Challenging projects every programmer should try (2019)

Post by tonyg » Tue, Dec 26, 2023, 5:48 AM UTC

p-e-w wrote: post #59

short_throw wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want learn how things scale across a team and last years, read or contribute to open source code. It takes years for a single person to get a project to the point where it's a good learning ground for scaling and maintenance. Gluing a few libraries together is real software engineering but unless you're really invested in the outcome it's not that engaging and it's not that educational.

> Gluing a few libraries together is real software engineering but unless you're really invested in the outcome it's not that engaging and it's not that educational. That's only true if complex systems don't interest you. Personally, I have always found the experience of "putting the pieces together" and orchestrating highly diverse systems into a coherent whole to be much more educational than learning about algorit…

Post by Flam » Tue, Dec 26, 2023, 6:03 AM UTC

p-e-w wrote: post #62

whazor wrote: post #57

A text editor can use an array as data structure. You only need it to be fast during the typing, where you are only changing one line. But for entering new lines, the extra latency needed for rebuilding the array after pressing enter is not noticeable for several million lines. The more challenging part of a text editor is making sure you only render what the user sees.

And the most challenging part is making a text editor that actually works well from a usability perspective. Which has almost nothing to do with data structures and optimization. I've used dozens of text editors. I have never once thought "man, that thing is slow". But I have thought "man, that thing is a bug-ridden, unintuitive piece of garbage" many, many times.

Post by cvhashim04 » Tue, Dec 26, 2023, 6:07 AM UTC

MichaelNolan wrote: post #48

I would add in a security or network related project. Overflow attack, (sql) injection attack, and maybe something like using wireshark to see what a http request actually looks like. I took two capture the flag classes which changed how I look at some of my day to day dev work.

Post by stevage » Tue, Dec 26, 2023, 6:09 AM UTC

nine_k wrote: post #63

azhenley wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is in the sequel! “More challenging projects every programmer should try” https://austinhenley.com/blog/morechallengingprojects.html

Hey, putting a ray tracer and a web browser in the same category of "more challenging projects" seems a bit weird. A ray tracer is a weekend project. A web browser is a multiple man-years project, unless you use a third-party HTML+CSS engine and a third-party JS engine.

Post by johnnyanmac » Tue, Dec 26, 2023, 6:11 AM UTC

nine_k wrote: post #63

azhenley wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is in the sequel! “More challenging projects every programmer should try” https://austinhenley.com/blog/morechallengingprojects.html

Hey, putting a ray tracer and a web browser in the same category of "more challenging projects" seems a bit weird. A ray tracer is a weekend project. A web browser is a multiple man-years project, unless you use a third-party HTML+CSS engine and a third-party JS engine.