How to start contributing?

[Stéfan van der Walt]

Hi Dan

On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 4:42 AM, Dan Farmer <dfarmernv at gmail.com> wrote:
> I've recently started using SciPy/NumPy for my computer vision research work
> and I wanted to get involved with scikits.image to help build a useful
> library and to learn more about NumPy and Cython programming. I looked at

Welcome!

> the tasks list and it seems there is a range of work from fairly simple
> integration work to some high-end plans (OpenCL backend, etc.). So I thought
> I might start with e.g., merging some of the Cell Profiler code, but then I
> saw that there are 24 forks of scikits.image on github and it's not clear to
> me what is already being worked on. So I thought I would just ask if someone
> could point me in the direction of some entry level work to do?

You may try your hand on any of the tasks set out.  Personally, I'd
love for someone to improve our docs building system so that it builds
the docs *outside* the scikits.image directory (currently, it breaks
the built version everytime you do, which is annoying).  But there are
plenty of more technical tasks waiting.  The GSOC suggestions give you
a good idea of the larger projects we are contemplating in the near
future.

As for integrating code, other than the CellProfiler code, I also am
busy porting grey-level co-occurrence matrix code (written in C); but
I never got this done, so it may be a good place to learn Cython.

Chris is quite keen to have someone implement/port OpenCV
functionality, but I'm not sure how we're going to get those kinds of
speeds yet.

A really exciting project is the implementation of backend engines so
that we may compute results using either NumPy, OpenCL, Theano, etc.

The process is pretty simply: fork my branch on
github.com/stefanv/scikits.image and start working on a feature branch
of your own.  When you're ready to let someone have a look at the
code, simply send an email to the list, or file a pull request on
github.  We like to go through one or more rounds of feedback before
integrating patches.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.  We are always happy
to help new contributors!

> Actually I just thought of something else, what is required to update the
> OpenCV bindings for OpenCV 2.2? I can't seem to use scikits.image at the
> moment because it can't find the opencv that it's looking for (the default
> Python bindings for 2.2 work, and native C++ code works too -- so it's
> definitely installed correctly).

I thought we already did update to OpenCV 2.2, but if the library
isn't found it may be that your system calls it something other than
libopencv.dll/so (ubuntu, for example, likes to call things *.so.3,
and we may have to account for that).  That reminds me: while you
learn about the scikit, do make notes or write up your experiences; we
can certainly do with a thicker user manual / more tutorials.

Thanks for helping out!

Cheers
Stéfan