On 2/7/14 8:22 PM, Pedro Giffuni wrote: > El 07/02/2014 12:00, Rob Weir escribió: >> On Fri, Feb 7, 2014 at 10:22 AM, Tenzin Chhosphel <chhos...@gmail.com> >> wrote: >>> Hi Andre, >>> I had no problems building OpenOffice, it was flawless. It >>> just took several hours (like over 10) just like it says in the >>> building guide page. I am also a math minor and fond of numbers, so I >>> prefer any work related to numeral computation. But, if not, other >>> areas sound interesting too. My goal is to gain some experience >>> working in a huge real world project like OpenOffice as well as >>> contribute to the open source world. I am planning to work on >>> OpenOffice at least for the remaining of my college career, which is >>> over a year. So something that I can work for a long time will be nice. >>> >> >> Hi Tenzin, >> >> This sounds great! OpenOffice is a big code base, so you'll probably >> want to start simple. We do have some items in our Bugzilla tracker >> that are marked as "easy hacks" : >> >> https://issues.apache.org/ooo/buglist.cgi?f1=cf_fix_difficulty&list_id=122701&o1=equals&query_format=advanced&resolution=---&v1=easy >> >> >> These are good to start on. There are also ones slightly more >> challenging, "simple hacks": >> >> https://issues.apache.org/ooo/buglist.cgi?f1=cf_fix_difficulty&list_id=122702&o1=equals&query_format=advanced&resolution=---&v1=simple >> >> >> A different approach is to jump right in on our 4.1 bug list, see if >> you can debug a crash, e.g.: >> >> https://issues.apache.org/ooo/show_bug.cgi?id=123501 >> >> It shouldn't be too hard to reproduce that in a debugger and get a >> stack for the crash. >> >> On the numeric side, you can look at spreadsheet formula related >> issues by searching in Bugzilla. There are also some recent issues >> related to our CoinMP integration, which we use for linear programming >> optimization: >> >> https://issues.apache.org/ooo/show_bug.cgi?id=124115 >> >> https://issues.apache.org/ooo/show_bug.cgi?id=124158 >> >> https://issues.apache.org/ooo/show_bug.cgi?id=124157 >> >> Pedro knows that area well and might be able to give you some hints. >> > > Ah well ... > > Without going into the details on how I lost interest in the base OO > Calc, I will share this. > > 1) In general OpenOffice Calc does some generally naive math. The code > is mostly taken from textbooks and has been almost heroically enhanced > to produce acceptable results. > > 2) In order to improve Calc you could use some external libraries but > most of them require Fortran which would make the build requirements > even more complicated than they are. Many things could be done with > Boost (which is already in there) but there is a huge resistance to > change things that already seem to work as they are. > > 3) There are some Openformula[1] functions that AOO hasn't implemented. > Adding those is usually has less resistance in the project than fixing > the stuff we have. It is also easier as you can learn from the code that > is already in Calc. > > 4) A, perhaps easier, way to contribute is to work on Calc Extensions. > There are no limits on the compiler/libraries you can use there. I am > personally considering using Apple's GCD for some things and that is > something that can't be included in AOO's base because it is not > supported on linux or windows. > > There are some ideas on the Wiki[2]. If you want some interesting > challenges, the type that you don't find in textbooks, try this: > > 1.1 Function to return the roots of the *quadric* equation. > .. > 1.7 Newton Raphson *complex number* solver. > > Those should be fun as you would have to use complex math for both ;).
Just one personal opinion from my side. You can completely rewrite the Calc core calculation engine if you want. Important is that we ensure that results are the same. The reason is quite simple, many documents exists that rely more or less on the results of some calculation. These results should not change by replacing the implementation of specific functions. This can potentially break many existing documents. Only if the calculation is wrong we change/correct it but have to provide a clear public communication why we change it and inform our users. The project is open to any contribution and we appreciate an open minded discussion on bigger changes on our mailing list. Kind regards Juergen > > Cheers, > > Pedro. > > [1] http://docs.oasis-open.org/office/v1.2/OpenDocument-v1.2-part2.html > [2] https://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/Extensions/Ideas/Calc > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@openoffice.apache.org > For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@openoffice.apache.org > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@openoffice.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@openoffice.apache.org
