Today we're talking with Alexandru Roman, who is a student from Kitchener, Ontario, currently living in San Diego and applying for the Google Summer of Code 2008 project.


Where are you from, exactly?

Call me Alex, please. :) I live in Kitchener, Ontario, but currently I'm on a coop work term in San Diego.


How long have you been in San Diego, and explain more about this Coop Work Term?

I study Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo, in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. I will be starting my 3rd year in May.

As part of the co-op program (internships) at my university, students apply for jobs with their resume, and then companies select candidates for interviews, students go to interviews, and the successful candidate(s) are selected for the jobs.

Every term is 4 months long, and the terms alternate between work terms and study terms. During a work term every student works for a company usually in the field of study. It's basically a short term internship. I've been in San Diego since January and have been working for Qualcomm.


What sort of work do you do for Qualcomm?

I do development on their embedded modem software for their MSM chipsets, specifically on the common protocols team.


I imagine you can take away a lot of valuable experience from that; Do you feel you can put it to good use in your other endeavers?

Definitely! Just being exposed to the large project and having to interact with all the other teams gives me a good understanding of the development of large software projects. Also, it is a good experience to write embedded code. It really forces you to write good code which executes fast! The main language is C, which I can put to good use both in school but also in other development.


How old are you, and when did you first start using Haiku? What motivated you to start using it?

I'm almost 21 right now. I started using BeOS R5 Personal Edition back in 2002 or 2003. Back then I didn't quite know too much about operating systems other than Windows. However, I had a CD with BeOS R5 PE from a computer magazine and decided to give it a try.

Unfortunately much of my hardware didn't work (including my mouse), but I was able to get around a little with the keyboard and got a feel for the speed of the OS, which I really like.

In the past couple of years I've found out about Haiku and I remembered how awesome BeOS was, and I have been trying out VMWare images for a while now, but haven't found the time to get involved so far.


Have you done anything with Haiku or BeOS that you're especially proud of?

Not yet... like I said I haven't had time, so far, to really get involved and start developing


What interested you most in applying for the Google Summer of Code?

The Google Summer of Code project gives me the opportunity to work on an open-source project like Haiku with the backing of a mentor who can guide me through the development and can give me a hand in understanding the project as a whole and how my project should fit in.

I think it is a little intimidating to get involved with a large project without proper guidance. So, I hope that GSoC will allow be a good start to get me involved in the Haiku development.


Was it a difficult application process, or did it merely involve filling in some paperwork and they are basically accepting you straight away?

I haven't been accepted yet, but I hope I do!

It basically requires me to write an application detailing some info about myself and about the project I want to work on.

They have a list of sample projects on the Haiku website and all I did was I pick one that really seemed interesting. I have almost finished writing up my application for the Zeroconf project and I hope to submit it by tonight.

Tomorrow is the deadline, I wanted to get a good feel of the project and give some details as to how I hope to accomplish it...


Why this particular project? Do you feel it will benefit other programmers, not necessarily those that use Haiku, but also other open source developers?

Well, sure... Zeroconf can be used for host and service discovery, so it will make sharing services, such as file shares, music libraries, etc. much easier and cross-platform.

For example, right now I have mDNSResponder running on my FreeBSD file server, advertising my file shares and music library over the network so I can play it from my laptop running Mac OS X.

As to why this particular project, I think it would be cool if Haiku could support those features. It would also allow porting of some applications which make use of this technology (I know there are some programs, forgot the name, which allow you to play music from a shared iTunes library).


If you could skip forward in time 1 year, what is the one thing related to Haiku you would like to see completed by then?

I think it would be better hardware support to make it usable on more machines.


What exactly are the hardware issues you mentioned earlier that prevent you from using Haiku? Do you feel that if they are sorted out (whether you get different hardware or Haiku itself improves), you'll go completely nuts in using it, or are you the more cautious type of person and will be trying it in stages?

Well, at least BeOS R5 would show my screen in black and white and my mouse wouldn't work. I think Haiku does have better hardware support than R5 now. But you know, things like different chipsets, accelerated 3D graphics.


You're an avid media collector, right? If they made a television show, or movie about Haiku, what would be the tagline?

hmm, maybe...
"Reinventing the future..."

since BeOS was pretty ahead of its times, and Haiku's re-inventing the whole thing :P


After GSoC, what are your plans? Will you be working for Qualcomm later? Do you plan that far ahead or are you going with the flow?

Well, I plan on returning to a company I previously worked for on my next work term, in September.

I also plan on contributing more to the Haiku project. I am not sure in what area, but I guess that after GSoC, I'll go with the flow and see what's needed and what is interesting :)


In closing, what advice do you have for young folks who are new, or just getting into Haiku, development, etc etc?

Take your time, learn the basics, don't be afraid to ask questions, and choose a project that suits you: something that you will like to work on.

Also, don't bite more than you can chew: pick a project of smaller scale and magnitude for your first project. Otherwise, you will risk being discouraged if something does not work and you can't figure out why.


Thank you for your valuable time, I know its late for you presently, and you still have some paperwork to finish up. We look forward to hearing more about your adventures in and outside of Haiku. Cheers.

Thank you for taking the interest :) I sure hope to provide valuable contributions to Haiku and its community!


If you want to follow up and contact Alex, you can reach him via email at: alex.roman@gmail.com.