
Ask HN: Looking for programming projects during summer-vacation - alfredelay
I&#x27;m looking for project-ideas to practice coding JavaScript during summer, when I&#x27;m on vacation.
Do you guys have any ideas? Thanks in advance!
======
itamarst
Not concrete ideas, but some principles:

1\. Pick something you will find useful, or

2\. Have a hard deadline: "I must build X in 3 days."

This will help you actually finish your project. (Long version here:
[https://codewithoutrules.com/2016/09/09/side-
projects/](https://codewithoutrules.com/2016/09/09/side-projects/))

~~~
alfredelay
Thank you!

------
deadcoder0904
Build something that will help you.

Pick up some throwaway projects.

I did something like this - [https://100dayz.js.org/](https://100dayz.js.org/)

Now I look back at them & I say 'God did I write this' but it might help u
with some of ur own ideas

~~~
alfredelay
Thanks!

------
rpeden
I'm a big fan of looking at open data sets published by towns and cities, and
then coming up with creative ways to make that information easily accessible
online.

I've seen towns and cities that aren't big enough to have the budget to make a
great website that makes all of the city's data easy discoverable. But many of
them publish open data sets, and you can use the data to create an interesting
project that is also useful to the city's residents.

Many large cities publish lots of open data, too. In general, there are
already lots of apps built with the data sets from large cities, so I prefer
to focus on the smaller ones because doing so offers a chance to create
something that hasn't been done before. You might find that the data published
by larger cities is more interesting, though.

Here are a few links to get started:

[https://opendata.cityofnewyork.us/](https://opendata.cityofnewyork.us/)
[https://data.boston.gov/](https://data.boston.gov/)
[https://data.ny.gov/](https://data.ny.gov/)
[http://data.ottawa.ca/](http://data.ottawa.ca/)
[https://data.albanyny.gov/](https://data.albanyny.gov/)
[http://www.a2gov.org/services/data/Pages/default.aspx](http://www.a2gov.org/services/data/Pages/default.aspx)

------
DCRichards
If you want something that doesn't require any other distractions (HTML, CSS
etc) then Node.js is a good choice. How about writing a RESTful API or
something else self-contained? A while ago I wrote a thing which tweets train
delays in a few days
[https://github.com/dcrichards/gordon](https://github.com/dcrichards/gordon)
to try out some recent Node.js features and libraries.

------
oldmancoyote
Read lots of science fiction. Find something awesome that no one thinks
computers can do yet. Pare it down or limit its focus to the point where it
might be practical. Don't worry about how much memory it uses or how slow it
would run. Then, try to program it. You will push your limits and if it's
awesome enough, people will be deeply impressed with your ability.

------
leksak
Create an inverse of Tupper's self-referential formula where you can, given a
drawing, find the corresponding value of K that draws that image.

===

SQL practice tool

I find that online tools for practicing SQL queries are inadequate, they
suffer from numerous problems that should be addressed by any (new)
alternative.

Specific question sets, i.e. a decent collection of division problems A
website that looks like it was rendered this century Insight into the dataset
being tested against. If I was to build this I could imagine doing it using a
Python back-end and I would build in a roll-back feature if the tool ever was
to be extended to such a degree that one may practice directives such as
UPDATE.

Nice to have the opportunity to load in one's own dataset.

Inspiration [http://sqlfiddle.com/](http://sqlfiddle.com/)
[http://sqlzoo.net/](http://sqlzoo.net/)

===

The developer app

Get a message (Tip of the day) each day with, for instance, hotkeys for your
favorite editor/editors/programming languages.

Let users skip certain tips: "I already know this" so that it doesn't appear
again. Use a Bloom-filter.

Let users select "Emacs", "Vim", "Git", etc.

===

Create a Boolean Algebra interpreter in Common Lisp

===

Implement an HTTP server with persistent connections in Haskell (look at STM)

===

Use Markov chains to create lolcats

===

Implement a Shell in Rust (posix grammar is here =
[http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/V3...](http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/V3_chap02.html\)))

===

Implement various algorithms and data structures,

A-star Actor Model AVL Tree Binary Search Binary Search Tree Bloom-filter
Breath-first iterative search Bucket/Radix sort Circular queue Closest pair
HashMap In-place quicksort K-way merge Murmurhash Priority Queue Set Stack
Union Find Vector (dynamic array)

------
bhchance
This might be a good place to start:
[https://javascript30.com/](https://javascript30.com/)

~~~
alfredelay
Thanks!

