Hello to Fellow GSOC Applicants & Processing Community

doovd

Hi All,

As many others here, I've submitted a proposal for GSOC this year and thought I'd just introduce myself to the community as well as introduce my proposal. My name is David, I'm a second year undergraduate student at the University of Bath, United Kingdom and I study Computer Science. I have large amounts of programming experience, and have explored a wide range of paradigms and concepts. Having developed for a variety of organisations and clients, I am aware of, and use, good development practices that ensure that the software I develop is robust, reliable and maintainable.

You can view my portfolio at: http://www.drawbycode.com which includes more information about myself, examples of the work I've done (both software & web development), as well as details about each project. I have experience with the following languages: Java, C#, Python, Prolog, Haskell, C, PHP and Javascript.

My proposal: https://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/proposal/public/google/gsoc2015/doovd/5629499534213120

In a nutshell, I would like to propose the creation of a new tool that will allow users to create user-interface components. It will allow a great range of flexibility in terms of design and interactive behaviour of the components, and provide a user-friendly interface itself that follows the principles of usability and maximizes productivity. The following is a mockup of the envisaged tool:

A task analysis of the tool can be split into 3 main stages:

• Selection: The user selects the type of component they want to create, e.g. a button or a checkbox or a radiobutton etc.
• Configuration: The user configures the aesthetics of the component, and any animation properties. The mockup shows this stage
• Completion: The user finalizes the creation and the tool generates the required code (including appropriate event handlers).

The code will then be inserted into the PDE and the user can then tweak it to their liking.

Colour Selector Along with the tool I will also create a more feature-rich colour selector that returns colours in a variety of formats, and willl have the ability to remember colours. It will definitely incorporate all existing features.

Extensions The tool could be extended to have extra features, such as the following:

• Saving component configurations so users can re-use a previously created component.
• Specification of component properties using other methods, e.g. CSS.
• Animations for components such as gradient transitions.

I'd be glad to answer any questions or perhaps this may spark a discussion of any other features that could be included as part of the submission, in the event that my proposal is successful. I am confident that the above project is definitely within my abilities, and have worked on projects that involve similar technologies in the past.

Education
As explained above I am in my second year of Computer Science BSc at Bath. Before university I studied Maths, Physics, Computing and Art A levels (A levels are the 2 years of education you do between 16 and 18 here in the UK before entering Uni). I thoroughly enjoyed Art, and having taken it allows me to appreciate the relationship between Processing and the requirements of the artistic community.

Notable projects I have undertaken: (Projects from this year will be up soon).

Security Test Auditor (Winner of 'Best of Britain Programming Competition'):
http://www.drawbycode.com/project.php?id=15
This is an intercepting proxy that allows the identification of vulnerabilities in websites. It provides statistics and reports on testing sessions, and includes an intelligent filter system that allows the creation of boolean expressions to identify specific data.

Dungeon of Doom:
http://www.drawbycode.com/project.php?id=14
A networked multiplayer game in java utilizing sockets. Includes intelligent bots with a self-devised path finding algorithm, custom UI components and more.

I will be updating this with more of more recent projects in the next few days.

Good luck to the rest of the applicants :)

EDIT: Haven't had much time to update this post with the current university schedule (preparation for exams, submission of coursework), but a quick description of the projects I've undertaken recently is as follows:

Binary Image Classification: I have built an image classifier that is able to classify binary images based on its training data. A chain code is created that describes the image boundary, and a collection of image chain codes are used to create a Gaussian model that can provide a probability that a particular chain code belongs to that set of images. I then created a Gaussian mixture model from all the image sets to accurately classify a particular image. I.e. I can scan a binary image of a face and accurately classify it automatically as a face, rather than another object that my classifier is trained to work with. This was created in Matlab with a heavy focus on mathematics and computer vision.

Gimbal-lock free camera: I created a camera in OpenGL that allows the user to navigate around a 3D object (pan, zoom and rotate) without being in a "gimball lock". Again, a heavy focus on mathematics and computer vision.

Only a day left now, fingers crossed!

UPDATE: Wasn't accepted, congratulations to those who were :)

shiffman

Dear David,

I would like to thank you for your thoughtful and well-written proposal. We had an overwhelming number of great applicants and I'm really sorry we couldn't offer you a spot. Unfortunately due to limited resources we had to prioritize core Processing development over new features and libraries.

It would great to find ways outside of GSoC for you to be involved. Please chime in on github anytime and stay in touch.

Best, Dan