Program Ideas?

[fonz2591]

I program in C++, and I'm sick of making useless programs. I would like to know what kinds of programs you would find useful.

It would be easiest if it were a console program, but if it requires a gui, i would use Qt (I hate GTK+ :p )

Also, I could use some help. Email me at aron@ubuntuos.com if you know C++.

Thanks

Aaron

[3rdalbum]

Something I've been meaning to do is write a program that can run commands based on certain events. For instance, when my internet connection goes up, the program would launch Akregator and Gaim. When files appear in a particular folder, they get uploaded to an FTP site, that kind of thing. (I suppose the latter would use libnotify). It would be fully configurable for different events and running different commands and stuff.

I don't know C++ - I was just going to use Python. But if this kind of thing hasn't been done before, and you think you might have a use for it, then please go ahead and use my idea :-)

[fonz2591]

The problem with the program you are suggesting is that it is very specific to the OS/system services. I would like to make a program that can be compiled on any OS.

Thanks for your idea :D .

[nalmeth]

What about an interface to record from a webcam, and take pictures?
So far, I think the only way to record video/audio is with mplayer + mencoder.
See bottom of this page:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Webcam

I think it would be useful. From there you could try to figure out motion sensing :-k

EDIT:
I know camorama can take pictures, but it can't record video

[Frak]

Something with an elegant algorithm that can be put on the app bar that can be something of like a mood ring/stress relief, you could be the programmer to relieve all other programmers.

[nalmeth]

Or for something maybe a little more interesting, a decent Games browser.

There are a couple clients that are supposed to do this, but a simple client that handled the executables for games would be excellent.

For example, most often you have to run new games from /usr/games, because the executable wasn't linked when the game was installed.

[tuxcantfly]

I could always use a slim, trimmed-down, multi-os opendocument viewer. the ones listed on http://opendocumentfellowship.org/applications are either incomplete (odt only, not ods or odp) or not cross-platform

[fonz2591]

Wow..
Thanks for the suggestions so far!

nalmeth: The game browser would probably be pretty easy to do.
It could just scan /usr/games, and display the games in a nice gui.

tuxcantfly: With the release of KDE4, the okular (http://kpdf.kde.org/okular/) program (which will hopefully be released on other platforms using the port of kdelibs) will be released. I might as well not re-invent the wheel.

Frak: Can you explain your idea a little more? It sounds more like a plug-in than an independent program.

Note: In case you are wondering why I want to make it cross platform: I hate it when I come across a program for OSX/Windows, that I really want, but isn't for linux. So I want to avoid OS dependency :p .

Thanks for your suggestions so far!

Aaron

[fonz2591]

I've been thinking about it...
And I think that a web spider that goes through wikipedia and displays a graphical representation of the links between the pages, would be a fun program.

I think I have seen one of these, but it was only for OSX ](*,) .

Any input?

Thanks,

Aaron

[cvmostert]

developing webcam apps would be great... that is one place that linux still has some work to do... according to me... aka.. recording movies from webcam.. i know kopete has webcam support... but for me it does not always work... and gaim... according to me does not supprot webcam.. stand alone.

[sal]

i'm with you on this one. a grate idea.

[fonz2591]

One of my friends showed interest in the Wikipedia program I was talking about, so I think I'm going to pursue that.

The problem with the web cam program is that it is really specific to the OS. To port it to windows/mac, i would need to replace the majority of the code.

Anyways, thanks for the suggestions!

btw: we wouldn't mind some help coding, so post or email if you wanna help.

Thanks,
Aaron

[tuxcantfly]

about that webcam thing, I think camorama does the job. it's in the repos.