Sunday, May 31, 2015

Getting started!

How about that!? Google Summer of Code coding period started ( quite a while ago though ) and I thought I'd share some of my enthusiasm with you!

Firstly, impression about the program itself:

From what I've seen so far, the best part is definitely having the chance to code along with such great people, while getting precious feedback. This is what I've lacked so far in my experience as a student, and it certainly is the best way to get introduced to open-source software ( especially KDE :D ).

Now about the project:

My work this summer will revolve around offering OpenStreetMap( OSM ) support to Marble: this will involve offering the user a complete experience: from opening OSM files, to viewing and editing them, to finally exporting them in ".osm" files. 

Some of the work is already done, yet it still requires some tweaking, some technical bits will involve some code refactoring, and some parts( the most exciting ones ) consist of creating specialized tools for the map editor. 


Here's a sample to give you an idea of what interesting stuff I'm working on:

(Mock-up on what editing OSM relations might look like)


Adding them to a relation
Settings tags for that relation









































Well, that's all folks! I hope I've passed some of my enthusiasm, and if that's the case, stay tuned for my progress along the summer, as I'll be posting more :D

9 comments:

  1. How would love to hear about your development environment? What distribution are you using? What version of KDE are you? What's programming languages are you using and your experience with them? Are you using text editor or some IDE?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm on Kubuntu 14.04! As for relevant experience, I've been using C++ for quite some time now( about 4 years ), and i'm relatively new to Qt, ( introduced to it this year ), currently using Qt Creator as an IDE, definitely makes things easier.

      Delete
    2. Good. Are you not suppose to run the latest versions of KDE? Or is it that you run the git version of the product you are developing? Can you run two versions one stable and git on the same machine? You make changes in the git and build it on the machine there is no emulator, simulator, VM, etc. for testing. Is that correct?

      Delete
    3. Here's what i did/needed on a freshly installed Kubuntu:
      1. You first download the dependencies needed for the KDE software you want to contribute to ( my case, Marble https://marble.kde.org/packaging.php )

      2. You git clone the repository
      git://anongit.kde.org/marble

      3. Import it as a project in Qt Creator

      4. Code

      5. Submit patches, or git push to the remote repository, if you have a contributor account ( that gives you access to git@git.kde.org repository )


      As for running 2 versions in the same time, sure thing :)

      Delete
  2. Great to hear Marble is getting more OSM integration, but I'm curious about the "editing osm files" part. Writing a decent OSM editor is a long task and there are already a few good ones available. So what would be the usecase story for OSM editing in Marble ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. " A Swiss army knife for maps " - That's Marble, OSM support is just another tool added to that. The difference between Marble's editor and other great OSM editors out there is that Marble's editor is not OSM centered. It is more of an abstract editor ( can also edit KML files ). The user is not even aware of the file format until he chooses it at the exporting stage.

      Delete
  3. This it good news, coming from a KDE user and OSM contributor. What user will the UI be targeting, new / casual editors like iD, power editors like JOSM or some other Use-case? Pre-sets also are becoming the norm for editors will this implement pre-sets such as iD's or JOSM's? I thank you for bridging some of my favourite projects together, if you need any input from an OSM contributor's point of view feel free to contact me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello and thank you for showing interest! :)

      Even though the UI is just a rough sketch at the moment, I can say that it's probably going to look more like iD with an important twist( it can also handle KML ). It's simply going to extend the current map editor by adding tools and presets( i have introduced some of them in my GSOC proposal linked below ) :

      http://www.docdroid.net/147n3/gsoc-proposal-marius-stanciu.pdf.html

      Delete
  4. Hi. Is there any crossover with my favourite OSM editor merkaartor? Which has just woken up after a long sleep and being ported to QT5. https://github.com/openstreetmap/merkaartor

    ReplyDelete