
Pet Projects - llambda
http://blog.fogus.me/2009/05/29/pet-projects/
======
babebridou
My current pet project is a Boilerplate OpenGL-ES 2.0 Android project in java.
I don't want to go all the way and build an engine, I'm far from being
experienced enough, but at least it's a great way to sort the good and the bad
in all the things I've done already.

Loading of textures, creation and loading of materials, loading of shaders,
linking of programs, creation and buffering of VBOs... there's a ton of things
to be done before you can even see anything on your screen. I'd love to speed
this up for the first launch, and then let the code be overhauled according to
each and everyone's specific needs - OpenGL is too low-level to be wrapped in
a full-fledged library (that would be an engine...), and I'm a bit fed up with
copy-pasting my own bugs from previous projects, so a boilerplate with very
few features (and errors!) will do.

------
airfoil
Ah yes. I wrote a game (text-based "sports" sim) in Python and wxPython
roughly eight years ago that still has a small, but hardcore community of
players. I started on a "version 2" of the game about six years ago. Anytime I
want to learn a new language I try and implement "version 2" using the new
language. As a result I've learned Ruby, JavaScipt, ActionScript, Scala,
Clojure, Lua, Haxe, and a ton of frameworks/libraries associated with the
previous languages. It's been an absolute blast, but I still haven't released
"version 2" yet.

------
nuttendorfer
My own pet project is a browsergame: 2 years in I still don't have anything
playable because I start over all the time. It began with Ruby, Sinatra and
MongoDB; the last version before I deleted it was with Rails, Haml and
ActiveRecord. Next time I'll go with Rails, Slim and Sequel.

I don't think I'll ever release anything, but it's fun to work on it and learn
new tech!

------
t_hozumi
This might be a good way to learn a language, but I'm not motivated to solve a
problem which I've already solved.

~~~
sherwin
I agree. I think I take the reverse approach -- I maintain a list of project
ideas that I would actually use were I to build it -- and when I get the free
time, I can see what new languages / libraries / techniques I can apply to
implement one.

------
thibaut_barrere
Before starting a pet project, ask yourself why you wouldn't start a "pet
product" instead :)

