IRC log for #brlcad on 20140620

00:38.45hcurtisI am going back through fast4-g.c to look for clues to the answers to my questions. The variable region_list_len might be key in this equation.
01:10.03hcurtisSince I have determined that group_head is an important part of the solution, it would be a better idea to narrow my focus by learning more about it. I see that group_head is used with functions such as mk_addmember and mk_lfcomb. I will examine those.
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02:10.12hcurtisWhat does the w in the struct name wmember and the header name wdb.h mean? I looked for the answer but could not find it.
03:11.44hcurtisI am reading a pdf from the BRL-CAD Tutorial Series called Converting Geometry Between BRL-CAD and Other Formats. It has a section about FASTGEN-to-BRL-CAD conversion that might help me better understand the fast4-g task.
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03:30.40*** topic/#brlcad is BRL-CAD || http://brlcad.org || logs: http://ibot.rikers.org/%23brlcad/ || GCI winners: Jacob Burroughs and Peter Amidon! || GSoC 2014 selections are announced! Thank you to all we got to work with. Remember that SOCIS is coming up right around the corner and you don't need a summer of code to get involved with open source.
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13:29.51Notify03BRL-CAD:ejno * 61356 brlcad/trunk/src/conv/3dm/3dm-g.cpp: remove global variables
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13:34.38andrei_did anyone have time to look @ my patch? I'm not sure what to do with the Sketch implementation
13:34.49``ErikCGI breakdown of 'game of thrones' (even if you don't watch the show, it's interesting to see how they composite things and do the modeling) http://youtu.be/i4GkA6rIPDc
13:50.15d_rossbergandrei_: i'm currently working on it
13:50.28andrei_ah, cool, thanks ! :)
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15:22.38andrei_Daniel: i've got one question
15:22.56andrei_in bezier, there's control points array
15:23.05andrei_but no size, how do you know how much to put in?
15:24.31andrei_ah, nvm
15:27.15d_rossbergfind the answer by yourself: include/rtgeom.h line 526
16:03.18raj12lnmkanzure: can you guide me regarding binunif.
16:03.42raj12lnmFirst is it a relevant primitive to be wrapped ?
16:04.19kanzurei don't know :)
16:05.12raj12lnmIf yes how shld it be wrapped?
16:06.39kanzuremaybe instead of wrapping it, rewrite it in python
16:06.53kanzurenot sure
16:08.07raj12lnmmged creates binunif by reading data from a file.
16:09.27raj12lnmkanzure: As far as I understand binunif is just a stream of data.
16:09.43raj12lnmWill have a utility in python ?
16:10.38raj12lnmWhat do you say ?
16:10.44kanzureyes, it might have utility
16:11.36raj12lnmOk. kanzure: Then what shld be the process to be adapted.
16:13.18kanzurert_mk_binunif requires a pointer to a wdb instance
16:13.28kanzureand minor_type
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16:13.50kanzurei don't know what minor_type is, but it sounds like an extra typing layer on top of the existing types
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16:18.59raj12lnmkanzure: the minor type are 10 differebt  types
16:19.25raj12lnmAnd binunif means binary uniform data. (As per I understood)
16:20.31raj12lnmAnd thus, the question if it makes sense to create a binary data (primitive) for python
16:20.36raj12lnm?
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16:41.29hcurtisI am working on the fast4g.c task. One interesting thing (to me at least) is that after last night's research, I now possess a better understanding of the difference between CSG and BREP. While FASTGEN4 is a BREP format, BRL-CAD relies more heavily on CSG. Fast4-g's purpose is to convert FASTGEN4 to BRL-CAD.
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16:44.29hcurtisI have tried hard to answer the following important questions for my task, but so far I have not been able to. I will continue researching them, but Sean has encouraged me to turn to the community for help more often. Does anyone know the answers to the questions below?
16:44.53hcurtis1. How do I know when the heap memory allocated for the variable group_head needs to be resized?
16:45.11hcurtis2. Once I have determined that, how do I know what new size it needs to be?
16:45.40hcurtis3. Why does the group_head array in fast4-g's commit 56495 hold 11 elements in particular and not some other number of them?
16:46.25andrei_the answer to the last question is that, most likely, it can never have over 11 elements
16:46.37andrei_You shouldn't look for a value like "5, 3, 1, 4 or 7"
16:47.08andrei_I mean, you should use a variable to figure out how large the array needs to be
16:47.15hcurtisHi, andrei_.
16:47.21andrei_because, if it wasn't like this, your task would've been "change 11 to the appropriate number"
16:47.24andrei_Hello :)
16:48.43andrei_this solution is not ellegant, but it works
16:48.55andrei_dynamically allocate the array with 11 size(hardcoded)
16:49.08andrei_then reallocate to the appropriate size(count how many elements you put in)
16:50.40hcurtisThank you.
17:00.39hcurtisandrei_: I'm thinking about your response. When you say "dynamically allocate the array with 11 size(hardcoded)", are you saying I need to include a line of code like the following?
17:01.13hcurtisandrei_: struct wmember* somePointer = (struct wmember*) bu_malloc(sizeof(struct wmember*) * 11, "a string")
17:01.48andrei_yes
17:02.49hcurtisOk
17:05.34hcurtisandrei_: I appreciate your guidance.
17:05.49hcurtisBy the way, I have written a new draft of my code to convert elements of BRL-CAD's fast4-g.c from stack allocated to dynamic. Any feedback is welcome. http://paste.lisp.org/+32AH
17:07.09andrei_hmm
17:07.37andrei_you need to change 213, group_head is still static (has [] )
17:07.46andrei_you ll need to change it to a memory pointer
17:08.14andrei_also, you can't keep the 11 at 907, 2943 & 2944, you have to use a global variable(Sean might have a different opinion, but this ll help you understand)
17:09.03andrei_group_head = (struct wmember *) bu_malloc( 11 * sizeof(struct wmember), "allocate heap memory for wmembers");
17:09.08andrei_you forgot to add the 11.
17:09.19andrei_then, at realloc, you use the same group_head, not group_head2
17:10.17hcurtisThis code doesn't include the changes you suggested today. It is from earlier this week.
17:10.25andrei_aah, ok
17:13.28hcurtis[13:09] <andrei_> then, at realloc, you use the same group_head, not group_head2           I thought when using realloc I needed to create a new variable because if the realloc fails, it will return null and overwrite the data in the original variable.
17:14.29andrei_well, indeed, but you have to point it back to group_head
17:14.53hcurtisOk
17:18.04hcurtisWell, at least one thing I can say is that I know more than when I started.
17:18.46hcurtisandrei_: Thanks again for all of your help.
17:18.58andrei_hcurtis: no problem at all :)
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18:51.48hcurtisI am working on another draft of my code to convert elements of BRL-CAD's fast4-g.c from stack allocated to dynamic. I will post it as soon as it's ready.
19:12.32hcurtisHere is the newest draft. http://paste.lisp.org/+32AW
19:12.39clockis it possioble to vandalize BRL-CAD
19:13.02clockby creating a scene with lot of transparent object where the raytracer hat to split the beam two every time it hits a surface
19:13.13clockdriving the number of beams up exponentially and overloading the raytracer?
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19:46.32hcurtisI read a little more in the document "Converting Geometry Between BRL-CAD and Other Formats", and now I am reading an article about the relationship between structs and pointers. I think that it will help me to better understand the parts of fast4-g.c that I am having trouble with.
19:57.27Notify03BRL-CAD:ejno * 61357 brlcad/trunk/src/conv/3dm/3dm-g.cpp: cleanups
20:45.01hcurtis"It is often much cheaper in time and space to copy and dereference pointers than it is to copy and access the data to which the pointers point." This statement that I have just read is interesting to me because it sheds some light on why pointers are so valued in programming.
21:22.54ankesh11brlcad: I tried adjusting to our color-scheme. Here's a screenshot.
21:22.57ankesh11http://i.imgur.com/2dQgogz.png
21:24.18ankesh11Also since the user-accounts are a bit of issue now, I will go do unique URLs for each uploaded file for now.
21:32.30hcurtisI had noticed that some devs would initialize pointers with NULL, and I wondered why. Now I know:
21:33.36hcurtis"Because the C language does not specify an implicit initialization for objects of automatic storage duration, care should often be taken to ensure that the address to which [a pointer] points is valid; this is why it is sometimes suggested that a pointer be explicitly initialized to the null pointer value, which is traditionally specified in C with the standardized macro NULL."
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