Hello,
(Hope this kind of e-mail is allowed on the list.)
As an accepted organisation for the Google Sumer of Code (GSoC), LabLua is
seeking students interested in working with SDL-based games using the
programming language C?u.
About LabLua:
LabLua is a research lab at PUC-Rio dedicated to programming languages:
http://www.lua.inf.puc-rio.br
This is our second year participating in GSoC:
https://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/org2/google/gsoc2015/lablua
Last year we had 4 students working with us:
https://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/org2/google/gsoc2014/lablua
About C?u:
Besides Lua, LabLua also does research on the language C?u, which targets
system-level development of reactive systems.
For a little introduction about the language, please watch the video in our
front page:
http://ceu-lang.org/
C?u appeared last year on “StrangeLoop” and the “Future Programming
Workshop”:
http://www.future-programming.org/program.html
About the Project:
Suggestions are welcome (also from list members not necessarily applying to
GSoC).
= Idea 1:
Port to C?u an existing C++ open source game of considerable size (30-50k
lines of code).
Here are some possible projects to look for:
http://www.reddit.com/r/opensourcegames
In addition to a working implementation, we expect the student to write
about the experience of using C?u in the context of game development, also
comparing the implementations in terms of code complexity (e.g., lines of
code), resource usage (CPU, memory), etc.
How to apply:
Check the official website:
http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/homepage/google/gsoc2015
= Required knowledge:
- SDL
- C
(Previous experience with C?u is of course not required.) - Linux, Mac or Windows?
The current distribution of C?u is only available for Linux.
A student using another operating system is also welcome, as long as she/he
has the skills to build the development environment by her/himself.
The compiler of C?u depends on gcc, lua-5.1, and lua-lpeg.
= Recommendations before applying:
Last year LabLua had over 15 submissions for only 4 slots.
(Note that we will only know the number of slots for this year after the
students submit the proposals.)
It is highly recommended that the student installs C?u, compiles some
examples, possibly making something very simple from scratch (or changing
some existing example).
For us, this is important to see if the student will be able to keep track
of the project.
For the student, this initial experience is important to ensure that the
expectations with the project match the reality.
If the student has participated in other open source projects, it is also
recommended that she/he tell us about that experience.
Questions?
We will be happy to answer.
Thanks,
Francisco Sant’Anna (LabLua)