Nothing in life worth doing is easy.
Ask HN: I just want to have fun programming again
71–80 of 219 posts
Re: Ask HN: I just want to have fun programming again
#72If you want to have fun, dig into some subfield of computer science, like databases, ray tracing, etc. Something that has been studied rigorously. There, knowledge actually compounds and builds on itself, rather than being thrown out every two years for no gain. Build something small and see if the subject gels with you. If it does, go deeper. If it doesn't, try another one and see if it works. Once you find something you like, you can start self-studying more with books and harder projects.
"But it's hard!" That's the point: surmounting the challenge is where the fun comes from. And then you have skills that 90% of devs don't even attempt because they believed it was "hard."
Re: Ask HN: I just want to have fun programming again
#73How about Unity? https://unity.com/products/unity-platform Or Racket? https://racket-lang.org/ --- I only have a little experience with the suggestions above; I personally like SvelteKit, but it doesn't fit your requirements.
Unity and application development are not a fun combination. Their UI system is notably terrible in both performance (not only the redraw-every-fraction-of-a-second paradigm, but just the plain ol' software architecture and layouting, or even simple things like culling offscreen elements) and features (Event bubbling/propagation? Naaah who needs that? It's not like you're putting a button inside another button! Or a button on a slippy map... Oh wait).
And while the prospect of cross-platform is appealing, it has 0 accessibility support and no way of embedding or being embedded into native widgets.
It's just a little bit better than passable for game UIs (non-interactive HUDs and one-screenful-at-a-time interactive menus), but once you start needing to implement things like drag&drop, virtualized scrolling, or non-trivial layouts, it get exponentially harder when compared to a "proper" application UI library.
Believe me I use it for a living :)
Re: Ask HN: I just want to have fun programming again
#74> I don't mind challenging work, but I like an environment that feels sane and logical and where I am not facing loads of incidental complexity along the way.
> I'm not a fan of the complexity...
My recommendation that helps me having joy: Just do something other than writing code for that particular app. Write a decent (build scripts)|(CI/CD pipeline) that will abstract away that complexity and will reduce cognitive load of building/testing/deploying an app. That's a good feeling.
Re: Ask HN: I just want to have fun programming again
#75This thread has a lot of language suggestions, but I think you need a fun problem to solve. Pick a toy app and work on it. Learn embedded programming with an Arduino. Write an iPhone app to track when you feed the dog. Make a karaoke app for Android. If you pick a project you'll enjoy, the language won't matter. Use whatever is best for the platform. The fun doesn't come with the language, it comes with seeing your p…
I did a similar fun project. I created my own slot machine. I made a small shelf like cabinet out of wood, set a TV on it in portrait mode leaning against the wall, added a few lighted push buttons, and dropped a Raspberry Pi inside. I never finished the software side, but I was pretty proud of the looks of the machine.
Re: Ask HN: I just want to have fun programming again
#76If you want to have fun, dig into some subfield of computer science, like databases, ray tracing, etc. Something that has been studied rigorously. There, knowledge actually compounds and builds on itself, rather than being thrown out every two years for no gain. Build something small and see if the subject gels with you. If it does, go deeper. If it doesn't, try another one and see if it works. Once you find somethin…
> There, knowledge actually compounds and builds on itself, rather than being thrown out every two years for no gain.
That's most of fields. Webshit development is very much exception here, although one with a lot of market share.
Re: Ask HN: I just want to have fun programming again
#77I found fun, recently, in helping out non-profit organizations or places that could use a programmer but just don't have one for whatever reason it might be. I am building a Digital Signage solution that can swap to a live seating availability chart for a performing arts theatre, I'm working with some local theatre groups on helping flesh out some cool custom QLab integrations, etc.
You can find some fun projects in places least expected.
Re: Ask HN: I just want to have fun programming again
#78I am currently writing a small app for my partner. I asked friends what should I use. Decided on react native. It is literaly a slideshow of a praticular pdf (rules for a new dog-sport), just as dedicated app. It is maybe 100 lines. Maybe I will add some anki-like functionality if I feel like it. It was fun.
The crucial thing was, speed of feedback-loop? And the expo stuff is good. It does the bundling, it has hot reload. I don't mind typescript and the embedded xml.
Re: Ask HN: I just want to have fun programming again
#79https://elm-lang.org https://elmlang.slack.com Static FP lang targeting the web as a runtime environment. Wonderful people. The nicest compiler in the game. Tight dev loop. Good tooling. No JavaScript knowledge required. Join us.
Programming in Elm with mdgriffith's elm-ui package is the only way I've ever been able to tolerate developing a ‘modern’ web app.
Re: Ask HN: I just want to have fun programming again
#80This thread has a lot of language suggestions, but I think you need a fun problem to solve. Pick a toy app and work on it. Learn embedded programming with an Arduino. Write an iPhone app to track when you feed the dog. Make a karaoke app for Android. If you pick a project you'll enjoy, the language won't matter. Use whatever is best for the platform. The fun doesn't come with the language, it comes with seeing your p…
Sounds like a super fun project. Did you find one with the moving pages for album pictures or with the pink yellow and blue "ticket" like song listings, or? Those are so awesome, I can think of all kinds of fun ideas to retro-mod either.