Re: [help-3dldf] contributing to 3DLDF

[lfinsto1]

> congratulations for your new Job and I pray for you get residency permit.
> I will better learn CWEAVE too.

Thank you.  CWEAVE is just part of CWEB, which I believe you mentioned as
being on your list.  The CWEB manual is quite short so learning it
shouldn't be a problem.

>> You could skip reading _The TeXbook_, at least for the present, but
>> everything else makes sense.
>
> I don't have the TeXbook because that is not available in India. All I
> have is the manual available with the TeX source.

It's not?  It's published by Addison-Wesley, which is now owned by Pearson
(if my information is up-to-date), which is a major publisher.  If you're
having difficulty getting it, I suggest you ask on the comp.text.tex
newsgroup.  You don't really need it at this point, but you may need _The
METAFONTbook_.  On the other hand, you may be able to get by with the
MetaPost manual, which is included in the distribution of MetaPost.  Some
other TeX documentation might be good enough.  I wouldn't invest a lot of
time and money into this issue unless you're sure you want to work on
3DLDF and you really need these books.

>
> One thing that always confused me is that Why did you start 3DLDF ?
>
>     I mean we all know why Ekiga exists or why gcc exists. Just don't have
> any idea about history, goals. mission and future of 3DLDF.

I started working on it because I wanted to use it myself and as a way of
demonstrating my programming abilities to potential employers.  It is
intended to be a free package for three-dimensional drawing, in the sense
of the GNU General Public License and GNU Free Documentation License.  It
was also intended to fill what I considered to be a gap in the "family" of
software centered around Donald Knuth's TeX package.  I liked using
METAFONT and MetaPost and I wanted a package for 3D drawing with a similar
language.

>> It's also possible that a potential
>> employer wouldn't allow me to continue working on it.  If I had a
>> choice,
>> I wouldn't agree to this, but I don't have a choice.  This current job
>> is
>> only for a year and there is almost no chance of an extension.  I'm only
>> mentioning this as a possibility;  it isn't very likely that an employer
>> would force me to stop working on it.  If it did happen, I'd ask the
>> Free
>> Software Foundation to find a new maintainer, but I doubt very much that
>> anyone's ever read even a fraction of the source code.
>
> If it is possible I will keep on working on it :)

I wouldn't worry about this at present, since it may never happen.  I just
wanted to make sure you knew that it was a possibility.

>> You should also be aware that there is a very large amount of source
>> code
>> and the package is rather complex.  You won't have to read the whole
>> thing, but you will have to learn your way around it.  Be warned that it
>> will be very boring to read.  You don't have to read all the log
>> entries.
>> Computer graphics is interesting but involves a great deal of tedious
>> drudgery.  A working package like 3DLDF has to do a lot of boring things
>> that one can skip over in a book about the mathematics and algorithms
>> used
>> in computer graphics, such as keeping track of dynamically allocated
>> memory and accounting for error conditions.
>
> I am not interested in computer graphics or 3D drawing. All I work for is
> because 3DLDF is GNU project and sooner or later GPLv3 will apply on it
> and 2nd, it is written in C++ and that is only language i know and
> understand better than an average C++ programmer.

GPL version 3 already applies to it.  I've already changed all the license
notices and even if I hadn't, I had specified that version 2 or any later
license applied.

> The negative side is that 3DLDF code is huge and complex. I have already
> spent 2 years in understanding and sharpening my craft for C++ and I m
> jobless. I do not want to carry 1 more year just to get familiar with some
> piece of software. I am theoretical man right now because I have no
> experience in writing software. After 1 year I want to stand as a better
> technical C++ programmer who understands the practical aspects of both C++
> and Software Development. I want to stand as the one who can go in front
> of an interviewer and tell him that "I am an experienced developer and I
> can
> write C++ code better than an average Post-Graduate out from some #1 or #3
> university/college".
>
> Will 3DLDF help in achieving that aim ?

It depends on how much work you put into it.  If you don't want to work in
the field of computer graphics, it probably won't help you to get a job in
some other field.  On the other hand, if you do want to work in the field
of computer graphics, it probably won't help you, because it is not a
package that attracts much interest --- hardly any interest at all, in
fact.  Having written it has not helped me very much, so far, so I can
hardly tell someone else that working on the package will do him or her
any good as far as finding employment is concerned.

If it suddenly caught on, things might be different, but I don't expect
that to ever happen.  There are other, well-established packages around
that do similar things.  Some are free, some are unfree but free of
charge, some are commercial.  People who are interested in graphics and
animation seem to be willing to pay the money for the established
commercial packages, some of which are quite expensive.  By and large,
they do not seem to be interested in free software or bothered by software
which may be free of charge and/or open source, but not free in the sense
of the GNU licenses.  GNU 3DLDF has not even caught on among users of TeX
and MetaPost.  As far as I know, it is not included in any GNU/Linux
distributions and no one has ever contacted me about including it.

>From the job postings I've seen, jobs in the computer graphics field
mainly involve raster techniques, whereas 3DLDF is a vector package. 
There are also jobs for compiler developers, but they want people who've
studied this specific area of computer science, not people who are pretty
good at using GNU Bison.

There might be a (very) slight surge of interest if and when I release a
new version.  I won't do this until I can include some documentation,
which is what I'll work on now, when I have time to work on the package.

The future of 3DLDF depends on my future.  A year passes very quickly, so
I'm going to have to continue looking for permanent employment.  I will
work on the package as long as I can because it's important to me
personally, whether anyone else uses it or not.  However, I can't make any
promises to anyone else.

In short, working on GNU 3DLDF will require a lot of work, you probably
won't get any feedback, and it probably won't do you any good from the
point of view of finding employment.  I can't see why anyone else would
want to do it, unless he or she had a special interest in the package
itself and wanted to actually use it for 3D graphics and/or animation.

>  well, I can do it if you mentor me.

I'm willing to answer questions as time allows, as I would be for any
user, but I can't make any promises.  The first step would be to learn how
to use the package and then try to figure out how it works.  One way would
be to start with the files that are processed first and read through the
source code.  Another way would be to start with simple inputs and trace
which parser rules are reduced and read the code in the corresponding
actions, following it through the various functions.  You will soon have
to look up the data types which are used.  Whatever you do, it's not going
to be easy and I figure a person would need at least a year of hard work
to become somewhat familiar with the code.

>

> thanks for the information.

You're welcome.

Laurence