IRC log for #brlcad on 20071215

00:45.11 *** join/#brlcad CIA-4 (n=CIA@208.69.182.149)
01:22.23 *** join/#brlcad IriX64 (n=mariodot@bas2-sudbury98-1177593139.dsl.bell.ca)
01:23.45 IriX64 http://rafb.net/p/js9SlQ72.html <---- runtime, dunno what this is all about
03:19.14 *** join/#brlcad IriX64 (n=mariodot@bas2-sudbury98-1177593139.dsl.bell.ca)
03:19.49 IriX64 http://rafb.net/p/MtYMIK52.html <---- works guys :)
03:22.17 IriX64 http://www3.sympatico.ca/mario.dulisse2/black.png <--- heres what that shot produced
04:13.13 Toba helicopter!
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04:41.11 brlcad woot, yukonbob
04:56.59 dtidrow evening, brlcad
05:09.27 CIA-4 BRL-CAD: 03brlcad * 10brlcad/include/config_win.h: don't need HAVE_MATHERR
05:10.14 CIA-4 BRL-CAD: 03brlcad * 10brlcad/src/mged/anal.c: remove the old acos() hack to quell implementation errors by overriding matherr()
05:18.07 CIA-4 BRL-CAD: 03brlcad * 10brlcad/src/librt/ (Makefile.am sqrt.gould.s sqrt.vax.s):
05:18.07 CIA-4 BRL-CAD: remove the unused assembler sqrt() implementations for the gould and vax.
05:18.07 CIA-4 BRL-CAD: relinquish to the bowels of revision history until there is (ever) a need to
05:18.07 CIA-4 BRL-CAD: properly reintegrate into the build (where they probably belong in libbn)
05:23.39 CIA-4 BRL-CAD: 03brlcad * 10brlcad/configure.ac: libtool on mac chokes on the -bind_at_load, get rid of it
05:38.25 CIA-4 BRL-CAD: 03brlcad * 10brlcad/include/config_win.h: no longer need HAVE_TMPFILE_S, no longer using tmpfile_s()
05:40.02 CIA-4 BRL-CAD: 03brlcad * 10brlcad/configure.ac: no longer using tmpfile_s(), don't check for it
05:43.09 CIA-4 BRL-CAD: 03brlcad * 10brlcad/configure.ac: we don't use ftime()
05:46.01 yukonbob evening, cadheads
05:51.49 dtidrow okay, so what's the program for displaying .pix images?
05:52.30 yukonbob pix-png, favourite .png viewer.
05:52.55 dtidrow pix-png converts them to png's?
05:53.07 yukonbob heh -- truth in advertising.
05:53.55 dtidrow thought there was a viewer for pix in brl-cad somewhere...
05:55.39 dtidrow you would think there would be one, since .pix isn't a standard format
05:56.28 yukonbob well, there are converters
05:57.58 dtidrow there's probably a way to run the fb app and load a pix into that, I just don't know enough about brl-cad yet to do that
05:58.19 yukonbob oh sure -- pix-fb
05:58.29 dtidrow though "pix-png moss.pix > moss.png" works
05:59.04 dtidrow well, I tried that first (pix-fb) - do you need an existing fb running?
05:59.18 dtidrow wild guesses here ;-)
05:59.40 dtidrow I'll just convert them to png's...
06:05.42 brlcad pix-fb
06:06.37 brlcad if you're pre 7.10.4, it's pix-fb -F/dev/Xl file.pix
06:06.48 brlcad 7.10.4 and later, it's just pix-fb file.pix
06:07.06 brlcad I made lingering default
06:07.18 dtidrow ah - still have 7.10.0
06:07.53 brlcad you can run your own framebuffer server via fbserv, but that's mostly if you want to do multiple processing steps and/or read/write pixels instead of just display them
06:08.25 dtidrow /dev/Xl?
06:08.47 brlcad yeah
06:09.12 brlcad that means use the "X framebuffer device" with the "l" linger option
06:09.22 brlcad (nothing to do with the /dev filesystem)
06:09.56 brlcad fun "fbhelp" and it'll describe what framebuffer devices you have available
06:10.12 dtidrow ah - that's more like it
06:10.41 yukonbob brlcad: do you think that syntax (/dev/Xl) is worth visiting, for it's confusion w/ /dev/ filesystems on *nix boxes, or would it be too big a deal wrt backward compat.?
06:10.55 brlcad pix files are "raw" so if it's not the default 512x512, you have to specify dimensions
06:11.25 brlcad yukonbob: backwards compat is the primary reason it's not changed
06:11.27 dtidrow I just wanted to look at the results of the benchmark runs
06:12.18 dtidrow yukonbob: yep, that's what I was thinking - didn't see 'Xl' in /dev anywhere...
06:12.40 brlcad yukonbob: otherwise it would have likely changed a long time ago, and it's been a really minor point -- after you learn once and then you pretty much know
06:13.08 dtidrow it's there to confuse n00bs....
06:13.10 dtidrow ;-)
06:13.17 brlcad yeah, it's one of about a dozen of the FAQ newbie questions and areas of confusion that would be good to get rid of for 8.0
06:13.20 yukonbob brlcad: /me notes that Tcl has a "Tcl 9 wishlist" where wishes that will break backward compatibility are entertained -- perhaps something like that for BRLCAD 8?
06:13.41 brlcad already have that wishlist, it's in the todo
06:13.53 brlcad at least for the "important" ones
06:15.29 dtidrow brlcad: 'rt' is the main raytracer executable, right?
06:15.38 brlcad yukonbob: also plan to get started on some of those backwards-breaking topics on a branch after the move to svn
06:15.42 brlcad dtidrow: yep
06:17.11 brlcad lingering framebuffer windows was another FAQ newbie item that has been requested for about two decades... but I figured out a way to implement it and retain backwards compatibility, so it made the minor update
06:18.25 yukonbob brlcad: /me was re-introduced to the "chromium" project again today -- you aware of it?
06:21.05 dtidrow brlcad: http://www.yafray.org/ - any knowledge of this?
06:23.42 brlcad yukonbob: hm, not intimately, but I was reading about them about a week or two ago
06:24.00 brlcad dtidrow: quite familiar with yafray
06:24.19 brlcad he's usually at siggraph
06:24.19 dtidrow opinion/comments?
06:25.20 brlcad it's a pretty decent optical renderer, really decent global illumination modes
06:25.58 brlcad performance is a bit teh suck and it doesn't deal with solid geometry, but it does the trick for visualization purposes pretty slickly
06:26.33 brlcad blender shelved their (horrible) ray-tracer for yafray a couple years ago
06:26.38 yukonbob "doesn't deal w/ solid geom." -- you mean shooting rays and getting xrays, or collision detection?
06:27.28 brlcad full shotline, proper inside/outside detection all the way along the ray -- for non-optical purposes
06:28.12 yukonbob but it's an option for visually rendering, esp if one wants more than 16 light sources, correct?
06:28.36 brlcad it's a great option for visual rendering
06:29.27 brlcad for the new solid modeler interface, I'm hoping to sort out the interface so that different ray-tracers can be used -- yafray and povray would be near top of my list of the first to hook in
06:29.41 yukonbob nice
06:30.10 dtidrow what year did brl-cad get open-sourced, anyway?
06:30.14 yukonbob would that be a batch-oriented .tmp files and call-out to the respective tracers, or linking them in as libs?
06:31.19 brlcad dtidrow: we're about a week away from the three years anniversary
06:31.53 dtidrow '04? hmmm, thought it was earlier than that
06:32.06 dtidrow memory gets fuzzy with age... :-\
06:32.33 brlcad yukonbo: probably batch oriented with some sort of compiled plugin-in frontend that would have knowledge how to prepare/convert data into their format
06:33.30 yukonbob brlcad: that was my first instinctual idea...
06:33.36 brlcad as a lib would be possible, but probably a LOT more work
06:33.45 yukonbob <PROTECTED>
06:33.59 yukonbob povray == weird license because it's soo old.
06:34.10 brlcad yeah, povray's a problem that way
06:34.27 yukonbob batching makes sense for a few reasons, though...
06:34.40 brlcad that may be a non-starter for povray, but that would be something to look into down the road
06:35.49 yukonbob a g-pov, g-yafray, etc., etc. could potentially do the trick, and then let a person setup their own cameras/perspectives, no?
06:37.07 brlcad yep
06:38.09 yukonbob mmm... maybe my lex/yacc studies will lead to assiting on this...
06:38.17 brlcad you can fake pipe's with other cylinders and torii
06:38.21 yukonbob *assisting
06:38.34 brlcad cool
06:38.46 yukonbob brlcad: re: cylinders + torii, I guess that's where the heavy lifting occurs ;)
06:40.34 brlcad povray's actually one of the closest matches to us
06:40.57 brlcad since they do have many of the same implicits and actually do a lot of the same implicit evaluation
06:41.11 brlcad they have a few we don't have, we have a few they don't have
06:43.05 yukonbob pipe is esp vexing though, considering bending + radiuses (radii?), and growing/shrinking internal/external radiuses along the length of the pipe...
06:44.04 brlcad the internal is really just a CSG subtracted inner-pipe
06:44.18 brlcad so if you implement one, you have the same logic for the inside
06:45.33 yukonbob right, but the differences between the transitions are nice + smooth, and still perhaps occurring around a bend, which would be like wrapping a truncated cone inside a bent cylinder/torus in povray....
06:46.23 brlcad povray has a tgc too iirc
06:46.29 yukonbob how tough would it be to take the extrude 3d and make a lathe-like function for brlcad, a la povray?
06:46.59 yukonbob re: tgc, but around a bend?
06:47.09 brlcad bends are torus
06:47.45 brlcad that's internally how our pipe does it -- tgc and torii segments
06:48.25 yukonbob ok -- so can the inside dia. of a pipe change while it's bending a curve?
06:48.41 yukonbob or outside, for that matter... makes no difference.
06:49.15 brlcad I believe it can, but I frankly don't recall
06:49.37 brlcad basically a more generalized torus form
06:52.34 brlcad i know what you mean, it'd be a matter of seeing 1) if we allow the torus to "pinch" or not and if we do, how it's implemented and then 2) what that most closely translates to in pov
06:53.21 brlcad for the most part, that would be very much an "edge" case that you could just check and say "oops, can't handle this" .. pipes with bend radius changes on the bend are not the common case
06:53.34 yukonbob ... the whole idea (of various converters) sounds _really_ cool -- a good way to visit all the elems of BRLCAD, and see how other people are doing things, maybe refactor, etc., etc.
06:54.31 brlcad yeah, one of my "big-idea" projects that I've been working towards is making a "universal converter" library given we support more formats than almost anyone except the commercial engines
06:54.48 yukonbob librosetta
06:55.08 yukonbob ^--- probably used by everybody else that thinks they're great translators ;)
06:55.11 brlcad hah
06:55.21 brlcad i have a stickie on my desktop with various names for the library
06:55.21 yukonbob lol
06:55.30 brlcad librosetta is one of them :)
06:56.01 brlcad libbgc libgconv libg2g
06:56.09 yukonbob heh -- we'll have to think of some more interesting obscure reference -- maybe one degree of seperation -- libdeadsea
06:56.47 yukonbob ^--- add to stickies
06:57.31 brlcad the only confusion with rosetta is the Mac OS X binary conversion layer of the same name
06:58.07 yukonbob libdeadc, libdedc...
06:58.30 yukonbob libdedc -- a bacronym -- DEcode Do Conversion
07:05.06 *** join/#brlcad louipc (n=louipc@bas8-toronto63-1088753883.dsl.bell.ca)
07:08.17 brlcad TRCPY\|STRCSPN\|STRERROR\|STRPBRK\|STRRCHR\|STRSPN\|STRSTR\|STRTOK\)'
07:12.03 brlcad (speeding up configure by eliminating tests we can (hopefully) now avoid)
07:15.01 brlcad not one in use, sweet
07:17.44 brlcad ahh, take that back .. culled too much
07:30.26 brlcad nah, they're not expensive .. just c89 function calls that configure checks for which it doesn't need to for most of them
07:30.34 brlcad the calls are just standard library calls
07:37.52 louipc mornin
07:54.42 brlcad howdy louipc
08:02.47 louipc how are the plans for moving brl-cad to svn?
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08:28.13 yukonbob nn #brlcad
08:28.27 louipc bye
08:32.55 brlcad louipc: erm, unchanged .. still going to happen
08:34.22 Axman6 brlcad: isn't it supposed to be pretty easy?
08:34.56 louipc hey have you guys ever used git?
08:35.28 Axman6 git sounds... interesting
08:35.40 louipc it's awesome
08:36.04 Axman6 sounds like a nice idea, but not an idea that sits well in my brain
08:36.14 louipc why's that?
08:38.19 louipc git can kind of work with svn as well
08:40.16 Axman6 i watched the google tech talk about it with linus. he's a nutjob
08:40.37 louipc oh yeah haha
08:43.26 louipc I like how you can go totally nuts with your local copy in git and commit, and merge branches, and it's OK nobody sees all that insanity from you if they don't want to
08:45.30 brlcad Axman6: it's usually fairly easy, but certainly not turn-key .. especially for a repository as extensive as brl-cad's
08:46.02 brlcad louipc: yes, and you've mentioned it .. like four times now? :P
08:46.42 louipc i have? I must have mistaken this for another channel then doh
08:47.36 brlcad git or not, distributed works well for some things and horrible for others
08:48.03 brlcad it's far from a panacea
08:48.12 louipc or I just have an odd memory
08:48.32 louipc yeah true
08:49.47 brlcad you could just as well argue that seeing that hiding that "insanity", as you put it, is very much a bad thing
08:50.19 brlcad particularly if you're collaborating among few and keeping consensus on development directions
08:51.03 brlcad you often *want* to see the steps taken to get to a given result, regardless of the method and num of intermediate steps
08:51.05 louipc well what you should end up after the insanity is a clean straight-forward set of patches
08:51.52 brlcad you end up with that end-result distributed or not -- the point is the desirability for seeing the steps that got you there too
08:52.16 brlcad centralized encourages that transparency, distributed lets you hide it (or not) -- it's a tradeoff
08:52.34 louipc yeah if there are only a few devs then they're probably going to want to see it anyways
08:53.47 brlcad yep, very dependendent on the dev structure, number of devs, visibility and collaboration prefs, user-community expectations, etc
08:55.06 louipc git doesn't work too well when the lead guy is too busy with other things and doesn't pull anything, when everyone else is hacking like crazy
08:55.19 brlcad distributed really starts to pay off when the centralized structure becomes a bottleneck administratively (which usually happens after you have hundreds of devs)
08:55.46 Axman6 like the kernel
08:55.52 brlcad yeah, you can set up git in just as brain-dead development-hindering ways as a centralized repo :)
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17:21.03 CIA-29 BRL-CAD: 03brlcad * 10brlcad/src/libbu/parallel.c: raise() works on windows and is c89, so bye bye
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18:02.38 CIA-29 BRL-CAD: 03brlcad * 10brlcad/configure.ac: raise() works on windows and is c89, so bye bye
18:04.06 CIA-29 BRL-CAD: 03brlcad * 10brlcad/configure.ac: strdup and strsep don't seem to be c89
20:14.39 CIA-29 BRL-CAD: 03brlcad * 10brlcad/ (configure.ac src/libpkg/pkg.c): get rid of our single use of strerror_r, minimize checks
20:30.13 CIA-29 BRL-CAD: 03brlcad * 10brlcad/configure.ac:
20:30.15 CIA-29 BRL-CAD: remove a whole bunch of function checks that can be taken for granted since c89
20:30.17 CIA-29 BRL-CAD: provides for them. all of these functions are apparently not even used (any
20:30.19 CIA-29 BRL-CAD: more) via HAVE_ decls regardless. removing the checks reduces configure time
20:30.21 CIA-29 BRL-CAD: signficantly. function checks removed include atexit, fabs, floor, memchr,
20:30.25 CIA-29 BRL-CAD: memmove, modf, pow, setlocale, sqrt, strcpy, strcspn, strpbrk, strrchr, strspn,
20:30.27 CIA-29 BRL-CAD: strstr, strtol, strtoul, strtoull
20:45.30 CIA-29 BRL-CAD: 03brlcad * 10brlcad/configure.ac: comment consistency
21:10.20 CIA-29 BRL-CAD: 03brlcad * 10brlcad/configure.ac: list the POSIX.1 headers too for good measure
21:18.46 CIA-29 BRL-CAD: 03bharder * 10brlcad/doc/book/VolumeIV.xml: Working with new processing to facilitate img handling, re-worked <link> and <xref>, minor formatting.
21:30.00 CIA-29 BRL-CAD: 03bharder * 10brlcad/doc/book/VolumeIV.xml: Previous commit also re-worked the placement of authorship from <title> to <bookinfo> and the dedication from <prolog> to <dedication> -- not sure about the <author> change... will need to keep eye on this.
21:32.32 brlcad woot
21:37.16 brlcad if we get a hundred active devs, I'd be much more fond of it ;)
21:38.21 yukonbob does Bob do his development on Windows, though?
21:38.27 brlcad yep
21:38.56 yukonbob so he'd have to use NFS, or FTP (or whatever) files to/from a POSIX box to use git.
21:39.11 brlcad as do a couple devs in germany and netherlands
21:39.44 brlcad daniel and wim
21:54.28 b0ef how about bazaar?
21:54.49 yukonbob isn't that deprecated, in favour of arch?
21:54.58 b0ef heh, no
21:55.03 b0ef bazaar-ng
21:55.22 b0ef http://bazaar-vcs.org/
21:55.35 louipc ooer darn windows!
21:59.17 louipc yeah I heard good things about mercurial too
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21:59.24 louipc never used it though
21:59.38 illethal Good evening everyone
21:59.42 brlcad hello illethal
22:00.04 yukonbob it's pretty simple... I use it instead of RCS for my local disk
22:01.11 yukonbob hg init; hg add thisfile thatfile; [edit files]; hg commit
22:01.44 louipc oh yeah I've heard syntax is similar to git
22:02.15 b0ef that's how you do it in bzr, too
22:02.15 yukonbob iirc, git uses lots of binaries to get it's job done...
22:02.32 b0ef ya'll haven't watched the git video by linus?
22:02.56 yukonbob where he calls the svn devs from google braindead?
22:03.40 b0ef yeah;)
22:03.40 yukonbob classy
22:03.40 b0ef hehe
22:03.40 b0ef <PROTECTED>
22:16.41 yukonbob heh --- /me reads a mozilla developer blog where they were testing what vc to move to (from CVS) and importing the CVS tree->bzr took more than a *month* of running time...
22:21.06 louipc ouch
22:21.17 louipc they're moving to mercurial yeah?
22:21.58 yukonbob are on it apparently, with plan to revisit the decision in 9-12 months (from March, I guess, when they moved).
22:24.41 brlcad illethal: what brings you around?
22:31.38 illethal Got interested in BRL Cad.
22:31.39 illethal =)
22:31.44 illethal I'm a 3D graphic artist though
22:31.51 illethal BRL is a massive learning curve.
22:32.12 yukonbob illethal: you have examples of your work online?
22:33.12 yukonbob hrm... apparently FreeBSD is mercurial too...
22:33.38 illethal Yeah.
22:33.50 illethal http://micah.noobgrinder.com/3d/oden.jpg
22:34.39 b0ef illethal: that looks excellent;)
22:36.51 b0ef I'm a spline modeler, but since I went free software fanatic, there just aren't any free spline tools, so waiting for brl-cad;)
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22:37.26 illethal Thanks
22:37.27 illethal !
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