IRC log for #brlcad on 20081002

01:02.44 starseeker brlcad: what were you worried about with the merging of the NEWS file from the 7.12.6 branch?
01:06.43 starseeker nevermind, I see
01:17.46 Twingy heh
01:47.01 brlcad pokes in
01:47.23 brlcad starseeker: there are options to pull only open, only closed, only closed with N days (that's what I usually use)
01:47.33 brlcad er, open and closed within N days
01:48.23 starseeker OK, so anything that's appeared since the last CCB, and anything that's been closed since then as well?
01:48.24 brlcad and yeah, ``Erik is spot on about detail -- they wanted even more than what that report generates (e.g. needs to include the entire discussion log)
01:48.49 brlcad anything open (since it's still a prioritization issue) and anything closed since last ccb
01:49.03 starseeker ick. OK, anything open
01:49.16 starseeker I can pull the discussion logs - it'll take time though
01:49.19 brlcad but he's also right in that there's usually nowhere near enough time to go over everything .. it'd take all day to do more than skim
01:49.38 brlcad I wouldn't worry about it, I've yet to include them
01:49.50 brlcad unless you want to
01:50.13 starseeker will see how his patience holds out
01:50.25 brlcad it would be a nice touch for someone that cared, but that will take probably an hour to do manually and probably a couple hours to properly script it
01:50.27 starseeker What's the color code for formatting
01:50.42 starseeker would just pull the highlight discussions
01:50.43 brlcad oh, hell, do you have the last one?
01:50.49 starseeker somewhere
01:51.02 brlcad could use that as a guide -- that was done manually
01:51.16 starseeker may not have survived the move - let me see
01:51.34 starseeker can make something up, what with new head honcho and all...
01:52.00 brlcad i usually highlight the high-priority ones, sort based on artifact type followed by status (closed/open) followed by priority .. or something like that
01:52.20 brlcad usually alternating sections formatted so it's easy to read, etc
01:52.29 brlcad fitted to A4
01:52.34 starseeker A4?
01:52.42 brlcad the big paper
01:52.50 starseeker I know - where do we print it around here?
01:52.58 brlcad printer has it
01:53.03 starseeker huh. OK
01:53.07 brlcad photocopier too
01:53.48 starseeker brlcad: I doubt I'll get through it tonight, but I'll try to have something ready for you to check by Mon. or Tues. next week
01:54.24 starseeker what about the mailing list, if they want discussions?
01:55.05 brlcad just as a guide, I've usually spent no more than a couple hours improving the scripts each time and a half hour formatting
01:55.25 starseeker scripts actually worked :-)
01:55.31 brlcad kinda disgusting to spend more time preparing for the meeting than the meeting itself lasts, so no worries keeping it minimal
01:55.34 brlcad great
01:55.47 brlcad you see the html entities that need to be replaced?
01:55.54 starseeker yeah, I think I got em
01:55.57 brlcad they're in the comments
01:55.59 brlcad ah, ki
01:56.10 starseeker vim global search and replace ftw
01:56.26 brlcad don't include the mailing lists (or any of the discussion channels)
01:56.33 starseeker right
01:56.38 brlcad that's not the ccb's business
01:57.18 starseeker is bemused at the thought of the ccb going over an IRC discussion of ``Erik toasting people in forum based space wars
01:58.21 brlcad the primary point of the meeting is to simply review what has happened since the last review to 1) see what they might impact users (analysts, modelers, developers), 2) disseminate/share our changes so folks know about them, and 3) give our users a forum to provide feedback/questions/concerns
01:58.57 brlcad basically performing a peer review in a semi-open forum
01:59.14 starseeker brlcad: heh. OK. I made the mistake of reading that CCB document Ed has defining the purpose of the CCB
01:59.47 brlcad there has been argument over that in the past, it's not actually right
02:00.05 brlcad it started modeled after a different code that has an entirely different process
02:00.23 brlcad orca's document is actually closer
02:00.33 brlcad we need to formally publish an updated version that is correct
02:01.04 brlcad which basically amounts to the HACKING file with details about how things pertain to ARL
02:01.52 brlcad the controlling authority and "change approval" as presently worded is bogus
02:01.59 starseeker I think Ed would feel better if we had a new one :-)
02:05.00 brlcad the biggest issue is that it's all overhead (a negative time sink) that could literally take months of time away from development if not careful
02:05.08 starseeker nods
02:05.10 brlcad it's like the scripts -- they could easily turn into a nice/fancy tool
02:05.24 brlcad but ultimately, they're a negative on development .. even from a communication perspective
02:05.43 starseeker I'll be very interested to see how the new boss works at the CCB - it should be instructive
02:06.38 brlcad <PROTECTED>
02:06.55 brlcad she'll want to emphasize how to better get the word out
02:07.13 brlcad since arl users often don't pay attention to what we say, don't know what we do
02:07.32 starseeker I think there'll be questions about how we set our priorities too
02:07.37 brlcad it's a mild chicken n' egg problem
02:08.25 starseeker favors hauling them into the library's meeting hall and showing off :-P
02:09.04 brlcad I did that one year
02:09.09 yukonbob waves in: "Hello, cadheads"
02:09.18 starseeker waste of time?
02:09.20 brlcad a couple dozen showed up, somewhat waste of time
02:09.22 starseeker waves back
02:09.27 starseeker nuts
02:09.54 brlcad and took a fair bit of time to prepare, negative time sink
02:10.12 brlcad the real goal from our perspective is like most open source projects -- the demand is WAY higher than capacity
02:10.25 brlcad it's all vaporware and talk until a product is actually *released*
02:11.01 starseeker nods. I would place a $10 bet that some open source education will be needed
02:11.14 brlcad so that really is our best communication means -- getting the features out there sooner, fast/faster frequent iterations, make noise accordingly
02:11.44 brlcad not getting everyone's buy-in on what we're going to do beforehand, not micromanaging how we do what we do
02:12.03 starseeker Dwayne came by just today and mentioned some guys at LLNL (I think it was LLNL) were interested in building models with BRL-CAD
02:12.21 brlcad we talk plenty (here, on forums, on mailing list, in person) -- it's more about actually "getting things done"
02:12.39 starseeker absolutely
02:12.57 starseeker he was gonna send them tire.exe :-)
02:13.05 brlcad cool
02:13.20 starseeker forgot we don't have an exe on sourceforge that has tire
02:13.38 brlcad is it hooked into the windows build?
02:13.56 starseeker It is now - that's actually a news item somewhere
02:14.06 starseeker Bob hooked in all the proc-db stuff, IIRC
02:14.18 brlcad ah, right
02:28.52 starseeker brlcad: How do you sort this sucker? By date of closure, then date opened for still open ones? keep the NEWS items in the front for a quick overview?
02:29.57 brlcad points up
02:30.28 brlcad 21:55 <@brlcad> i usually highlight the high-priority ones, sort based on artifact type followed by status (closed/open) followed by priority .. or something like that
02:30.31 brlcad 21:56 <@brlcad> usually alternating sections formatted so it's easy to read, etc
02:30.37 starseeker what's "artifact type" mean?
02:30.53 brlcad the type of line it is
02:30.53 starseeker slaps self with wet noodle for not reading log
02:31.09 brlcad NEWS, bug, feature request, patch, etc
02:31.15 starseeker Gotcha
02:31.19 brlcad there's a couple tricks to get it sorted neatly
02:31.28 brlcad want news first
02:31.36 starseeker sub-section column based sorting?
02:31.52 brlcad i think descending on that column actually conveniently works out iirc
02:32.04 starseeker Cool.
02:32.07 brlcad no, the sorts work out globally
02:32.23 brlcad you apply one rule-based filter set with two or three sort rules
02:32.51 brlcad might have used "category, priority, status" last time
02:33.18 brlcad careful to use the tracker ID number -- it shows up initially as a string
02:33.37 brlcad I usually select the columns and set their data type where it matters
02:33.55 brlcad so the dates are dates and not strings, so they sort properly
02:33.59 starseeker Ah.
02:34.12 brlcad (if you wanted to sort by date, of course)
02:34.25 brlcad I forget exactly which sorting works out best
02:34.48 starseeker will figure it out
02:35.13 starseeker wonders if we can get Ed to "run the show"...
02:35.20 brlcad the point, though it to put the stuff done most recent first, and then go back in time .. emphasizing news then patches then closed bugs/feature requests/support, then everything else
02:35.47 brlcad nah, I'll probably still do it
02:36.07 brlcad ed doesn't know what the items are, needs to be a dev that can talk to most of the items
02:36.15 starseeker nods
02:36.33 starseeker is sorry he can't spare brlcad having so much time eaten up...
02:36.36 brlcad the information is incomplete, hard enough to remember what some of them are in the moment
02:36.56 brlcad it's a fixed point cost so long as we don't promise to do more than absolutely necessary
02:37.00 brlcad couple times a year is fine
02:37.19 starseeker erm - should I take out the patches to rt^3 stuff?
02:37.22 brlcad it's if we get signed up for it to be an even bigger negative time sync
02:37.37 brlcad were they tracker items?
02:37.44 starseeker yeah
02:37.46 brlcad sure
02:38.05 brlcad it's a talking point showing open source contributions
02:38.15 starseeker so leave em in?
02:38.23 brlcad yeah
02:38.28 starseeker cool
02:39.08 brlcad in the past, I've actually gone over each item and labelled whether they are an "open source contribution" or not .. but that does usually take another hour or so
02:39.24 brlcad I'd only do that if we run into a problem
02:40.39 brlcad requires a bit of pontificating on the news items as to whether the change was done "on the clock" or off it for those of us that dip into the open source hobby time
02:40.50 starseeker nods
02:41.06 starseeker rather not dig into that one, personally - gets too confusing :-)
02:41.32 *** join/#brlcad zolcos (n=zolcos@aeheathe.resnet.mtu.edu)
02:43.05 brlcad yeah, it's only if the bean counters need (or strongly want) the beans .. and it'll actually pay off and not just be a counting exercise
02:43.25 brlcad with W, it actually helped get the point across and the numbers still help to this day
02:43.36 brlcad I just pulled stats for her last week, though the entire past year
02:43.39 brlcad very interesting
02:43.49 starseeker heh
02:44.00 starseeker you mean your personal on/off clock?
02:44.04 brlcad going to send a news announcement out, but basically about 6 staff years of contributed time this past year
02:44.11 starseeker wow
02:44.23 brlcad level of open source contributions is the meter usually, as well as overall activity
02:45.04 brlcad 70 distinct "features" contributed as open source
02:45.13 brlcad (out of about 175 total)
02:45.26 brlcad 280 mailing lists posts :)
02:45.39 brlcad (not including brlcad-commits or brlcad-tracker)
02:45.46 starseeker surprised W is still tracking the numbers
02:46.18 brlcad about 220,000 measured downloads, which is an increase of 20% over last y ear
02:46.27 starseeker eeep
02:47.20 brlcad the one negative mark, though .. our average age of a tracker item increased from 484 days to 517 days by the end of the year (turn-around time)
02:47.34 brlcad which means there are still more support requests coming in than are being handled
02:48.03 starseeker must work faster
02:48.08 brlcad :)
02:48.15 brlcad cracks a whip on richard
02:49.25 brlcad interestingly, 110 new tracker items (bugs, patches, support, feature requests) came in and 128 were closed
02:50.23 brlcad 28/18 for open/closed on feature requests; 7/9 for support; 28/26 for patches; and 46/75 for bugs
02:50.36 brlcad the first is bad, the last is great
02:51.05 starseeker to be fair, some of those feature requests are virtually meta-feature requests
02:52.27 brlcad that contributed manpower estimate is the most impressive -- it's not far from being on par with arl funding capacity, probably will exceed it as the community continues to grow
02:53.23 starseeker that's a pretty compelling stat
02:53.28 brlcad gives it two years .. right about the time that the new interface is ready for production use to replace mged
02:56.05 brlcad thinks the portage ebuild needs a kick
02:56.22 starseeker needs a friggin sledgehammer
02:56.44 brlcad someone just posted an mged failure to find tk .. probably just a build setting
02:58.34 starseeker is sure he'll probably have to manually insert a few items into this thing before the CCB - but it's nice to have it more or less "ready to go" ahead of time
02:59.07 starseeker is still convinced the only way to get a proper BRL-CAD ebuild into portage is to become a gentoo dev
02:59.39 brlcad the important one to review are the comments/description on the news items since that's where the time is focused
03:00.09 brlcad usually have to add a few commments, say how it relates to arl if it specifically impacts
03:00.35 starseeker nods
03:02.22 zolcos Hello. I'm with the acoustic project, I have a question--
03:02.43 zolcos the team has discovered how to fire rays, calculate distances, attenuation, and so on, but when we go to add the first usable feature (that is, point query), what interface options do we have?
03:02.51 brlcad howdy zolcos
03:03.22 brlcad zolcos: you mean for displaying results of a calculation?
03:03.49 zolcos Yes, and for initiating a calculation.
03:03.52 brlcad what sort of data/interface are you wanting to present?
03:04.37 zolcos The point query would just take in a x,y,z and output a single decibel level
03:04.43 starseeker yick - 28 pages
03:04.48 brlcad initiating a calculation sounds like just a command, button, or menu item
03:07.35 zolcos That sounds right. How can I add new commands?
03:07.52 Ralith zolcos: acoustic project?
03:07.54 brlcad zolcos: if you want the user to interact with a 3D interface, you can hook into mged pretty easily -- our "nirt" command does almost exactly what it sounds like you're doing where (in mged) the user can either type "nirt" on the command line to get a queried result based on the view center, or they can click in the 3D view and get an interactive query along that ray
03:09.14 brlcad zolcos: you can either hook in at compile-time (via C, which could let you embed practically any other scripting layer) or at run-time (via tcl, just a text file that is loaded)
03:09.28 brlcad the simplest/fastest is going to be the latter
03:09.37 brlcad the prior has a lot more power and integration options
03:10.02 Ralith brlcad: might not be the simplest/fastest if they're not familiar with tcl and/or have to hook it into some existing codebase
03:10.35 brlcad well yes, tcl knowledge is a prerequisite for the latter, though tcl scripting is pretty trivial -- sorta like php
03:11.03 brlcad and you could even write a simple tcl proc that loads a compiled tcl extension (written in compiled language of choice)
03:12.47 starseeker brlcad: OK, think I got it
03:13.15 starseeker (sans going through news comments)
03:13.27 brlcad for what you guys are doing, since you have a C proggie that hooks into the brl-cad libs, I'd think a tcl proc would be the way to go and just have it exec your binary as a command-line command
03:13.50 starseeker heads home - I'll probably have to leave sometime around 3pm tomorrow brlcad, just fyi
03:15.00 zolcos I'm not sure I follow -- we don't actually have any code written yet, so our options are still completely open
03:16.37 Ralith zolcos: brlcad has described options for adding your functionality to the mged interface
03:19.20 brlcad zolcos: then what did you mean when you said you figured out how to fire rays, calculate distances, etc? :)
03:20.34 brlcad you can actually script brl-cad in pretty much any language by exec'ing nirt or one of the other tracers to query rays
03:21.02 zolcos Ah, that. We do have testing code and assorted functionality -- I thought you were saying we had an existing calculation module ready lol
03:21.03 brlcad (or write your own tracer that hooks into our librt library)
03:21.22 brlcad okay, so you do hook into librt and call rt_shootray() somewhere :)
05:27.45 *** join/#brlcad dtidrow (n=dtidrow@12.162.247.10)
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06:10.21 brlcad awesome: http://www.google.com/search2001/search?hl=en&q=brl-cad&btnG=Google+Search
06:12.03 brlcad http://web.archive.org/web/20010903134532/www.ornl.gov/etd/fha/.index.html
06:14.26 brlcad http://web.archive.org/web/20010506080305/www.aro.ncren.net/mcsc/redbook/manocha.htm
06:14.49 brlcad and the best find of all..
06:15.20 brlcad carl's original AnimMate tutorial .. since lost to the bits of time (thusfar, or at least until now)
06:15.26 brlcad snarfs and saves
06:21.30 brlcad wow, includes manpages for three mged commands .. starseeker, you didn't write the first one (search) after all! :-)
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07:19.14 Ralith brlcad: did BOOLE get intergrated?
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08:35.47 claymore_ yawns & digs in to a bowl of apple jacks.
08:36.31 claymore_ Just spent 30 minutes reading everything that happened in irc since I logged for the night. Busy eh?
08:36.41 claymore_ brlcad: Still up and working?
08:59.28 *** join/#brlcad mafm (n=mafm@elnet-111.lip.pt)
09:00.17 mafm hi
09:37.12 *** join/#brlcad archivist_emc (n=archivis@host81-149-119-172.in-addr.btopenworld.com)
09:45.58 *** join/#brlcad andrecastelo__ (n=chatzill@189.71.52.22)
10:55.06 claymore_ hi mafm!
11:00.35 *** join/#brlcad iandaletter (n=asus@217.118.79.35)
11:01.46 iandaletter starseeker: http://brlcad.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/brlcad/brlcad/trunk/doc/docbook/books/tutorial_series/ ....xml which file? I has somehow forgot it...
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12:25.20 claymore_ erik: You gonna be in today are you still feeling bum?
14:22.54 claymore_ Guess not eh? :)
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15:22.46 *** join/#brlcad naroth (n=naroth@stoker.csl.mtu.edu)
15:23.49 naroth hi everyone, I'm looking for some reference material for using ray-tracing. Does anyone have some links that would be useful?
15:31.39 iandaletter naroth: ray-tracing in general? Could be www.blender.org - their manuals
15:32.22 iandaletter ``Erik: create sm
15:33.20 naroth well I was referring to using the BRL CAD ray tracing functions. I have the source downloaded but now I'm just looking for something that will give me an idea on how to use the rt library.
15:33.45 iandaletter i can not advice something
15:35.11 iandaletter ``Erik: create banana smoothie with apples and parsley, totaling in half-a-gallon. Or you will jump as a goat, or you will be a scapegoat at your disease. Your choice.
15:35.54 iandaletter ``Erik: http://www.sunfoodpages.com/forum/ultimatebb.php
15:40.30 starseeker iandaletter: Do you have a sourceforge account?
15:41.06 starseeker Probably the best way to handle translations is to go ahead and commit them to the repository
15:41.19 iandaletter starseeker: no, because i pay us $ for 10 mb aday, 5 mb at night. web-serfing is... not really for me
15:41.34 iandaletter starseeker: ?
15:42.06 starseeker Um. Sourceforge is where BRL-CAD's main repository is stored and we use subversion to make updates to it
15:42.17 iandaletter what is a link to that .xml file? /doc/docbook/... ? I has forgot it
15:42.20 starseeker you can get a sourceforge account free
15:42.33 iandaletter let me send updates to you... at least at start of all
15:43.17 starseeker oh, um... - this is a good example xml file: http://brlcad.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/brlcad/brlcad/trunk/doc/docbook/system/man1/search.xml?view=log
15:43.35 starseeker iandaletter: Ok, if you'd prefer to send them to me that's great
15:43.36 iandaletter i know, but in internet, i'm usually in IRC... Later, when the market will be able to offer it, i will have bought probably 3G-modem...
15:44.13 iandaletter ok, i will see the example soon at after my midnight
15:44.59 starseeker iandaletter: That file is pretty much the style we're going to use for all commands, one file per command - if you'd prefer to just translate existing pages that's OK too, I can sort it out
15:45.28 iandaletter will see...
15:45.29 starseeker iandaletter: You don't HAVE to have every section that search has, search is pretty extensive
15:45.53 starseeker iandaletter: Thank you for your interest in working on this
15:46.13 *** part/#brlcad naroth (n=naroth@stoker.csl.mtu.edu)
15:47.32 iandaletter starseeker: i actually wanted a chance to be in "they have somehow helped" section of the book of BRL-CAD - i.e. wanted to show it to my 'employer'. but nevermind
15:48.31 starseeker iandaletter: why nevermind? You're definitely going to be contributing
15:49.01 starseeker individual docbook files are built up into larger books
15:50.01 iandaletter ok, later we will have a time for different "proposals", "benefits", "fame", "girls", dirt money, big money, cars and so on...
15:51.15 starseeker brlcad handles the management of the credit sections (like AUTHORS file here http://brlcad.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/brlcad/brlcad/trunk/AUTHORS?view=log) and he keeps track of who is doing work - he will not miss your efforts
15:51.33 iandaletter ok!
15:52.57 starseeker once we start getting them integrated into BRL-CAD proper, of course :-)
15:54.06 starseeker decides not eating one meal was a mistake, and not eating two would be a worse mistake...
15:55.06 iandaletter i don't really know much about it yet, i mean about the world of open source... night builds and so on... Don't have cheap internet connection... But i will probably have it soon... even thru mobile cell phone.
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15:56.20 iandaletter starseeker: eat sauerkraut with steamed potato. And drink cognac, or some beer. but don't become an alcohol-addicted. ;)
15:56.58 starseeker actually doesn't drink - his brain malfunctions enough without any help
15:57.08 starseeker ok, lunch
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15:57.39 iandaletter ok, almost midnight
15:58.00 iandaletter the world and mother earth is wonderful
16:03.47 docelic morn'
16:10.40 brlcad aw, no ralith
16:11.22 brlcad iandaletter: sending folks that come looking for ray-tracing to another ray-tracer when we do ray-tracing doesn't exactly help :)
16:12.08 iandaletter ok :-X
16:14.14 brlcad working on the docs definitely helps though ;)
16:14.26 brlcad howdy docelic
16:26.32 iandaletter docelic: at least you, listen to me: you need to be raw vegan, you must like smoothies and nuts and salads and probably milk, but it disagrees with www.peta.org
16:27.42 docelic seems youre outta luck today, pal
16:29.02 iandaletter no, i'm ok - even advise it sometimes. Fell comfortable and young. don't sweat. do sport. (I do)
16:29.37 iandaletter actually, it's too much of typing today - and i feel myself crazy!
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18:13.45 CIA-4 BRL-CAD: 03bob1961 * r32817 10/brlcad/trunk/src/conv/bot_dump.c: Mods to fix output of binary stl. Minor cleanup.
18:17.00 louipc we can get fame, girls, and big money from contributing to open source? since when?
18:26.34 brlcad 'bout '98
18:28.40 iandaletter battery ends
18:28.43 *** part/#brlcad iandaletter (n=asus@217.118.79.35)
18:42.06 CIA-4 BRL-CAD: 03starseeker * r32818 10/brlcad/trunk/ (92 files in 23 dirs): Shift English docs into en subdirectories in preparation for multi-lingual documentation.
18:48.26 ``Erik wait, what? I've been doing it for a long time, do you have to fill out a form to get the fame, girls and big money?
19:04.05 claymore_ erik: howya feelin?
19:04.10 ``Erik surviving :D
19:05.47 CIA-4 BRL-CAD: 03bob1961 * r32820 10/brlcad/trunk/src/conv/bot_dump.c: Added -u option for units and removed the -i option.
19:08.47 mafm goes to try to cure his half-flu to home
19:08.50 mafm take care
22:21.52 CIA-4 BRL-CAD: 03starseeker * r32821 10/brlcad/trunk/doc/docbook/README: update notes on docbook
22:38.37 starseeker ah, nuts - forgot that pdf generation needs to know where the images are from the xml. OK, need to restructure install paths too and change the image links. (grumble...)
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