[vlc-devel] Why is the code written like this and gsoc 2012

[Kaarlo Räihä]

4. maaliskuuta 2012 19.56 supratim chakraborty <sup270792 at gmail.com>kirjoitti:

> i know this will be a bit long but please address to my issues
>
> 1.Why do i see characters like @ ++ etc in the code - while i have studied
> C as a subject in my high school ,there was never a time when i used to use
> those ,or does it have some meaning (please sorry if this troubles you)
>

C programming language offers many features that most places don't teach
(or those places just touch the surface). And C has many versions, so not
all features work with older versions (and that might be the reason those
aren't told to students). VLC project tries to follow C99
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C99


>
> 2.i have only been doing things like reproducing some search and sorting
> algos and know about classes and objects etc ,ie basic algo based
> programming ,how is the programming for vlc different
>

Depends about what you want to do with VLC. If you want to implement yet
another playlist sorting method, then it shouldn't be too hard. If you want
to fix Win32 sync bugs, it would require quite good knowledge of VLC core,
knowhow of Windows timing stuff etc.

Many things in VLC are multimedia related, so signal processing courses are
useful (in case you want to study that field). But you will also benefit
from networking basics, knowledge of 3D APIs (OpenGL, Direct3D), GUI design
and so on.


>
> 3.I would like to know whether going through the entire source code is
> possible for me or not, if thats a bit daunting what should i start with
> ,please just dont say -go fix some small bug coz i guess fixing any bug
> would require me to know the entire source code ,right ?please correct me
> if i am wrong
>

IMHO VLC codebase is too big for one human to read completely. And you
don't have to understand everything (that would be near impossible).
Usually it is easier to think that the system is black box machine
(something goes in, and something goes out). Then when you have to change
something, search out the module that does stuff related to that, and read
the source code. e.g. you want to change the workings of grain video
filter, you open up
http://git.videolan.org/?p=vlc.git;a=blob;f=modules/video_filter/grain.c do
few changes, compile a new version and see how it works.


>
> Most Important question
>
> 4.Will video lan be particpating in the google summer of code 2012 ,coz if
> yes .I would like to take part in videolans project
>
> thanks a ton for any help (this is my first post in the mailing list ,so
> please bear with my noobness)
>
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