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Ask HN: Have you created programs for only your personal use?

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Re: Ask HN: Have you created programs for only your personal use?

#421

Post by 3qz »

pensatoio wrote: post #370
ajkjk wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's cool that you do that, but "Doesn't everyone?" implies to me that you might be a bit out of touch. This is common among a certain type of person and unheard of for everybody else.

Not to cast shade on you, by any means, but if you're an engineer (which I think is the implied everyone,) I'm surprised you don't!

> but if you're an engineer (which I think is the implied everyone,) I'm surprised you don't!

I’m an engineer but I only write programs for money and not for myself

Re: Ask HN: Have you created programs for only your personal use?

#422

Post by pcthrowaway »

tdhz77 wrote: post #177
primitivesuave wrote: post #128

I created a program that prints QR codes onto sheets of peel-and-stick labels. When someone scans the code, they are directed to a simple web app that manages food sharing with my four roommates. We noticed that we buy a lot of the same things (bananas, avocados, eggs, etc), so we implemented a system where anyone can stick a QR code onto something they want to share, and anyone else can scan it to record what they t…

It’s like Web 3.0 for your fridge… make a market for anything. A roommate taking 3 eggs from me doesn’t bother me. Firing off a text, “Hey, I took 3 eggs” is all I need. We really just don’t like to share these days. That’s the problem we are now solving it appears.

> We really just don’t like to share these days. That’s the problem we are now solving it appears

Yeah, capitalism took over the sharing economy and turned it into the gig economy.

Re: Ask HN: Have you created programs for only your personal use?

#425

Post by adityaathalye »

Lots! Mostly little scripts. Even a single function is a complete program, like the one I wrote to check for a domain drop, which I then snagged! Of course the dotfiles and dotemacs must be mentioned too.

Currently writing `shite`, the wee static site generator from shell :D https://github.com/adityaathalye/shite

Two days ago I realised it has no if statements! Now that is going to become a design goal ... I need to add 2 or 3 things to make it fit my requirements, but I'm going to keep the if-s out without resorting to weird contortions.

Re: Ask HN: Have you created programs for only your personal use?

#426

Post by betwixthewires »

fuzzythinker wrote: post #413

Took about a year to finish a TradingView like app, with features TradingView doesn't have and missing features it has that I don't care about. Intention from the start is it's just for myself, as making publicly available would take longer plus time needed to support, which may or may not be recoupable even if I charge for it.

Why don't you just FOSS it and publish the code with no promise to maintain?

Re: Ask HN: Have you created programs for only your personal use?

#427

Post by WA »

WesleyJohnson wrote: post #344
gotaquestion wrote: post #258

Huh, I've never been asked that. Yes, for over 30 years. I could never list them all. Nearly every thought I have becomes a program. I've written x86 asm game hacks (DOS era), 2D tile games (80's), Windows MIDI composers, game frame languages, ray-tracing renderers, OpenGL visualization, PID controllers, camera controllers, video controllers, circuit simulators, flight controllers, so so so many games, scripts for an…

I wish I could shift my thinking to do this. I've been a web developer for 17 years and love programming. But any time I've tried to build my own projects or products, it's usually a revamp of an existing product or game, and I quickly lose interest. I lack the ability to see everyday "issues" that could be resolved with programming. But if someone asks me to solve an issue with a program, I could probably come up wi…

The way out for people like you and me is to realize that most problems don’t need to be solved with software. When you find an effective solution that doesn’t involve code or computers at all, you can congratulate yourself.

Re: Ask HN: Have you created programs for only your personal use?

#428

Post by naugtur »

I wrote a tool to convert a YouTube playlist url into a RSS podcast url compatible with podcast player apps. I use it a lot. handsfreeyoutube.vercel.app

I wrote a simple app to turn an inperson tabletop conversation game accessory (pieces of paper) into something that can be used remotely in a pandemic. totpal.vercel.app

And I wrote a bunch of debugging/diagnostics tools for node.js. some for fun, some I actually needed. NPM: debugging-aid

Re: Ask HN: Have you created programs for only your personal use?

#430

Post by fuzzythinker »

betwixthewires wrote: post #426
fuzzythinker wrote: post #413

Took about a year to finish a TradingView like app, with features TradingView doesn't have and missing features it has that I don't care about. Intention from the start is it's just for myself, as making publicly available would take longer plus time needed to support, which may or may not be recoupable even if I charge for it.

Why don't you just FOSS it and publish the code with no promise to maintain?

I may do that, but don't want to make that decision right now.
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