SummerOfCodeProposal rubend

Accounts

   *  List your account names (gna, forum, irc nick) so that we can recognize you

rubend, rubend, lmo

Questions

1) Basics

1.1) Write a small introduction to yourself.

So I'm an 19 year old student in my 2nd year of computer science with a minor in electrical engineering . I am a big fan of video games and played them on a daily basis in high school. Now at university I'm more interested in linux and programming but still enjoy a fun game from time to time.

1.2) State your preferred email address.

(not so comfortable posting this on the wiki see irc/ forum account/ gna account)

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

rubend on the forums

lmo on irc

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

I really want to do something interesting in the holidays. Normally I just tinker with my linux systems but contributing to the oss community is more like a dream occupation for the vacation.

I have been looking for an oss project to join for quite some time now and what better way to get to know a project than by getting a mentor that is understanding and there to help.

So my main objective is to find a project to keep contributing to and in the meantime getting some experience programming with a community.

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

I'm studying civil engineering: computer science electrical engineering at the Katholic University Leuven in Belgium (Europe).

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.

/

2) Experience

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

School team projects: an android application combining gps capabilities, a restaurant management system (bills/tables/...), a small strategy game.

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

Last year one semester a project in a team of 2, the first semester this year in a team of 6 and this semester in a team of 2.

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?

No

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.

I made an android application as I mentioned earlier but it wasn't released to the public (altought it was finished and working) because it was a school project.

2.5) Gaming experience - Are you a gamer?

Definetely, I'm not going to list my whole games collection but I'm quite a games. I've played everything from the sims to ut2004, gta, rtcw (gotta love it :-) ), command and conquer, rome total war, wesnoth, warsow, ... (30 games to list)

2.5.1) What type of gamer are you?

I used to be a frantic gamer. (on a daily basis in high school)

2.5.2) What type of games?

Mostly first person shooters and real time strategy games. Anything that requires some skill and has a lot of action in it.

2.5.3) What type of opponents do you prefer?

Ai and other people, depends on the game really.

2.5.4) Are you more interested in story or gameplay?

Both can make a game in my opinion, but if I really have to chose I will take gameplay. A bad story isn't that horrific if the gameplay is quite good. If the gameplay is bad however and the story is great than you just finish the story and never look back. (that is if the story is good enough to keep the game standing.)

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

Some 20 hours or so. Mostly single player because I wasn't really that good at it and was quite afraid of going online. (That's why I'm so interested in improving the multiplayer lobby because that really makes or breaks the multiplayer experience.)

We do not plan to favor Wesnoth players as such, but some particular projects require a good feeling for the game which is hard to get without having played intensively.

3) 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 can read and understand everything I read on the internet and in all the course books I have. (most of them are in english) I see a lot of people whose primary language is English so I speak and understand English quite well. My writing skills are ok I presume.

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've had my share of annoying team members and opponents in games and never had a problem with it. If someone is really disturbing the experience for the rest I might point it out and eventually kick vote. It's quite difficult to judge for yourself I think.

3.3) Do you give constructive advice?

Only when I have something useful to advise people on. I won't give directions to people just for the sake of it. (most people can't stand that)

3.4) Do you receive advice well?

When someone smart / knowing tells me something important I will quickly pick it up and try to follow it as good as I can.

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

The rules of democracy rule here I think. When a lot of people share the same opinion it probably is something important. If there is just one lonesome guy shooting down every idea he sees, I find it useless. One of the first things to do is ask other people if they share the same thought.

4) 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?

Extending the multiplayer lobby: I'm really interested in (re)designing the multiplayer lobby and making it something that everyone can enjoy. This is a really critical part of the multiplayer experience as I have mentioned before. Having seen a lot of them I know what annoyed me about some and what thrilled me about others.

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

/ the suggested idea was so great I didn't even worry about coming up with something else.

4.3) Why did you choose this project?

Simple: it's a well-known, entertaining and challenging piece of software with a big community. I knew it before and really want to make it even better. Everything from the concept to the speed and the people is great.

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".

Well I'm an European student so I have exams in June:That's a really big problem.

Basically I won't be able to do a thing for gsoc during this month. (and probably a couple of weeks before that) The exam period officially ends the fourth of july. (meaning that for every student of the university everyone is finished by then) Chances are really big that I will be finished around 30th June.

The moment I come back from my last exam I will be available full time till the 7th of August. From around the 7th til the 21th I will be available part time but this period being the finishing time of the project (as told by the google gsoc calendar) this doesn't seem like a problem.

So schedule:

...-18th may available for preparations and research (for example collecting examples from multiplayer lobbies from other games)

18th may-30th June exams -> no time

1th july -7th something august full time availability for the project

7th august - 21th part time availability

As far as the project my planning is the following:

By the mid term evaluation I would like to have an (almost) finished design for the lobby. Having discussed with people from the community (players and devs). Starting from then I would like to do the changes and get some things done in the programming portion of the project.

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

As far as technical details I think this project is mainly about the concept, the idea behind the lobby. I foresee that the implementation won't be the major hurdle.

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

An interesting experience getting involved in a community that I am not yet involved in and experiencing open source development from the front row seat.

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

Friendly people guiding me in the development experience.

5) Practical considerations

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

• Sub­­version (used for all commits)

Have been using it for 2 semesters mostly through subclipse but I understand the concepts and 'rules' so I expect everything to go smoothly.

• C++ (language used for all the normal source code)

My main knowledge is with java but I'm reading some books for transferring my knowledge to c++.(I'm also planning to get some more experience offcourse)

• Python (optional, mainly used for tools)

Really basic knowledge

• build environments (eg cmake/autotools/scons)

Not really.

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

Eclipse mostly because of university courses. Vim otherwise in combination with gcc.

5.3) What programming languages are you fluent in?

Java

5.4) What spoken languages are you fluent in?

English, Dutch, French

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

from 8 utc till 21 utc. (Can differ by a couple of hours) During my "full time availability" period I will probably be on irc during the day.(all day)

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.

Not a problem, I would prefer internet phone because of the costs and privacy.

In general please try to be as verbose as possible in your answers and feel free to elaborate.

End note

I know I'm not available during a long period of time but I'm really motivated and would love to make a difference. Might I not be chosen for this project nor another I might still want to participate in your community in July (by preference with a "mentor" or "guide") but this I cannot guarantee.