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Ask HN: If you had the time, what software would you build?

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Re: Ask HN: If you had the time, what software would you build?

#11

If I had the time and money I would build a running cat-like robot. I've always loved mechatronics, have a background in mechanical engineering, and just recently started programming so I'm dying to give it a shot. I know it's probably harder than it seems on the surface, but I have hope.

Heh. I always wanted to build a little robot that would sweep the house by itself :D.

Re: Ask HN: If you had the time, what software would you build?

#12
post #9
post #6

Where do I even start... - graphical interface for neovim that looks exactly like sublimetext; ssh channel for working with remote neovim in local ui - full range scanner / automatic database signal matcher for sdr - browser+server framework for board games that can abstract the display and rules to the point where you can implement things from chess to warhammer - sane backend for the chef server - nicer interface /…

> browser+server framework for board games that can abstract the display and rules to the point where you can implement things from chess to warhammer I've been wanting to do something like this for tabletop card games. * Provide an open standard to define the design and optionally, logic related data for cards. I'll come back to this * Provide an API for people to manage decks, draws, discards etc. * Provide another…

Actually I read in the news before that gwent (card game from witcher 3) has been implemented as a mod in tabletop simulator. I wanted to respond to you with the link (http://store.steampowered.com/app/286160) - and I discovered it actually supports any board game!

Re: Ask HN: If you had the time, what software would you build?

#13
post #11

If I had the time and money I would build a running cat-like robot. I've always loved mechatronics, have a background in mechanical engineering, and just recently started programming so I'm dying to give it a shot. I know it's probably harder than it seems on the surface, but I have hope.

Heh. I always wanted to build a little robot that would sweep the house by itself :D.

If you can find a Roomba that someone is getting rid of, that should make it into a doable 3hr project or so by cannibalizing the brains and just modifying the body. But depending on if you enjoy building the brains or the body more then that may be a kill-joy and defeat the purpose.

Re: Ask HN: If you had the time, what software would you build?

#15
post #6

Where do I even start... - graphical interface for neovim that looks exactly like sublimetext; ssh channel for working with remote neovim in local ui - full range scanner / automatic database signal matcher for sdr - browser+server framework for board games that can abstract the display and rules to the point where you can implement things from chess to warhammer - sane backend for the chef server - nicer interface /…

"sane backend for the chef server"

Would love to understand more as I at times do think of writing a better chef.

Re: Ask HN: If you had the time, what software would you build?

#16
post #6

Where do I even start... - graphical interface for neovim that looks exactly like sublimetext; ssh channel for working with remote neovim in local ui - full range scanner / automatic database signal matcher for sdr - browser+server framework for board games that can abstract the display and rules to the point where you can implement things from chess to warhammer - sane backend for the chef server - nicer interface /…

"sane backend for the chef server" Would love to understand more as I at times do think of writing a better chef.

I believe that chef is really over engineered in many ways. They were thinking big... too big.

For example things like document indexer which is used in 99.99% of cases to search for "some.attribute == 'hardcoded value'". Most of the other cases are prefix searches. This can be done in a normal database. Document storage where what chef really needs is ~5 extracted fields and a json blob that only client deals with. (Again - database is better) Message queue to the indexer which only exists to get broken and be a limiting factor. (extracting even 100 fields from json is not a huge work - just insert them as database rows and prevent the indexing delay) They go after new technologies, where a very conservative stack would be more than enough.

The server API is public, so I started working on a replacement using only python/flask/postgres. I got maybe 80% implemented (ignoring the enterprise namespaces). Then got discouraged because I discovered some API flaws which I thought were just too big - for example the API call to update and create a new node is exactly the same, which can make terrible mess by accident. (seen in real deployment) In the end I just started using salt which I think is a better solution overall.

If you use chef and would like to continue, I'm happy to send you the repo. (email in my profile) If you don't - I can only recommend migrating to something better (salt, ansible, etc. - your choice).

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