Bored Developer's Dilemma: What to code and what to code it in?

[Asudem]

Greetings all,

I have a seemingly large amount of time to spend with myself and all the bits on this computer I could flip to my heart's content. However, my ability to keep that heart beating as fast as it does for using my computer could be greatly improved if I made adjustments myself. I find two of my online worlds colliding a lot and wish to have them sorted through my own program to help define the commonalities between the two social networks. Nothing like this currently exists which brings up what I've run into a lot and I call my "developer's dilemma".

• If I intend to make a program that does not exist in one form or another, is it worth making at all?
• Would maintenance on the program outweigh its usefulness over using the two platforms non-integrated?
• If I made this in a language which used external modules, am I prepared to have my software bloat from the unneeded components?
• If I did want to write it from scratch in a new language, what should I write it in?

I am not certain if other developers (or the self-proclaimed developer like myself) get this or not, especially when FOSS becomes involved.

[IainB]

The answer to all of your points is "FORTRAN".

[anandcoral]

Simple,

1. First I feel the need or is required to accomplish 'something' in fast and easy way.
2. Existing solution do not solve it fully.
3. Pick up the program language which will do it in easy and fast coding.
  (For above I have used AutoHotkey, AutoIt3, Harbour, MiniGUI to name a few, and pick which satisfies most)
4. Make it.
5. Use it and love it.
6. If you feel satisfied and happy, share it with others or release it as NANY

I follow it.

Regards,

Anand

[wraith808]

Simple,

1. First I feel the need or is required to accomplish 'something' in fast and easy way.
2. Existing solution do not solve it fully.
3. Pick up the program language which will do it in easy and fast coding.
  (For above I have used AutoHotkey, AutoIt3, Harbour, MiniGUI to name a few, and pick which satisfies most)
4. Make it.
5. Use it and love it.
6. If you feel satisfied and happy, share it with others or release it as NANY

I follow it.

Regards,

Anand

This in a nutshell, and well stated.

[publicdomain]

Hello Asude,

What to code and what to code it in?

What a big thought! Looks like the programming equivalent of “To be, or not to be, that is the question”

Personally, I'd say it depends on the purpose at hand.

If you want to get things done in a quick / time-sensitive manner, then by all means go with whatever language +libraries you are more proficient in. This day and age programming time itself can be said to be more scarce than computing power (gladly!).

If you want to learn, there's usually nothing more productive than the hands-on approach by using your target language to code programs in an increasing difficulty fashion.

This approach is what works for me.

Cheers!
Vic

[superboyac]

Greetings all,

I have a seemingly large amount of time to spend with myself and all the bits on this computer I could flip to my heart's content. However, my ability to keep that heart beating as fast as it does for using my computer could be greatly improved if I made adjustments myself. I find two of my online worlds colliding a lot and wish to have them sorted through my own program to help define the commonalities between the two social networks. Nothing like this currently exists which brings up what I've run into a lot and I call my "developer's dilemma".

• If I intend to make a program that does not exist in one form or another, is it worth making at all?
• Would maintenance on the program outweigh its usefulness over using the two platforms non-integrated?
• If I made this in a language which used external modules, am I prepared to have my software bloat from the unneeded components?
• If I did want to write it from scratch in a new language, what should I write it in?

I am not certain if other developers (or the self-proclaimed developer like myself) get this or not, especially when FOSS becomes involved.

I will give you two great ideaas right here that ive been dying for....

Idea #1:  windows/android hardware input device that has programmable buttons etc.
something like from the black mirror episode:
https://66.media.tumblr.com/01f6bb7505a7090d376cef4d6d3aa716/tumblr_oeh767MSoh1u3bhkao1_400.gif

there are NO bluetooth programmable devices. 

Idea #2:  software RAID for windows
there was a pretty nice windows product called traid flexraid.  it just went down (out of business for good).  what it did was you can stick in a bunch of random disks and pool it into one storage.  Drivepool is a good product now that does this.  but drivepool doesnt have parity built in like traid did.  so its not great.  if you could make either a standalone solution that can do the pooling and parity (for WINDOWS!!!)....OR create a parity only software that plays easily with Drivepool (not like snapraid which is what most people use now as its basically the only option)...then thats another sorely needed product.

regarding the original question...
i'd be careful about making something that ties social networks together.  You will be at the mercy of the social networks as they war with each other and constantly change their api's and remove features that allow the kind of thing you are talking about.  Over the years, most of these efforts have been destroyed by such things.  try syncing facebook calendar/events with anything.  try getting all your contacts into one place with good management features and contact photos that dont get reduced to 16x16 pixels eventually.  if iwere you id do one of the things i listed above.  lol 

[superboyac]

The answer to all of your points is "FORTRAN".

I blame YOU for my unfortunate transition to Onenote! lololol

[Deozaan]

Idea #2:  software RAID for windows
there was a pretty nice windows product called traid flexraid.  it just went down (out of business for good).  what it did was you can stick in a bunch of random disks and pool it into one storage.  Drivepool is a good product now that does this.  but drivepool doesnt have parity built in like traid did.  so its not great.  if you could make either a standalone solution that can do the pooling and parity (for WINDOWS!!!)....OR create a parity only software that plays easily with Drivepool (not like snapraid which is what most people use now as its basically the only option)...then thats another sorely needed product.

Have you looked into Gluster? I don't know much about it. I just saw it was used in this Linus Tech Tips video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsZtTpBk7s0

But it does seem to have some kind of parity or recovery options in the case of a failed drive. It's not exactly for Windows, but it can be installed in a VM. But I suppose that's probably not what you're looking for.

[BGM]

Ah - OneNote - I tried that and hated it.  I began using KeyNote and loved it, but developement wasn't enough to make it entirely stable.  I ended up with TreeDBNotes which is totally wonderful, but it needs some fixes and the developer must have died or moved to Mars.  I'm still using that, but wish there was something like it.  If you are really bored, that could solve your OneNote problem!

[superboyac]

Idea #2:  software RAID for windows
there was a pretty nice windows product called traid flexraid.  it just went down (out of business for good).  what it did was you can stick in a bunch of random disks and pool it into one storage.  Drivepool is a good product now that does this.  but drivepool doesnt have parity built in like traid did.  so its not great.  if you could make either a standalone solution that can do the pooling and parity (for WINDOWS!!!)....OR create a parity only software that plays easily with Drivepool (not like snapraid which is what most people use now as its basically the only option)...then thats another sorely needed product.

Have you looked into Gluster? I don't know much about it. I just saw it was used in this Linus Tech Tips video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsZtTpBk7s0

But it does seem to have some kind of parity or recovery options in the case of a failed drive. It's not exactly for Windows, but it can be installed in a VM. But I suppose that's probably not what you're looking for.

i've heard of it, but haven't looked deeply.  it would intimidate me from what i can tell.  I tried at first using freenas or something, but was super intimidated especially when i saw all the command line stuff and it would be very difficult to expand/contract disks later on.  traid was so good for stuff like that.  the ONLY problem traid had was the developer is really pretty impossible to deal with in every way.  and thats the dealbreaker.  but the product was unique and fantastic.  now i have to consider moving to drivepool+snapraid.  if the drivepool company would create a real-time parity product they would DOMINATE the entire scene.  don't know why they dont.

with traid, it runs on windows...you can jam in a bunch of any kind of disk and just create a pool, with real time parity, works great.  so easy.  cant even really mess it up.  you can swap disks out if they go bad, no problem.  nothing else like it.  unraid is similar, but the fatal flaw is that it doesnt run on pure windows, and doesn't really support using existing ntfs drives...but otherwise great lol.  storage spaces is frightening to rely on.  all other solutions (other than drivepool) are command line-y and anxiety inducing.  i tried so many and i often felt like id lose 20TB at any given moment lol.

[superboyac]

Ah - OneNote - I tried that and hated it.  I began using KeyNote and loved it, but developement wasn't enough to make it entirely stable.  I ended up with TreeDBNotes which is totally wonderful, but it needs some fixes and the developer must have died or moved to Mars.  I'm still using that, but wish there was something like it.  If you are really bored, that could solve your OneNote problem!

dude...you are living in the past.  keynote was good in the 90s (sorry tranglos if you are still here, you are still the MAN).  treedbnotes is good for 2005.  lol.

if you like treedbnotes, you should look at rightnote.  rightnote is the best currently for the old school way of doing things.

[x16wda]

3. Pick up the program language which will do it in easy and fast coding.
  (For above I have used AutoHotkey, AutoIt3, Harbour, MiniGUI to name a few, and pick which satisfies most)

Anand, I am always curious about picking up another toy to write something in, but there are several search hits for MiniGUI, do you mean this one?

Harbour MiniGUI Extended Edition, which informally called MiniGUI, is an environment for developing desktop applications in Windows. It is a combination of two languages:

For back end programming and data handling, Harbour, an open source xBase language which is a superset of Clipper, which is itself a superset of dBase.
For front end GUI, a set of simple commands to the Windows API based on VB RapidQ style.
All GUI objects can be created and managed with very simple code.

The basic components of MiniGUI are:

Harbour (default) or xHarbour compiler (translates source code into C)
MiniGUI library (commands and functions to handle the GUI)
Borland C++ (default), MinGW, Visual C, Open Watcom, or Pelles C compiler
The Harbour MiniGUI IDE may be used for two-way visual design.

In addition to GUI applications, with MiniGUI you can also create console mode and mixed GUI-console applications. From WinXP to Win 10.

Do not confuse Harbour MiniGUI Extended Edition with:

MiniGUI, an open source GUI system for Linux and embedded operating systems that is not related to Harbour MiniGUI
HMG, the parent project of Harbour MiniGUI Extended Edition
ooHG, an object oriented library based on HMG

I saw especially that last item about the "do not confuse Harbour MiniGUI Extended Edition with" list.

[BGM]

if you like treedbnotes, you should look at rightnote.  rightnote is the best currently for the old school way of doing things.

I've tried Rightnote, and all kinds of other ones, too.  In fact, I try every one I can find.  I don't use KeyNote anymore.  But I can't find anything I like better than TreeDBNotes.  I wish I could get the code for it myself - then I would make my own fixes to it.

[wraith808]

there are NO bluetooth programmable devices. 

False.  There are several programmable bluetooth keyboards.  I have one that I made, actually.  In this post, it's the bottom right one in the image.  I have to use TMK right now, but would really like to change to QMK.