Other Software > Developer's Corner

Some ideas for programs, websites, mashups and software projects

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2stepsback:
Hi all,
since Redhat mentioned that he sort of liked one particular blog post of mine at http://2stepsback.wordpress.com, I've got some confidence to post some ideas which *may* (a 1000 strings attached) eventually end up giving you income of some kind.

Anyway, enough rambling and onto the ideas:
1) Generically, every good, well-thought-out IDE grows a community of plugins and programs (naturally therefore programmers and users) around it.

Some such populous software ecosystems are :

Eclipse.org (EPIC, YOXOS/Innoopract, EasyEclipse, lots more....)
Chami.com HTMLKit (440+ plugins, plug-in generator!! )
Wordpress (my fav)
Movable Type,
Earlier Mambo, now forked to Joomla!(1400+ plugins and themes. like wow!)

This page gives a list of top ten PHP frameworks: http://www.phpdeveloper.org/news/6787

Now the fun part: all of those things need translations, plugins to manage common non-core tasks like
mailing-list-management,
shopping-carts,
blog tools,
image galleries,
forums,
live chats,
SMS integration,
MMS/Skype/GoogleTalk/Gizmo/(VOIP in general) integration,
talking characters,
flash animation frameworks,
javascript effects,
AJAX-ification,
VRML - 3D graphics modules

LOADS and LOADS of interoperation and interconversion with and between existing formats like pdf, png, bmp, tiff, jpg, doc, docbook(linux), XML, sql, etc

then there are multiple databases between which the sql formats are not compliant, so you need converters, patches, etc.

Looks like a lot of opportunity to me.

Specifically for web2.0, start here:
http://programmableweb.com

will put more into this list soon

-2stepsback

EDIT: changed the title for SEO. Shameless. I know.  :D :D

2stepsback:
Hi all,
web2.0 throws up so many new ideas at such a furious pace, it's simply amazing.

this list:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/top_100_alternative_search_engines.php
of The Top 100 Alternative Search Engines is imposing to say the least.

(WARNING: I suggest not to get into the habit/addiction of admiring web2.0 sites/startups - it:
1. messes up your work schedule, at the very least ;)
2. shoots up your bills
3. does a world of good to your neighbourhood grocer or wherever you buy your biscuits/cookies/coffee from, and,
4. does a world of bad for your eyes, face and fingers (of course, the remedy for that is "Workrave" at http://www.workrave.org  -
++UPDATE++
I now use Ctrl+Ins, Shift+Del, Shift+Ins for ctrl+c, ctrl+x, ctrl+v respectively, as it is less harsh on the fingers. )

That should be a comprehensive list of web2.0 programs-to-do. Mind you, this list is only search engines! IMO, if you are serious about emulating/improving any of those ideas/sites, the ethical and least-effort way is to cooperate and co-author, not compete.

HTH

-2stepsback.

mouser:
 ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

2stepsback:
Hi all,
a few sources where you could go, to quickly make good programs and sell them as well:

IMO, porting is a good source of work and possibly revenue. Porting from one code platform to another.
That the idea has immense value is proven by projects like:

* Nant - from Java Ant
* MsBuild - inspired by both Nant and Ant
* ActivePerl - Perl for Windows
* ScintillaNET - original Scintilla source code editing control ported to .Net
* Mono - developed to run on both on Windows and Linux - it's Microsoft/Novell's shot at Java
* Phalanger - PHP that compiles on .Net - yes you heard me right - the stated aim of the Project was to ensure that the tool one-click converted PHP source into running IL assemblies - to the extent that "at least one popular PHP opensource project should get correctly converted to .Net and can be run with ASP.Net". And, I tried it, it works!
* Bambalam - convert PHP code into command line windows executables
* Java2cpp - grab your Java source code and run a single build operation (one dos command) and your Java source code gets converted into C++ code - it has some limitations, but for most Java sources it should be OK. YMMV.
* ScriptSharp - write code in C# and it compiles to make cross-browser Javascript source code which you can then include those in your web sites
* Visual Webgui - similar to ScriptSharp, but the maker is a large organisation unlike Scriptsharp, which is a one-man effort, but he's a big man - M$ product manager or something
* Quercus - PHP source compiles to Java bytecode - so if you are not happy learning Java and you want its stability, this is for you.
NOTE: Mashups like these could present problems while debugging. I've yet to try out these myself. But I think if their makers have put so much effort into these things, they've likely got a set of tools for all the issues that such cross-compilation can produce.
* IKVM.Net - allows Java to run on .Net. I've been reading all sorts of ads from apparently big companies like Grasshopper for example, saying that interop is the future - one server running multiple interacting platforms - for example, your awesome J2EE app that you coded last year will run on JBoss, your supercool ASP.Net Web app will run on IIS and these two will run on the same server machine, but using some kind of bridge technology (like Grasshopper) they will interact as well. So, there's great scope for porting as such. Enter Linux-migration (due to M$'s Vista blunders) and you will have more demand for porting.
(OK, I know I'm sounding like those hyped-up marketing-types 8) 8) (which I'm farthest from, btw :) :) ) but these things could actually help someone looking for ideas to make new programs.
* Then of course, there are virtual machines - M$ Virtual PC, VMWare, Parallels, and Linux related emulators like Qemu, Bochs, and Wine (winehq)
* Now, go a little further and add Mozilla-based XUL to the whole picture and you get a superb bowlful of technology spaghetti. See "Mozilla Amazon Browser".
* Still not dizzy? Then, take this: MozzIE - "It is a free plugin for Internet Explorer which adds the capability to display XHTML, CSS 2.1, XForms, SVG and MathML to the user"
* When you've finished cursing or admiring me, or, suspecting my sanity, go to NanoHttp Server (web server written in PHP) and PriadoBlender (does the same as Bambalam above)
We still haven't come to Javascript/AJAX frameworks and cool web2.0 apps.
And flash seems to be about to make a smashing return in the form of Apollo and Flex.
There is also FlashDevelop which is *very* good, IMO.

So much for now. As usual, more to come.
-2stepsback

(Legal Note: It's essential that you respect the licenses of programs you intend to port. After all, it just attribution. Most of the above (not all) come with permissive MIT/X11/Apache/BSD/PHP licenses, which allow you to use them in your commercial applications without being bound by the GPL code revealing complusion, but subject to correct attribution. Respecting that is important and it differentiates a citizen ( or netizen, in this case) from a thief. Imagine the months of work the original programmer put in and then made it liberally licensed.)

2stepsback:
In this age of mashups, we must also turn to a few not-so-obvious mashups which have tremendous potential for revenue, if you are willing to spend time first analysing the feasibility of the particular mashup, and next, implementing it if it's good.

See, we need file format convertors for almost everything.
More so if we think of linux and mono as the future

take images for instance:
png, bmp, gif, tiff, (not to mention the sub-varieties)

So we make a cartesian product of all known formats, fill in the blanks and then enjoy the fun:
Please go ahead and modify this table. [ed: is there a wiki-like page? eg see http://openrecord.org]
dochtmlxmldocbookpdfxls...docx?????html?x????xml??x???docbook???x??pdf????x?xls?????x...
getting the idea?

lots of potential applications.

HTH
-2stepsback

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