

Ask HN: Small apps ideas to learn Node.js? - stefanobernardi

Hey, so I've been reading a lot about Node.js and want to jump in with a quick (multi)weekend project to learn it. What apps would you suggest building to learn the basics and just have some fun?
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mcantelon
I'd suggest using Express.js node.js framework: it gets you up and running
quickly. Trying to so something with websockets is fun as well and indicative
of the (realtime) future of web apps.

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mbet10
Websockets are a lot of fun - maybe something like collaborative paint or some
kind of multiuser game?

On a side note, anyone know of projects using nodejs in production?

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johnfn
I'm currently making a multiplayer shooter game for node knockout!

It's not currently very impressive, but I hope it will be in about 21 hours :)
I might submit to HN depending on how well it turns out.

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DTrejo
Submit it either way :)

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cilantro
How about a dead simple document sharing website that lets people read the
same doc, on multiple computers, at the same time? (i.e. if you have a bunch
of people on a call with computers up, the speaker can send around a reading
link that lets him or her flip pages for everyone viewing.) I find myself
wishing for this functionality pretty regularly lately. Broadcasting the
pointer, real time comments & annotations seem cool too.

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qw
You could try DimDim ( <http://www.dimdim.com/> ). It's free for meetings with
less than 20 participants.

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jarin
I made a Tweet Wall in a day, with Socket.io (for websockets) and TwitterNode
(for connecting to Twitter's real-time search API). It was a pretty good intro
to the concepts.

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ptarjan
I did a twitter to facebook page poster (using the like button), but haven't
really been maintaining it. Maybe one that was better?

<http://t2fb.paulisageek.com/>

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gmaster1440
A language, like mine ;) pmlang.heroku.com

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pjscott
How about a web chat program, with long polling? Fairly simple, and fun.

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cosbynator
I can second this as a good way of learning. The Node.js site links to a very
readable long polling chat app here: <http://github.com/ry/node_chat>. I
learned the framework by modifying this into an IRC-style party game am now
working on mobile clients for it.

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c00p3r
The classic case of the solution in search for a problem? ^_^

