Re: [eigen] random thoughts -- we need more Gaels

[Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@xxxxxxxxx>]

Cyrille Berger wrote:
> > We need more developer documentation, developer
> > 
> > tutorials, and we could even have a series of articles going through
> > 
> > expression templates and Eigen design, etc.
> 
> Yes ! Eigen has an excellent "user" documentation, at least the tutorials,
> the actual API dox suffers a bit of doxygen poor support of templates. But
> right now, there is almost nothing for potential contributors. And eigen's
> code is not exactly the easiest code to dive into, even for experienced
> c++ developers, reading and understanding is ok, but extending currently
> require a huge investment.
> 
> 
> To take my personal example :) I have a big itch, it is the lack of a
> symetric matrix, what prevents me to contribute one, is the balance
> between lack of time and complexity of such addition. I will probably dive
> in, one day, in the mean time I try to survive with normal matrix. But I
> am quiet certain with good tutorials on how to contribute I would dive
> earlier, and I don't know how many people are like me.

Hear, hear.

Cyrille isn't the only one affectd by this problem.  Countless others, just 
like Cyrille, have looked into this project's code with the intention to 
contribute fixes and/or implement new features.  Unfortunately, as this project 
is terribly developer-unfriendly, this appears to be a massive task which may 
even constitute a waste of time.  So, if tis project needs more developers 
then to start off it must become developer-friendly.  If the barrier to entry 
isn't lowered then it is unlikely that people will start contributing on their 
own.


Rui Maciel