Information/Introduction===

'''''Name:''''' Travis Nickles

'''''Age:''''' 25

'''''Location:''''' Normal, IL

'''''University Enrolled:''''' Illinois State University

'''''Personal website:''''' http://ryochan7.webfactional.com

'''''Email:''''' ryoohki7 AT yahoo.com

'''''Forum/IRC:''''' Ryochan7

===Questionaire===

====Basics====

'''1.1) Write a small introduction to yourself.'''

My name is Travis Nickles and I am 25 years old. I am majoring in Computer Science at Illinois State University in Normal, IL; I also have a minor in East Asian Studies with an emphasis on Japanese language study.

'''1.2) State your preferred email address.'''

ryoohki7 AT yahoo.com

'''1.3) If you have chosen a nick for IRC and Wesnoth forums, what is it?'''

Ryochan7

'''1.4) Why do you want to participate in summer of code?'''

I want to participate in summer of code because I have wanted the experience of being a part of an open source project for a while. I would be spending most of my summer coding my own projects anyway so it would be better to use my time during the summer to give back to the open source community that I have greatly benefited from.

'''1.5) What are you studying, subject, level and school?'''

Computer Science, end of 3rd year, Illinois State University

'''1.6) If you have contributed any patches to Wesnoth, please list them below. You can also list patches that have been submitted but not committed yet and patches that have not been specifically written for Wesnoth. If you have gained commit access to our SVN (during the evaluation period or earlier) please state so.'''

None

====Experience====

'''2.1) What programs/software have you worked on before?'''

I have mostly worked on my own programs that were written in Python as a way to learn the language. My biggest currently supported program is YouTubed-2x; it is a program that downloads videos from various flash sites and transcodes them via ffmpeg into a GP2X-compatible AVI video file. Other programs that I have worked on in some capacity are PSP Video Converter (submitted some patches) and the PlayStation Portable port of Doom (maintained the main branch for a few months, added wad selector, button configuration menu, added overclocking support)

'''2.2) Have you developed software in a team environment before? (As opposed to hacking on something on your own)'''

No. I have always wanted to experience being a part of a group project.

'''2.3) Have you participated to the Google Summer of Code before? As a mentor or a student? In what project? Were you successful? If not, why?'''

I have not previously participated in Google Summer of Code.

'''2.4) Open Source'''

'''2.4.1) Are you already involved with any open source development projects? If yes, please describe the project and the scope of your involvement.'''

No

'''2.5) Gaming experience - Are you a gamer?'''

Yes

'''2.5.1) What type of gamer are you?'''

I consider myself a casual gamer nowadays because I don't have much time to play games.

'''2.5.2) What type of games?'''

I mostly play FPS's and JRPGs.

'''2.5.3) What type of opponents do you prefer?'''

I prefer to face a human opponent.

'''2.5.4) Are you more interested in story or gameplay?'''

I am generally more interested in story than gameplay. My love for the Xenosaga series is a great example of that.

'''2.5.5) Have you played Wesnoth? If so, tell us roughly for how long and whether you lean towards single player or multiplayer.'''

I used to play the game a lot for over two months about a couple of years ago. I have continued to follow the project and recommend the game to friends but I have not played Wesnoth in a long time.

====Communication skills====

'''3.1) Though most of our developers are not native English speakers, English is the project's working language. Describe your fluency level in written English.'''

I am a native speaker.

'''3.2) Are you good at interacting with other players? Our developer community is friendly, but the player community can be a bit rough.'''

I am not particularly good at interacting with other players.

'''3.3) Do you give constructive advice?'''

Yes

'''3.4) Do you receive advice well?'''

Yes. I am always willing to take advice from other people.

'''3.5) Are you good at sorting useful criticisms from useless ones?'''

Yes.

====Project====

'''4.1) Did you select a project from our list? If that is the case, what project did you select? What do you want to especially concentrate on?'''

I would like to concentrate on developing the addon server idea.

'''4.2) If you have invented your own project, please describe the project and the scope.'''

NA

'''4.3) Why did you choose this project?'''

I chose this project because I feel that I have a better general understanding of this project and what can be done; programming AI is over my head and I am not that great at web development.

'''4.4) Include an estimated timeline for your work on the project. Don't forget to mention special things like "I booked holidays between A and B" and "I got an exam at ABC and won't be doing much then".'''

April 21 - May 5: Get familiar with Wesnoth code and the Wesnoth community

May 6 - May 22: Study the problem in detail and gather the requirements of the project

May 23 - June 6: Flesh out use cases and start coding a prototype server, decide how network communication will be utilized and how updates will be handled, improve standalone GUI client

June 7 - June 21: Use cases finished. Work on in-game browser and test communication with prototype server. Continue work on server program

June 22 - July 2: Work on both client programs. General design should be completely finished by this point

July 3 - July 5: Take time off for the July 4th weekend. Will spend time with my family

July 6 - August 1: Improve both client programs and server program. Test more with full set of UMC data. Start thinking about what unit tests should be made. Start spending significant time fixing any bugs

August 2 - August 9: Write tests for both the client and server. Clean up code based on tests results

August 10 - August 16: Spend more time cleaning up client and server code and fixing bugs. Write more tests

August 17: Finish cleaning up code. Prepare final submission

'''4.5) Include as much technical detail about your implementation as you can'''

If a server rewrite is required, the code will be written in Python as the current server is already coded in Python and the server has to integrate with other Python code. The server will be responsible for communicating with client-side programs that will request for information on addons. To do this, the server will listen on an open port for requests and send information based on the request. The server will give the download location of the campaign along with the information listed in the translation files. The server should send the information in some structured format (maybe XML or JSON) so the client can read the information and place the information in the appropriate portions of the UI. The server will also be responsible for integrating with Wescamp to grab translations and to run programs to update UMC regarding WML code.

The client-side programs will make requests to the server program to fetch information about the various user-made campaigns and show the information to the user in an organized fashion. The client-side programs should have a way to detect the locale setting of the computer and give that information to the server so the appropriate translation can be given to the client. For each campaign in the campaign list, the UI should display at least the name of the campaign, version, file size, and a description of what the campaign is about. The client should probably cache translation information when received so that the client does not make a request to the server after selecting a different campaign listing and then selecting a previously selected campaign. When a download is requested, some form of progress window should appear with the ability to cancel the download in progress.

'''4.6) What do you expect to gain from this project?'''

I expect to gain some experience in working with a team and get dough from Google.

'''4.7) What would make you stay in the Wesnoth community after the conclusion of SOC?'''

As long as I do a good job on my project then I would stay in the Wesnoth community after the conclusion of SOC.

====Practical considerations====

'''5.1) Are you familiar with any of the following tools or languages?'''

* Subversion (used for all commits)
* C++ (language used for all the normal source code)
* Python (optional, mainly used for tools)
* build environments (eg cmake/autotools/scons)

I am familiar with C++, Python, cmake, and autotools.

'''5.2) Which tools do you normally use for development? Why do you use them?'''

I usually use Python for development. I use Python because it is a lot easier to write something fairly quickly as opposed to using C++.

'''5.3) What programming languages are you fluent in?'''

I am fluent in C++ and Python. I studied C++ in school for 3 years and I studied Python on my own for about 1.5 years. I am also fairly proficient at Java.

'''5.4) What spoken languages are you fluent in?'''

English

'''5.5) At what hours are you awake and when will you be able to be in IRC (please specify in UTC)'''

I am awake between 2 PM till 5 AM UTC. I can be in IRC between 2 AM - 4 AM UTC.

'''5.6) Would you mind talking with your mentor on telephone / internet phone? We would like to have a backup way for communications for the case that somehow emails and IRC do fail.'''

I do not mind getting calls from a mentor.

SummerOfCodeProposal Ryochan7

2009-03-22T18:46:49Z

Ryochan7: /* Personal Information/Introduction */ Added forum and irc name

===Personal Information/Introduction===

'''''Name:''''' Travis Nickles

'''''Age:''''' 25

'''''Location:''''' Normal, IL

'''''University Enrolled:''''' Illinois State University

'''''Personal website:''''' http://ryochan7.webfactional.com

'''''Email:''''' ryoohki7 AT yahoo.com

'''''Forum/IRC:''''' Ryochan7

===Questionaire===

====Basics====

'''1.1) Write a small introduction to yourself.'''

My name is Travis Nickles and I am 25 years old. I am majoring in Computer Science at Illinois State University in Normal, IL; I also have a minor in East Asian Studies with an emphasis on Japanese language study.

'''1.2) State your preferred email address.'''

ryoohki7 AT yahoo.com

'''1.3) If you have chosen a nick for IRC and Wesnoth forums, what is it?'''

Ryochan7

'''1.4) Why do you want to participate in summer of code?'''

I want to participate in summer of code because I have wanted the experience of being a part of an open source project for a while. I would be spending most of my summer coding my own projects anyway so it would be better to use my time during the summer to give back to the open source community that I have greatly benefited from.

'''1.5) What are you studying, subject, level and school?'''

Computer Science, end of 3rd year, Illinois State University

'''1.6) If you have contributed any patches to Wesnoth, please list them below. You can also list patches that have been submitted but not committed yet and patches that have not been specifically written for Wesnoth. If you have gained commit access to our SVN (during the evaluation period or earlier) please state so.'''

None

====Experience====

'''2.1) What programs/software have you worked on before?'''

I have mostly worked on my own programs that were written in Python as a way to learn the language. My biggest currently supported program is YouTubed-2x; it is a program that downloads videos from various flash sites and transcodes them via ffmpeg into a GP2X-compatible AVI video file. Other programs that I have worked on in some capacity are PSP Video Converter (submitted some patches) and the PlayStation Portable port of Doom (maintained the main branch for a few months, added wad selector, button configuration menu, added overclocking support)

'''2.2) Have you developed software in a team environment before? (As opposed to hacking on something on your own)'''

No. I have always wanted to experience being a part of a group project.

'''2.3) Have you participated to the Google Summer of Code before? As a mentor or a student? In what project? Were you successful? If not, why?'''

I have not previously participated in Google Summer of Code.

'''2.4) Open Source'''

'''2.4.1) Are you already involved with any open source development projects? If yes, please describe the project and the scope of your involvement.'''

No

'''2.5) Gaming experience - Are you a gamer?'''

Yes

'''2.5.1) What type of gamer are you?'''

I consider myself a casual gamer nowadays because I don't have much time to play games.

'''2.5.2) What type of games?'''

I mostly play FPS's and JRPGs.

'''2.5.3) What type of opponents do you prefer?'''

I prefer to face a human opponent.

'''2.5.4) Are you more interested in story or gameplay?'''

I am generally more interested in story than gameplay. My love for the Xenosaga series is a great example of that.

'''2.5.5) Have you played Wesnoth? If so, tell us roughly for how long and whether you lean towards single player or multiplayer.'''

I used to play the game a lot for over two months about a couple of years ago. I have continued to follow the project and recommend the game to friends but I have not played Wesnoth in a long time.

====Communication skills====

'''3.1) Though most of our developers are not native English speakers, English is the project's working language. Describe your fluency level in written English.'''

I am a native speaker.

'''3.2) Are you good at interacting with other players? Our developer community is friendly, but the player community can be a bit rough.'''

I am not particularly good at interacting with other players.

'''3.3) Do you give constructive advice?'''

Yes

'''3.4) Do you receive advice well?'''

Yes. I am always willing to take advice from other people.

'''3.5) Are you good at sorting useful criticisms from useless ones?'''

Yes.

====Project====

'''4.1) Did you select a project from our list? If that is the case, what project did you select? What do you want to especially concentrate on?'''

I would like to concentrate on developing the addon server idea.

'''4.2) If you have invented your own project, please describe the project and the scope.'''

NA

'''4.3) Why did you choose this project?'''

I chose this project because I feel that I have a better general understanding of this project and what can be done; programming AI is over my head and I am not that great at web development.

'''4.4) Include an estimated timeline for your work on the project. Don't forget to mention special things like "I booked holidays between A and B" and "I got an exam at ABC and won't be doing much then".'''

April 21 - May 5: Get familiar with Wesnoth code and the Wesnoth community

May 6 - May 22: Study the problem in detail and gather the requirements of the project

May 23 - June 6: Flesh out use cases and start coding a prototype server, decide how network communication will be utilized and how updates will be handled, improve standalone GUI client

June 7 - June 21: Use cases finished. Work on in-game browser and test communication with prototype server. Continue work on server program

June 22 - July 2: Work on both client programs. General design should be completely finished by this point

July 3 - July 5: Take time off for the July 4th weekend. Will spend time with my family

July 6 - August 1: Improve both client programs and server program. Test more with full set of UMC data. Start thinking about what unit tests should be made. Start spending significant time fixing any bugs

August 2 - August 9: Write tests for both the client and server. Clean up code based on tests results

August 10 - August 16: Spend more time cleaning up client and server code and fixing bugs. Write more tests

August 17: Finish cleaning up code. Prepare final submission

'''4.5) Include as much technical detail about your implementation as you can'''

If a server rewrite is required, the code will be written in Python as the current server is already coded in Python and the server has to integrate with other Python code. The server will be responsible for communicating with client-side programs that will request for information on addons. To do this, the server will listen on an open port for requests and send information based on the request. The server will give the download location of the campaign along with the information listed in the translation files. The server should send the information in some structured format (maybe XML or JSON) so the client can read the information and place the information in the appropriate portions of the UI. The server will also be responsible for integrating with Wescamp to grab translations and to run programs to update UMC regarding WML code.

The client-side programs will make requests to the server program to fetch information about the various user-made campaigns and show the information to the user in an organized fashion. The client-side programs should have a way to detect the locale setting of the computer and give that information to the server so the appropriate translation can be given to the client. For each campaign in the campaign list, the UI should display at least the name of the campaign, version, file size, and a description of what the campaign is about. The client should probably cache translation information when received so that the client does not make a request to the server after selecting a different campaign listing and then selecting a previously selected campaign. When a download is requested, some form of progress window should appear with the ability to cancel the download in progress.

'''4.6) What do you expect to gain from this project?'''

I expect to gain some experience in working with a team and get dough from Google.

'''4.7) What would make you stay in the Wesnoth community after the conclusion of SOC?'''

As long as I do a good job on my project then I would stay in the Wesnoth community after the conclusion of SOC.

====Practical considerations====

'''5.1) Are you familiar with any of the following tools or languages?'''

* Subversion (used for all commits)
* C++ (language used for all the normal source code)
* Python (optional, mainly used for tools)
* build environments (eg cmake/autotools/scons)

I am familiar with C++, Python, cmake, and autotools.

'''5.2) Which tools do you normally use for development? Why do you use them?'''

I usually use Python for development. I use Python because it is a lot easier to write something fairly quickly as opposed to using C++.

'''5.3) What programming languages are you fluent in?'''

I am fluent in C++ and Python. I studied C++ in school for 3 year and I studied Python on my own for about 1.5 years. I am also fairly proficient at Java.

'''5.4) What spoken languages are you fluent in?'''

English

'''5.5) At what hours are you awake and when will you be able to be in IRC (please specify in UTC)'''

I am awake between 2 PM till 5 AM UTC. I can be in IRC between 2 AM - 4 AM UTC.

'''5.6) Would you mind talking with your mentor on telephone / internet phone? We would like to have a backup way for communications for the case that somehow emails and IRC do fail.'''

I do not mind getting calls from a mentor.

SummerOfCodeProposal Ryochan7

2009-03-22T18:41:29Z

Ryochan7: /* Questionaire */ Finished

===Personal Information/Introduction===

'''''Name:''''' Travis Nickles

'''''Age:''''' 25

'''''Location:''''' Normal, IL

'''''University Enrolled:''''' Illinois State University

'''''Personal website:''''' http://ryochan7.webfactional.com

'''''Email:''''' ryoohki7 AT yahoo.com

===Questionaire===

====Basics====

'''1.1) Write a small introduction to yourself.'''

My name is Travis Nickles and I am 25 years old. I am majoring in Computer Science at Illinois State University in Normal, IL; I also have a minor in East Asian Studies with an emphasis on Japanese language study.

'''1.2) State your preferred email address.'''

ryoohki7 AT yahoo.com

'''1.3) If you have chosen a nick for IRC and Wesnoth forums, what is it?'''

Ryochan7

'''1.4) Why do you want to participate in summer of code?'''

I want to participate in summer of code because I have wanted the experience of being a part of an open source project for a while. I would be spending most of my summer coding my own projects anyway so it would be better to use my time during the summer to give back to the open source community that I have greatly benefited from.

'''1.5) What are you studying, subject, level and school?'''

Computer Science, end of 3rd year, Illinois State University

'''1.6) If you have contributed any patches to Wesnoth, please list them below. You can also list patches that have been submitted but not committed yet and patches that have not been specifically written for Wesnoth. If you have gained commit access to our SVN (during the evaluation period or earlier) please state so.'''

None

====Experience====

'''2.1) What programs/software have you worked on before?'''

I have mostly worked on my own programs that were written in Python as a way to learn the language. My biggest currently supported program is YouTubed-2x; it is a program that downloads videos from various flash sites and transcodes them via ffmpeg into a GP2X-compatible AVI video file. Other programs that I have worked on in some capacity are PSP Video Converter (submitted some patches) and the PlayStation Portable port of Doom (maintained the main branch for a few months, added wad selector, button configuration menu, added overclocking support)

'''2.2) Have you developed software in a team environment before? (As opposed to hacking on something on your own)'''

No. I have always wanted to experience being a part of a group project.

'''2.3) Have you participated to the Google Summer of Code before? As a mentor or a student? In what project? Were you successful? If not, why?'''

I have not previously participated in Google Summer of Code.

'''2.4) Open Source'''

'''2.4.1) Are you already involved with any open source development projects? If yes, please describe the project and the scope of your involvement.'''

No

'''2.5) Gaming experience - Are you a gamer?'''

Yes

'''2.5.1) What type of gamer are you?'''

I consider myself a casual gamer nowadays because I don't have much time to play games.

'''2.5.2) What type of games?'''

I mostly play FPS's and JRPGs.

'''2.5.3) What type of opponents do you prefer?'''

I prefer to face a human opponent.

'''2.5.4) Are you more interested in story or gameplay?'''

I am generally more interested in story than gameplay. My love for the Xenosaga series is a great example of that.

'''2.5.5) Have you played Wesnoth? If so, tell us roughly for how long and whether you lean towards single player or multiplayer.'''

I used to play the game a lot for over two months about a couple of years ago. I have continued to follow the project and recommend the game to friends but I have not played Wesnoth in a long time.

====Communication skills====

'''3.1) Though most of our developers are not native English speakers, English is the project's working language. Describe your fluency level in written English.'''

I am a native speaker.

'''3.2) Are you good at interacting with other players? Our developer community is friendly, but the player community can be a bit rough.'''

I am not particularly good at interacting with other players.

'''3.3) Do you give constructive advice?'''

Yes

'''3.4) Do you receive advice well?'''

Yes. I am always willing to take advice from other people.

'''3.5) Are you good at sorting useful criticisms from useless ones?'''

Yes.

====Project====

'''4.1) Did you select a project from our list? If that is the case, what project did you select? What do you want to especially concentrate on?'''

I would like to concentrate on developing the addon server idea.

'''4.2) If you have invented your own project, please describe the project and the scope.'''

NA

'''4.3) Why did you choose this project?'''

I chose this project because I feel that I have a better general understanding of this project and what can be done; programming AI is over my head and I am not that great at web development.

'''4.4) Include an estimated timeline for your work on the project. Don't forget to mention special things like "I booked holidays between A and B" and "I got an exam at ABC and won't be doing much then".'''

April 21 - May 5: Get familiar with Wesnoth code and the Wesnoth community

May 6 - May 22: Study the problem in detail and gather the requirements of the project

May 23 - June 6: Flesh out use cases and start coding a prototype server, decide how network communication will be utilized and how updates will be handled, improve standalone GUI client

June 7 - June 21: Use cases finished. Work on in-game browser and test communication with prototype server. Continue work on server program

June 22 - July 2: Work on both client programs. General design should be completely finished by this point

July 3 - July 5: Take time off for the July 4th weekend. Will spend time with my family

July 6 - August 1: Improve both client programs and server program. Test more with full set of UMC data. Start thinking about what unit tests should be made. Start spending significant time fixing any bugs

August 2 - August 9: Write tests for both the client and server. Clean up code based on tests results

August 10 - August 16: Spend more time cleaning up client and server code and fixing bugs. Write more tests

August 17: Finish cleaning up code. Prepare final submission

'''4.5) Include as much technical detail about your implementation as you can'''

If a server rewrite is required, the code will be written in Python as the current server is already coded in Python and the server has to integrate with other Python code. The server will be responsible for communicating with client-side programs that will request for information on addons. To do this, the server will listen on an open port for requests and send information based on the request. The server will give the download location of the campaign along with the information listed in the translation files. The server should send the information in some structured format (maybe XML or JSON) so the client can read the information and place the information in the appropriate portions of the UI. The server will also be responsible for integrating with Wescamp to grab translations and to run programs to update UMC regarding WML code.

The client-side programs will make requests to the server program to fetch information about the various user-made campaigns and show the information to the user in an organized fashion. The client-side programs should have a way to detect the locale setting of the computer and give that information to the server so the appropriate translation can be given to the client. For each campaign in the campaign list, the UI should display at least the name of the campaign, version, file size, and a description of what the campaign is about. The client should probably cache translation information when received so that the client does not make a request to the server after selecting a different campaign listing and then selecting a previously selected campaign. When a download is requested, some form of progress window should appear with the ability to cancel the download in progress.

'''4.6) What do you expect to gain from this project?'''

I expect to gain some experience in working with a team and get dough from Google.

'''4.7) What would make you stay in the Wesnoth community after the conclusion of SOC?'''

As long as I do a good job on my project then I would stay in the Wesnoth community after the conclusion of SOC.

====Practical considerations====

'''5.1) Are you familiar with any of the following tools or languages?'''

* Subversion (used for all commits)
* C++ (language used for all the normal source code)
* Python (optional, mainly used for tools)
* build environments (eg cmake/autotools/scons)

I am familiar with C++, Python, cmake, and autotools.

'''5.2) Which tools do you normally use for development? Why do you use them?'''

I usually use Python for development. I use Python because it is a lot easier to write something fairly quickly as opposed to using C++.

'''5.3) What programming languages are you fluent in?'''

I am fluent in C++ and Python. I studied C++ in school for 3 year and I studied Python on my own for about 1.5 years. I am also fairly proficient at Java.

'''5.4) What spoken languages are you fluent in?'''

English

'''5.5) At what hours are you awake and when will you be able to be in IRC (please specify in UTC)'''

I am awake between 2 PM till 5 AM UTC. I can be in IRC between 2 AM - 4 AM UTC.

'''5.6) Would you mind talking with your mentor on telephone / internet phone? We would like to have a backup way for communications for the case that somehow emails and IRC do fail.'''

I do not mind getting calls from a mentor.

SummerOfCodeProposal Ryochan7

2009-03-22T18:40:25Z

Ryochan7: /* Project */ Technical detail fail

===Personal Information/Introduction===

'''''Name:''''' Travis Nickles

'''''Age:''''' 25

'''''Location:''''' Normal, IL

'''''University Enrolled:''''' Illinois State University

'''''Personal website:''''' http://ryochan7.webfactional.com

'''''Email:''''' ryoohki7 AT yahoo.com

===Questionaire===

The information here is not complete.

====Basics====

'''1.1) Write a small introduction to yourself.'''

My name is Travis Nickles and I am 25 years old. I am majoring in Computer Science at Illinois State University in Normal, IL; I also have a minor in East Asian Studies with an emphasis on Japanese language study.

'''1.2) State your preferred email address.'''

ryoohki7 AT yahoo.com

'''1.3) If you have chosen a nick for IRC and Wesnoth forums, what is it?'''

Ryochan7

'''1.4) Why do you want to participate in summer of code?'''

I want to participate in summer of code because I have wanted the experience of being a part of an open source project for a while. I would be spending most of my summer coding my own projects anyway so it would be better to use my time during the summer to give back to the open source community that I have greatly benefited from.

'''1.5) What are you studying, subject, level and school?'''

Computer Science, end of 3rd year, Illinois State University

'''1.6) If you have contributed any patches to Wesnoth, please list them below. You can also list patches that have been submitted but not committed yet and patches that have not been specifically written for Wesnoth. If you have gained commit access to our SVN (during the evaluation period or earlier) please state so.'''

None

====Experience====

'''2.1) What programs/software have you worked on before?'''

I have mostly worked on my own programs that were written in Python as a way to learn the language. My biggest currently supported program is YouTubed-2x; it is a program that downloads videos from various flash sites and transcodes them via ffmpeg into a GP2X-compatible AVI video file. Other programs that I have worked on in some capacity are PSP Video Converter (submitted some patches) and the PlayStation Portable port of Doom (maintained the main branch for a few months, added wad selector, button configuration menu, added overclocking support)

'''2.2) Have you developed software in a team environment before? (As opposed to hacking on something on your own)'''

No. I have always wanted to experience being a part of a group project.

'''2.3) Have you participated to the Google Summer of Code before? As a mentor or a student? In what project? Were you successful? If not, why?'''

I have not previously participated in Google Summer of Code.

'''2.4) Open Source'''

'''2.4.1) Are you already involved with any open source development projects? If yes, please describe the project and the scope of your involvement.'''

No

'''2.5) Gaming experience - Are you a gamer?'''

Yes

'''2.5.1) What type of gamer are you?'''

I consider myself a casual gamer nowadays because I don't have much time to play games.

'''2.5.2) What type of games?'''

I mostly play FPS's and JRPGs.

'''2.5.3) What type of opponents do you prefer?'''

I prefer to face a human opponent.

'''2.5.4) Are you more interested in story or gameplay?'''

I am generally more interested in story than gameplay. My love for the Xenosaga series is a great example of that.

'''2.5.5) Have you played Wesnoth? If so, tell us roughly for how long and whether you lean towards single player or multiplayer.'''

I used to play the game a lot for over two months about a couple of years ago. I have continued to follow the project and recommend the game to friends but I have not played Wesnoth in a long time.

====Communication skills====

'''3.1) Though most of our developers are not native English speakers, English is the project's working language. Describe your fluency level in written English.'''

I am a native speaker.

'''3.2) Are you good at interacting with other players? Our developer community is friendly, but the player community can be a bit rough.'''

I am not particularly good at interacting with other players.

'''3.3) Do you give constructive advice?'''

Yes

'''3.4) Do you receive advice well?'''

Yes. I am always willing to take advice from other people.

'''3.5) Are you good at sorting useful criticisms from useless ones?'''

Yes.

====Project====

'''4.1) Did you select a project from our list? If that is the case, what project did you select? What do you want to especially concentrate on?'''

I would like to concentrate on developing the addon server idea.

'''4.2) If you have invented your own project, please describe the project and the scope.'''

NA

'''4.3) Why did you choose this project?'''

I chose this project because I feel that I have a better general understanding of this project and what can be done; programming AI is over my head and I am not that great at web development.

'''4.4) Include an estimated timeline for your work on the project. Don't forget to mention special things like "I booked holidays between A and B" and "I got an exam at ABC and won't be doing much then".'''

April 21 - May 5: Get familiar with Wesnoth code and the Wesnoth community

May 6 - May 22: Study the problem in detail and gather the requirements of the project

May 23 - June 6: Flesh out use cases and start coding a prototype server, decide how network communication will be utilized and how updates will be handled, improve standalone GUI client

June 7 - June 21: Use cases finished. Work on in-game browser and test communication with prototype server. Continue work on server program

June 22 - July 2: Work on both client programs. General design should be completely finished by this point

July 3 - July 5: Take time off for the July 4th weekend. Will spend time with my family

July 6 - August 1: Improve both client programs and server program. Test more with full set of UMC data. Start thinking about what unit tests should be made. Start spending significant time fixing any bugs

August 2 - August 9: Write tests for both the client and server. Clean up code based on tests results

August 10 - August 16: Spend more time cleaning up client and server code and fixing bugs. Write more tests

August 17: Finish cleaning up code. Prepare final submission

'''4.5) Include as much technical detail about your implementation as you can'''

If a server rewrite is required, the code will be written in Python as the current server is already coded in Python and the server has to integrate with other Python code. The server will be responsible for communicating with client-side programs that will request for information on addons. To do this, the server will listen on an open port for requests and send information based on the request. The server will give the download location of the campaign along with the information listed in the translation files. The server should send the information in some structured format (maybe XML or JSON) so the client can read the information and place the information in the appropriate portions of the UI. The server will also be responsible for integrating with Wescamp to grab translations and to run programs to update UMC regarding WML code.

The client-side programs will make requests to the server program to fetch information about the various user-made campaigns and show the information to the user in an organized fashion. The client-side programs should have a way to detect the locale setting of the computer and give that information to the server so the appropriate translation can be given to the client. For each campaign in the campaign list, the UI should display at least the name of the campaign, version, file size, and a description of what the campaign is about. The client should probably cache translation information when received so that the client does not make a request to the server after selecting a different campaign listing and then selecting a previously selected campaign. When a download is requested, some form of progress window should appear with the ability to cancel the download in progress.

'''4.6) What do you expect to gain from this project?'''

I expect to gain some experience in working with a team and get dough from Google.

'''4.7) What would make you stay in the Wesnoth community after the conclusion of SOC?'''

As long as I do a good job on my project then I would stay in the Wesnoth community after the conclusion of SOC.

====Practical considerations====

'''5.1) Are you familiar with any of the following tools or languages?'''

* Subversion (used for all commits)
* C++ (language used for all the normal source code)
* Python (optional, mainly used for tools)
* build environments (eg cmake/autotools/scons)

I am familiar with C++, Python, cmake, and autotools.

'''5.2) Which tools do you normally use for development? Why do you use them?'''

I usually use Python for development. I use Python because it is a lot easier to write something fairly quickly as opposed to using C++.

'''5.3) What programming languages are you fluent in?'''

I am fluent in C++ and Python. I studied C++ in school for 3 year and I studied Python on my own for about 1.5 years. I am also fairly proficient at Java.

'''5.4) What spoken languages are you fluent in?'''

English

'''5.5) At what hours are you awake and when will you be able to be in IRC (please specify in UTC)'''

I am awake between 2 PM till 5 AM UTC. I can be in IRC between 2 AM - 4 AM UTC.

'''5.6) Would you mind talking with your mentor on telephone / internet phone? We would like to have a backup way for communications for the case that somehow emails and IRC do fail.'''

I do not mind getting calls from a mentor.

SummerOfCodeProposal Ryochan7

2009-03-22T17:49:47Z

Ryochan7: /* Project */ Wrote estimated timeline

===Personal Information/Introduction===

'''''Name:''''' Travis Nickles

'''''Age:''''' 25

'''''Location:''''' Normal, IL

'''''University Enrolled:''''' Illinois State University

'''''Personal website:''''' http://ryochan7.webfactional.com

'''''Email:''''' ryoohki7 AT yahoo.com

===Questionaire===

The information here is not complete.

====Basics====

'''1.1) Write a small introduction to yourself.'''

My name is Travis Nickles and I am 25 years old. I am majoring in Computer Science at Illinois State University in Normal, IL; I also have a minor in East Asian Studies with an emphasis on Japanese language study.

'''1.2) State your preferred email address.'''

ryoohki7 AT yahoo.com

'''1.3) If you have chosen a nick for IRC and Wesnoth forums, what is it?'''

Ryochan7

'''1.4) Why do you want to participate in summer of code?'''

I want to participate in summer of code because I have wanted the experience of being a part of an open source project for a while. I would be spending most of my summer coding my own projects anyway so it would be better to use my time during the summer to give back to the open source community that I have greatly benefited from.

'''1.5) What are you studying, subject, level and school?'''

Computer Science, end of 3rd year, Illinois State University

'''1.6) If you have contributed any patches to Wesnoth, please list them below. You can also list patches that have been submitted but not committed yet and patches that have not been specifically written for Wesnoth. If you have gained commit access to our SVN (during the evaluation period or earlier) please state so.'''

None

====Experience====

'''2.1) What programs/software have you worked on before?'''

I have mostly worked on my own programs that were written in Python as a way to learn the language. My biggest currently supported program is YouTubed-2x; it is a program that downloads videos from various flash sites and transcodes them via ffmpeg into a GP2X-compatible AVI video file. Other programs that I have worked on in some capacity are PSP Video Converter (submitted some patches) and the PlayStation Portable port of Doom (maintained the main branch for a few months, added wad selector, button configuration menu, added overclocking support)

'''2.2) Have you developed software in a team environment before? (As opposed to hacking on something on your own)'''

No. I have always wanted to experience being a part of a group project.

'''2.3) Have you participated to the Google Summer of Code before? As a mentor or a student? In what project? Were you successful? If not, why?'''

I have not previously participated in Google Summer of Code.

'''2.4) Open Source'''

'''2.4.1) Are you already involved with any open source development projects? If yes, please describe the project and the scope of your involvement.'''

No

'''2.5) Gaming experience - Are you a gamer?'''

Yes

'''2.5.1) What type of gamer are you?'''

I consider myself a casual gamer nowadays because I don't have much time to play games.

'''2.5.2) What type of games?'''

I mostly play FPS's and JRPGs.

'''2.5.3) What type of opponents do you prefer?'''

I prefer to face a human opponent.

'''2.5.4) Are you more interested in story or gameplay?'''

I am generally more interested in story than gameplay. My love for the Xenosaga series is a great example of that.

'''2.5.5) Have you played Wesnoth? If so, tell us roughly for how long and whether you lean towards single player or multiplayer.'''

I used to play the game a lot for over two months about a couple of years ago. I have continued to follow the project and recommend the game to friends but I have not played Wesnoth in a long time.

====Communication skills====

'''3.1) Though most of our developers are not native English speakers, English is the project's working language. Describe your fluency level in written English.'''

I am a native speaker.

'''3.2) Are you good at interacting with other players? Our developer community is friendly, but the player community can be a bit rough.'''

I am not particularly good at interacting with other players.

'''3.3) Do you give constructive advice?'''

Yes

'''3.4) Do you receive advice well?'''

Yes. I am always willing to take advice from other people.

'''3.5) Are you good at sorting useful criticisms from useless ones?'''

Yes.

====Project====

'''4.1) Did you select a project from our list? If that is the case, what project did you select? What do you want to especially concentrate on?'''

I would like to concentrate on developing the addon server idea.

'''4.2) If you have invented your own project, please describe the project and the scope.'''

NA

'''4.3) Why did you choose this project?'''

I chose this project because I feel that I have a better general understanding of this project and what can be done; programming AI is over my head and I am not that great at web development.

'''4.4) Include an estimated timeline for your work on the project. Don't forget to mention special things like "I booked holidays between A and B" and "I got an exam at ABC and won't be doing much then".'''

April 21 - May 5: Get familiar with Wesnoth code and the Wesnoth community

May 6 - May 22: Study the problem in detail and gather the requirements of the project

May 23 - June 6: Flesh out use cases and start coding a prototype server, decide how network communication will be utilized and how updates will be handled, improve standalone GUI client

June 7 - June 21: Use cases finished. Work on in-game browser and test communication with prototype server. Continue work on server program

June 22 - July 2: Work on both client programs. General design should be completely finished by this point

July 3 - July 5: Take time off for the July 4th weekend. Will spend time with my family

July 6 - August 1: Improve both client programs and server program. Test more with full set of UMC data. Start thinking about what unit tests should be made. Start spending significant time fixing any bugs

August 2 - August 9: Write tests for both the client and server. Clean up code based on tests results

August 10 - August 16: Spend more time cleaning up client and server code and fixing bugs. Write more tests

August 17: Finish cleaning up code. Prepare final submission

'''4.5) Include as much technical detail about your implementation as you can'''

'''4.6) What do you expect to gain from this project?'''

I expect to gain some experience in working with a team and get dough from Google.

'''4.7) What would make you stay in the Wesnoth community after the conclusion of SOC?'''

As long as I do a good job on my project then I would stay in the Wesnoth community after the conclusion of SOC.

====Practical considerations====

'''5.1) Are you familiar with any of the following tools or languages?'''

* Subversion (used for all commits)
* C++ (language used for all the normal source code)
* Python (optional, mainly used for tools)
* build environments (eg cmake/autotools/scons)

I am familiar with C++, Python, cmake, and autotools.

'''5.2) Which tools do you normally use for development? Why do you use them?'''

I usually use Python for development. I use Python because it is a lot easier to write something fairly quickly as opposed to using C++.

'''5.3) What programming languages are you fluent in?'''

I am fluent in C++ and Python. I studied C++ in school for 3 year and I studied Python on my own for about 1.5 years. I am also fairly proficient at Java.

'''5.4) What spoken languages are you fluent in?'''

English

'''5.5) At what hours are you awake and when will you be able to be in IRC (please specify in UTC)'''

I am awake between 2 PM till 5 AM UTC. I can be in IRC between 2 AM - 4 AM UTC.

'''5.6) Would you mind talking with your mentor on telephone / internet phone? We would like to have a backup way for communications for the case that somehow emails and IRC do fail.'''

I do not mind getting calls from a mentor.

SummerOfCodeIdeas

2009-03-22T09:34:16Z

Ryochan7: /* GSoC Student pages */

This is a compilation of ideas from ML. Needs to be refined (more detailed description, deliverables, workload estimation?):

== I want to be one of your Google Summer of Code students, what should I do... ==

Here is a quick list of things to do to get you started
* Create an account on gna.org
* Create an account on the wesnoth forum, and tell an admin on the IRC channel to mark is as a GSoC Student account (Admins are boucman, Ivanovic, mordante, Shadow_Master, Sirp and Turuk)
* Join the irc channel (#wesnoth-dev on irc.freenode.net) and introduce yourself. We will not give formal interviews, but we will clearly favor people we have learned to know during the selection process (basically communication via IRC is mandatory for our project! it is the main way of "every day communication" for Wesnoth. For the same reason, it's also a good idea to regularly read the [http://wesnoth.debian.net/?C=M;O=A IRC logs].).

* Start a wiki page about your idea, add a link on the bottom of this page and add this information on it:
** List your account names (gna, forum, irc nick) so that we can recognize you
** Fill the questionnaire on this page: [[SoC_Information_for_Google#Does_your_organization_have_an_application_template_you_would_like_to_see_students_use.3F_If_so.2C_please_provide_it_now.| List of questions to answer]]
** Detail your idea as much as possible, look at other students pages, and please give milestones and studies you've done
** Add a link to the page at the bottom of this page

* Though not mandatory, it is highly advisable to go to the [[EasyCoding]] and [[NotSoEasyCoding]] pages and implement one of these ideas (or any idea of similar scope) so we have an idea how you work. Be sure to use your gna account when submitting these patches so we know who it is coming from. You can also implement some features from our feature request database at gna. When you implement something, also list it on your own page with a reference to the patch.

* For working on Wesnoth you have to be able to compile trunk. To do so you should have a look at the [[WesnothSVN|page about svn]] and afterwards [[CompilingWesnoth|compile Wesnoth svn]].

* Once you have everything done here and think your idea is okay, go to [http://groups.google.com/group/google-summer-of-code-announce/web/guide-to-the-gsoc-web-app-for-student-applicants page at google] to submit your application. You have to submit it before '''Date to be supplied later''' or you have no chance to get in!

== List of Ideas for the Project (Suggestions from the wesnoth developers) ==

Here is only a short description of possible Ideas we have, each has a page of its own with a more detailed version on it.

=== Optimize implementation of WML for memory usage ===

Based on this idea: [http://dave.wesnoth.org/?p=9] optimize WML to minimize its memory usage. High memory usage has been a problem for Wesnoth, and this project will aim to reduce it.

=== Implement campaign statistics reports on stats.wesnoth.org ===

Wesnoth has an infrastructure which records details of campaigns that players play into a centralized MySQL database. However, we only have rudimentary reports based on this MySQL database available at this time, at [http://stats.wesnoth.org].

This project would involve writing a stats reporting web site which would take the data from the MySQL database and produce reports in chart and table form. Campaign designers would be able to use these reports to gather feedback on their campaigns and get ideas for improvements.

A student could largely make their choice of infrastructure for creating the Website -- whether they prefer Python, Perl, Ruby, PHP, etc. This is a great opportunity for someone who doesn't want to dive into hardcore C++ to make a valuable contribution to Wesnoth.

[[SoC Ideas Stats Server]] - Full Version of the idea, with detailed information

=== Extending the Multiplayer server ===

Our multiplayer community is generally strong and healthy, but we believe its growth is limited by some problems in the interface of the multiplayer lobby.

[[SoC Ideas Multiplayer server]] - Full version of the idea, with detailed information

=== Addon server ===
Wesnoth has an addon server which offers users to upload user
made content (UMC). This allows all other users of Wesnoth
to easily download and install this content. The server was
originally written for user-made campaigns but contains a lot
more types of addons nowadays. Both the server side and the
client side need to be improved.

[[SoC Ideas Addon Server]] - Full version of the idea, with detailed information

=== WML validation schemes ===
Wesnoth uses WML as basic data structure. Over the years
this language has evolved and got more complex. At the
moment the WML is validated at runtime and in case of a
problem the engine stops. With schemes these problems can
be validated when loading the WML, making it easier to find
problems before running into them.

[[SoC Ideas Schemes]] - Full version of the idea, with detailed information

=== Write a primitive library for Formula AI ===

Wesnoth has always had a simple C++ based AI. David (our lead developer) has been working on a simple language to write AI in Wesnoth: [[FormulaAI]]

The Wesnoth AI is used as an opponent in most campaigns, and as such is an important piece of code for the Wesnoth project. Unfortunately, because the skills required to understand and modify it are rather arcane, it is also one of the most neglected parts of the Wesnoth code. This is a place where a lot of research and useful work could be done. But keep in mind that [[WhyWritingAWesnothAIIsHard|writing an AI for Wesnoth is difficult]].

Writing a whole AI is so complicated that we believe it can't be done in a single Summer of code. All proposals should keep that in mind and try to identify an interesting subset that would be workable in the limited time of a summer of code

[[SoC Ideas FormulaAI]] - Full version of the idea, with detailed information

=== Savegame reorganization ===
The savegame formats of Wesnoth for single player campaigns
and multiplayer differ from each other. And they are processed
differently as well. Now there is an additional request coming
up: Multiplayer campaigns. The task will be to unify the savegames
for all types of scenarios in order to provide a maintainable code
again.

[[SoC Ideas Savegame]] - Full version of the idea, with detailed information

=== Other possible ideas to be fleshed out ===
A MapGenerator rewrite - better scalable for outdoor maps, plus the possibility to define areas (similar to the caverns in the cave generator) etc.

=== Make your own ideas ===
If you have your own idea the best thing is to join IRC wesnoth-dev at irc.freenode.net and discuss the idea with the developers there. If the developers think your idea is interesting and like the feature you can start to turn it into a full proposal. Once done discuss it again on IRC so the developers can accept your idea.

== Information about our Project ==
The information we provided google with about our project can be looked up at the site [[SoC Information for Google]].

Also see the [[DeveloperResources]] link (from the [[Project]] page).

== People to bug on IRC ==
We have prepared a list of people with their "area of competence". This is to give you an idea on which areas those people can be of help for you. Of course you should always just ask in the IRC chan, but those are the most likely ones to answer questions in the respective area. And here is the list:

[[SoC People to bug on IRC]]

== GSoC Student pages ==

Please add a link to your wiki page below

[[SummerOfCodeProposal_Velory| Velory - SoC Proposal]]

[[SummerOfCodeProposal_AI_Improvement_Crab| Crab - SoC Proposal - AI Improvement]]

[[SummerOfCodeProposal_Sparksteel | Sparksteel - Improving the AI engine design]]

[[SummerOfCodeProposal_Euschn | Euschn - Savegame reorganization]]

[[SummerOfCodeProposal_rubend | rubend - Extending the Multiplayer server]]

[[SummerOfCodeProposal_Ryochan7| Ryochan7 - Addon server]]

[[Category:Summer of Code|*]]

SummerOfCodeProposal Ryochan7

2009-03-22T09:32:00Z

Ryochan7: Starting proposal page