Hey there, everyone! The first week has been over and hence the momentum to code has been started to build up. And so is the excitement. This threshold week taught me about the various requisites needed for the smooth execution of the project work. I plunged into using different tools and tried them out for this week's planned work. It was quite of a journey to just start out and I am happy I even experienced some mistakes that taught me something and made me more capable, eventually.

What did I do this week?

Basically speaking, I made a simple screen recorder using opencv and numpy along with different more modules for recording my automated scripts. It was completely a new part added to the codebase. Along with that I was working in parallel to make my first automated tutorial script ("How to activate a flight track and deal with waypoints. ") which is still to be completed.

What is coming up next?

I will be assessing the screen recorder based upon it's performance in recording the automated scripts and making changes to it wherever needed. I will experiment with different FPS, codecs and other such parameters while writing the videos. I will also test it on other operating systems to make it cross-platform and even more better.

Did I get stuck anywhere?

Yeah, I faced a lot of problems understanding the different codecs, frame rate, screen refresh rates and other important parameters in video writing with opencv. But with opencv's documentation and online help, I found my way out through it. Moreover, the regular weekly meet-ups with mentors provide a great help in clarifying the doubts and instill within me a sense of confidence of doing the things.

Hello everyone! I am Hrithik Kumar Verma and this is my first ever blog post for the python-gsoc community during this period. I will be contributing to Mission Support System during GSoC'21 and the title of my project is "Generating a tool chain tutorial for the MSUI user interface by automation operations." Since the community bonding period has been just over, I wanted to thank all my mentors and the MSS team altogether for providing such a supportive and an exciting peer-learning environment. Right from solving my silly doubts to discussing major talks around the project workflow, they have guided me as well as supported my opinions. It was a happy time learning a lot more about the codebase and interacting with the team members and my GSoC mate.

Talking about my project, it involves 3 major tasks. The first being the implementation of python scripts for the automation of the tutorials. The second being the recording of the scripts. And the third workaround involves the post processing of the auto-generated videos. I will be currently working on the generation of python scripts for automation.

What did I do this week?

This week I mainly wrote a few lines of code for practice purpose needed in my future work. I have to go through a lot of topics required for the automation part such as exploring the PyAutoGui module and the Pytest module deeply. Apart from these things, I have worked on developing a feature for the MSS software which dealt in changing the font sizes of the labels title, plot title and tick labels used in all the views (Top View, Side View, Linear View) implemented within the software. It's already merged in the development branch of Open-MSS.

What is coming up next?

Next, I am all set to start the coding officially. I will start, initially, by writing down the scripts for automating the demonstration of "How to activate a Flight track and deal with waypoints" using the PyAutoGui module.

Did I get stuck anywhere?

Many parts of my code require multiprocessing to be implemented in the codebase. In Linux systems fork() is used as default and in Windows there is this spawn() method. I was exploring the differences between both the methods and figuring out ways to implement it in such a way that the code could work in all the platforms conveniently and with ease. During the process, I was stuck in many places, but with a bit of research and with the help from the mentors, I was able to solve it.