Programming but with zero experience

[Sparktank]

hypermammut.sourceforge.net/paulstretch/
by Nasca Octavian PAUL
The program is Open-Source and it's released under the version 2 of the General Public License. You can download the source code for Linux or the Windows binaries.

Last year I contacted the author of "Paul's Extreme Sound Stretch" software (AKA PaulStretch) and asked about a few suggestions. The author said that he was too busy to do any more updates to the software and that he was working on something else.

The features I requested mainly consist that (1) it remembers the last opened directory (it always opens/saves to the installed directory of the software) and that (2) if no extension is given that one gets added automatically (you have to add the extension of it just saves as a file with no extension whatsoever; auto-add .wav) and that it also (3) creates a log file of the rendering.

I looked at the source code found on the sourceforge download page and saw some nifty files.
They are mostly .cpp/.h/.fl files. (Google says that it's C++ programming language)
Looking at them through Notepad++ I can see some nifty code and strings.

All completely Greek to me. :confused:

If I wanted to try and add a couple features and recompile the program with new code, where would a good start be?
I've got a few bookmarks related to coding and programming but even all that seems Greek to me. :confused:

Would anyone be able to help me out, show me some helpful sites, or point me to some very helpful forums for novices and programming?

Software: PaulStretch
Type: Open Source
Licence: version 2 of the General Public License
Platform: Windows XP (32bit)/Windows 7 (64bit)

Feature requests:
+auto add extension if not specified for rendering
+remember last used folder (separate memory for when "opening" and for when "rendering")
+add rendering log (to separate location or same folder as output file)
+option to add [parameters] to output file name ("output [8x 12K Hann].wav")
+ability to use paulstretch as a Command Line Utility (CLI)
++allow piping from other (CLI) software

though the CLI might require much more work.

Any help or pointers to other sites are indeed welcome.
-Sparktank

[dukey]

you could always pay him to do the changes for you
I've had people pay me to work on one of my open source projects

[Sparktank]

you could always pay him to do the changes for you

Unlikely. Very unlikely.
I sincerely doubt I will be able to afford anything that would provoke an update.

I've found some sites for learning C++ with tutorials (for free) so I guess I'll start from there.

[Guest]

Start by getting your development environment installed and then building the original project. If you can do that, then you can make little minor changes and learn programming as you go. And it's a lot of fun that way. Before you know it, you are a developer!

Just my old wise guy pragmatism.

[Sparktank]

Yeah, I've been looking at some of the free options for compilers and working environments.
I think I'll really put my nose to it next month and start from the very basics.

I've only gotten as far as typing out "Hello, world!" :P

Right now I'm (finally) tackling deinterlacing. Ick.

One (baby) step at a time~

[Guest]

I've only gotten as far as typing out "Hello, world!" I think you missed my point. I'm recommending you to create the environment needed to build the application you are interested in modifying. Then go through building the application as it exists today.

This is nothing like installing some random environment and building a "Hello World".

[Sparktank]

i got a headache. i know what you mean.
i got the same advice from other forums.

i'm done with this thread.

[Overdrive80]

i got a headache. i know what you mean.
i got the same advice from other forums.

i'm done with this thread.

You can use codeblocks or visual studio.

[nhakobian]

You can use codeblocks or visual studio.

Well, you have to be careful about this. Code::blocks is only a development environment, not a compiler. Visual Studio is both.

In addition, its not guaranteed that a project is going to be compatible with either without some work. A quick look at the paulstretch code looks like the win32 version was designed to be compiled for mingw32, under linux (the build script has explicit calls to wine in it).

This could be modified to attempt to build on something newer, say mingw-w64 (which would allow it to potentially be compiled as a 64-bit executable too), or another compiler. This is probably not a task for a new programmer, depending on the complexity of the code and if it uses any gcc dependent features (if you want it to run under another compiler).

[Sparktank]

I've got mingw32 installed (and I think 64) but that's as far as I've gotten.
I only installed it in case I ever get as far as needing to use it.
I haven't looked at it nor updated it (if it needs any?)

But thanks for looking at the source.
I think I remember reading somewhere that Paul used linux to compile and wasn't sure of its Window stability.

I've also read up on some forums (here included) on the complexities of upgrading to 64 bit or even making it more compatible for other compiler/environments.

I think right now, just to update on the existing environment, and then maybe in the future pay Paul to upgrade(?).
But first thing's first: learning the basics and then seeing what I'm getting myself into.

Now back to other existing headaches...:scared: