Why you should write more toy programs
  • ugo@feddit.it
    15·
    2 days ago

    I agree with the premise, but this website makes me feel very stupid / unskilled. 2 months for a basic x86 kernel with keyboard and mouse drivers, elf loading etc? I don’t think 2 months would be enough for me to even partially complete one of the subtasks. Unless this is 2 months of 8-hour 5-day weeks but, no, even then I doubt I could do it.

    • insomniac_lemon@lemmy.cafeEnglish
      1·
      6 hours ago

      Same here, much too ambitious/low-level for me. I haven’t done enough though, TBH (currently stalled, for a few reasons). I did complete my last project though (~150 LoC minesweeper clone, Godot+bindings, no UI except win/lose screen, and I did simplify and pick my features).

      some of my project ideas
      1. simplified X11 floating WM, clone of my current frameless XFWM window theme
        • First steps: rectangle (titlebar) above window contents that can drag the window, close button within the window contents
      2. simple 3D mesh editor+part/face colors (VC), 2D workflow with extrude/revolve, project palette management
        • First steps: hexy triangle mesh with faces that can be painted+deleted, manually place faces (think wooden pattern blocks), any depth (vase, multiple heights, multiple sides/parts, transform)
        • the sort of thing you could make wall decorations, mesh particles, chess pieces etc
      3. gridmap editor supporting multiple sizes, semi-modular room creation
        • First steps: cuboid cell placement+space reservation, single-layer auto-tile (made of at least 3 cell types, though I also have an outer corner for hallway junctions)

      This assumes I can figure out how to do these at high-level (using libraries, not writing mesh stuff completely from scratch).

      EDIT, an extra:

      1. At one point, I wanted to make something to take analog input from a gamepad trigger and turn it into pen pressure (in one hand, position from mouse in other hand). Some people have looked into this for sc-controller but it didn’t seem viable (input type mixing might be an issue). I wonder how much just an evdev rule or two could do.

      △

      Even those might be more-than-a-few completed simple projects away for me (if I can get that far), though.

      I was going to say voxel stuff isn’t such a bad idea, though when searching I did find a voxel editor with smoothing which is the one thing I’d want there (not quite sure about it using ASCII).

      The 1.44MB thing has made me think about stuff like Raylib again, though a while back I actually made a toy-like polygon text format+loader but wasn’t quite happy as it’s sort of in catch-22 territory (usage complicated by 2 polygon types w/different capabilities+windings, if that weren’t an issue an editor still might be nice).

      I likely will stay with Godot for 3D, moving on to something simpler (like Raylib) especially when I have a set of models that look good unshaded.

  • bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works
    8·
    2 days ago

    I love this site !!

    I have always wanted to make something but its just so time consuming. I also dont have ideas for something that isnt complex. …and I refuse to use an llm to do it, for me thats fake and not real learning.

    • insomniac_lemon@lemmy.cafeEnglish
      2·
      2 days ago

      I would post a “Wait… I know you” picture with the ordered dithering filter used if forced .webp conversion didn’t muddy the edges/colors further.

  • trem@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    2·
    2 days ago

    I guess, this is different from automating a part of your workflow every so often, in that you don’t yet know the surrounding context. It is the point to just dick around with some new context for a bit.

    And if you get bored of it, i.e. you’ve learned enough about the new context, then you can just archive the repo and move on, because you don’t actually need it as a solution.