How we built a GStreamer plugin suite for zero-copy NVMM video on NVIDIA Jetson, the bugs we hit along the way, and what it takes to contribute to the GStreamer project — from filing issues to getting an MR merged.
Everything I learned submitting four pull requests to ROS 2 core repositories — from finding issues and building in Docker to passing DCO checks, handling OSRF’s AI disclosure policy, rebasing across distro branches, and running the full test suites. A warts-and-all field guide.
Everything I learned contributing 6 PRs to PX4-Autopilot in a single session — from Docker-based builds and sanitizer workflows, through uXRCE-DDS session debugging and MAVLink signing analysis, to SITL integration testing. Real bugs, real fixes, real build output.
Eigen’s .inc plugin headers were read by Doxygen but never preprocessed as C++ — meaning macros like EIGEN_PARSED_BY_DOXYGEN were silently ignored. Here’s how I verified it in Docker and what the one-line fix looks like.
I submitted a Modified Gram-Schmidt QR decomposition to Eigen and a maintainer asked: why? Here’s the benchmark data that answered the question.
How a missing overflow check in Eigen’s TensorUInt128 division operator caused an infinite loop for any dividend above 2^127 — and the one-line fix that stopped it.
A performance optimization in Eigen’s fill path assumed all scalar types are equal. GCC’s libstdc++ disagreed — and AutoDiffScalar paid the price.
How a GCC 13 false-positive -Warray-bounds warning in Eigen’s TensorContraction led to a lesson about if constexpr, C++14 portability, and the right way to suppress compiler warnings in a large codebase.
Header-only C++23 behavior tree with compile-time DSL, zero heap allocations, and sub-nanosecond node dispatch. 10x smaller binary than BehaviorTree.CPP.
GPS-denied VTOL navigation simulator using fiber optic odometry and monocular vision fusion. PX4 SITL + Gazebo Harmonic + ROS 2 Jazzy. Sub-meter accuracy over 3.3km.