Is there a Lemmy community for “someone should make this”? Similar to reddit’s r/SomebodyMakeThis.
And alternatively, this thread could serve as one: what are some software projects that I/others could take on? Ideally small enough in scope that I could make something partially usable in a weekend or two.
Previously I’ve just worked on whatever I found fun to program, but it would be nice to hear things that people actually want that don’t exist yet, and would be interested in trying it even when it is only partially finished. I’m not sure about others but I find my day job is often full of meetings or bureaucracy, and I don’t often get the satisfaction of seeing people happy with something that I built. (I wonder if this feeling is more common in other types of work)
Yes! I am an assistive technology specialist - helping people with all kinds of disabilities access computers - and I have a laundry list of little challenges I haven’t found the right tool for.
An example to start is needing something kind of like the windows on screen keyboard but that selects letters/keys using arrows and space/enter (a lot like typing using a remote).
The osk has some special feature to not steal focus from where you’re typing, but this could instead let you do all your typing and then when you select done run a sendkeys to type in the text (could have clipboard option but this doesn’t work everywhere). This also makes correcting errors easier. Bonus if it works with text prediction same as the osk :)
If anybody knows of something similar I’m happy to be pointed as well. Searching “keyboard accessible keyboard” is understandably nonsense.
Honestly, find an existing project in your language of choice with an active maintainer and start fixing tickets.
You start a new project, odds are you’re stuck maintaining it for years, and it becomes a job, or it dies. IME, it’s far better to find a project you yourself use and like, that you’re capable of contributing to, and doing that. Start popping stuff off the bug list, if you’re a hero, or implement that missing feature in the backlog that you want. Your commitment to the project is a patch. Or, maybe you like working with the project and you become a long term contributor.
That’s just my recommendation. I’m not saying don’t start something new; just, if you’re looking around for things to do, and aren’t passionately trying to scratch an itch you haven’t found a solution for, you’re most likely just going to create a throw-away project.
Just my opinion.
Thanks, this is something I was considering. I’ve always wanted to dive into the code for something like VLC or Firefox, but I feel like it would take a while before it becomes fun. I still plan on doing it when I feel like I have more free time. Maybe I need to find simpler projects.
I guess in this post I was hoping for something that could have meaningful progress made in a few hours, without a ton of ramping up time. Maybe that doesn’t exist?
I do this all the time, so yes, it exists. Usually, though, I’m trying to accomplish something specific for which I haven’t found a solution, or existing solutions don’t work for me.
What I’m saying is that maintaining a project that other people use becomes a commitment, and IME that’s where the fun ends. It’s one thing if I’m writing something for myself, because I’m the main user and I can be cavalier about requests and tickets.
But, I write throw-away stuff all the time, and it all goes into public repos. I doubt anyone is using most of them.
This is not a small task so apologies for overstepping that a bit, but MusicBee on Linux. I have been trying out Linux music players and none of them are anywhere even close. Mainly I miss the auto playlists feature and the full support for custom tags, but a lot of features could be replaced with scripts as long as the program allowed easy shortcuts and menu options to send files to those scripts.
I’d actually love to make it myself or contribute to a project to get it there, but I have a feeling many projects don’t wish to become that “bloated” or the base wouldn’t be much better than simply starting from scratch. But if anyone knows projects that are actively taking commits or are close in feature set…
I haven’t looked at all since I found Beyond All Reason (open source RTS) but an open source rpg would be cool too. Or survival.
It would help if you said what your interest and skills are. If I wanted a small GNU/Linux desktop or server thing I’d just write it myself. But I can suggest some Android apps since I’m not set up to write those at the moment.
There used to be a GNU project task list but it no longer has concrete suggestions, oh well.
Actually one desktop thing I’d like is a gnus.el back end for Lemmy (if you don’t know what gnus.el is, this project isn’t for you). I might pursue that someday but I’d rather that someone else do it so I can use it.
Another thing I could use: a Pandoc exporter for bbcode, for some other forums I visit. So I could easily convert Org or Markdown files to BB. Pandoc is written in Haskell so that could be an interesting language learning project too, if you don’t already use Haskell. There could be an Org exporter as well, or instead (written in Emacs Lisp).
Those are off the top of my head. Maybe I can think of a few other things too.
“Make this” evokes hardware projects for these. I have many ideas for those that I can’t really pursue myself, as I’m not a hardware guy and don’t have the resources for it.
“Make this” evokes hardware projects for these. I have many ideas for those that I can’t really pursue myself, as I’m not a hardware guy and don’t have the resources for it.
Care to list a few? I’m not a “hardware guy” either, by training, but I happen to be fixating on microcontroller projects & KiCAD at the moment.
I’ll see if I can remember any interesting ones. One is a portable satellite messaging device using this:
Simplest case would be a small waterproof box with a battery and a board and MCU inside. UI would be a phone communicating by wifi. The box could run a web server so you would operate it with a phone browser and not have to install an app. Nicer version could have a minimal keyboard and display, like from a Lilygo Deck.
Note: this functionality already appears in a few high end phones (Iphone 15, Pixel 9) so it may make its way into more affordable phones after a while. Thus, the special hardware might stop being interesting. Meanwhile there are things like the Garmin Inreach which require over-expensive monthly subscriptions.
Another: a privacy oriented health monitor something like a fitbit (it wouldn’t have to be as small), that communicates with your computer or phone but doesn’t send anything to Google etc.
There were a few more. I may make another post later if any come to mind.
I had this idea a few months ago, and found a thread discussing the same thing from several years ago. Seems like nothing came of it.
I currently use Syncthing to keep a lot of items synced across a few of my devices. It’s completely decentralized and fully encrypted. Instead of synching files, what if it could be used as an instant messenger? No central server to interrupt service. No single point of attack. No more requiring a name or phone number, just exchange a QR code to begin communicating.
I think this would excel at group messaging, especially if some members are out of service occasionally. Reconnect, and all messages get distributed.
There must be something out there that already works like this, but I don’t know of a serverless system.
Skype basically worked like this back in the day. It had it’s ups but for day-to-day users it was rather unintuitive so Microsoft moved to a server system when they took it over. I am pretty sure there are still p2p chat systems around though, I just don’t know any of them by name.
I agree and am surprised that this isn’t more in demand. I like matrix.org and use it as a regular messenger for people that I’ve convinced to use it. But it is dependent on people hosting their own instances, or using the official public one (for free).
They do have a “peer to peer” matrix experiment that I’ve heard about but it was in its early stages when I last looked at it: https://matrix.org/blog/2020/06/02/introducing-p2p-matrix/
Maybe try c/selfhosted
A notes app for gnome and libadwaita which feels native with CalDAV as it’s Backend.
