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Berserker v7
April 22nd, 2009, 03:46 PM
Hi all,

I am about to start working on my Major Project for my final year Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science. So, I do not want to do some old project that would just give me a lot of experience and nice placement offers. I actually want to do something that, in addition to these [-o<, could prove useful to else out there, something that would benefit the community.

So, please provide me with suggestions for projects, that can practically be completed over a span of two semesters. Also, give me your opinions as to what programming languages to prefer and whether I should use fedora or ubuntu as the platform( I have heard that fedora is better for development purposes).

About my programming experience, I am pretty much comfortable with algorithms and programming in general. With respect to programming, I have had good exposure to c++ for algorithmic programming and i prefer using shell scripting for solving "real" practical problems. I am also familiar with java. As for web programming, I am comfortable with HTML, PHP and MySQL applications. I have also done basic linux kernel module programming and syscall implementations. I have never really programmed in python or perl, but am all for learning them if required.

I would also be grateful if anybody would like to guide me throughout the course of the project. I mean, I will personally do all the coding and stuff, while the guide(s) will keep me moving in the right direction and pull me out of any roadblocks that I might not be able to overcome.

In case you want to contact me personally, please send me a private message over ubuntuforums and I will contact you back with my mail id. I live in India and am usually available online from 0130 to 2000 Greenwich time.

Thanks in advance :)

Berserker v7
April 22nd, 2009, 10:21 PM
Nobody?? Come on guys, a poor soul wants to contribute to the open source cause in here!!!

Daveski
April 22nd, 2009, 11:42 PM
Why don't you get the ball rolling by throwing some of your ideas out there? It sounds like you want to program somthing, but what are your interests?

Berserker v7
April 23rd, 2009, 12:25 AM
I knew I did miss out on mentioning something...

I can't say much about my preferences though... I am good with algorithms as thats basically whats dealt with in the Bachelor's... that said, I also have basic programming experience in database applications, networks, compliers and parsing, operating systems, kernel development and syscall implementation... the only GUI programming I have done is using html and php... GUI is of course not a necessity for my project, a command line utility would be just as fine.

Regarding my ideas, I want to deliver something new, something practical but does not have any equivalents existing as yet, at least in the world of open source... and whatever I can think of does not satisfy any of these criterion!! Also, modifying some existing open softwares is a viable option, but I have almost zero code reading experience... in this regard, I have actually been considering (1) implementing a search functionality in smb4k and (2) removing a lot of bugs that exist in xnee and design a scripting language that can be used with it (xnee is an application similar to AutoHotkey, an open software for windows that implements system-wide macros. but xnee has a lot of bugs and has a lot fewer functionalities)... the other concern in this regard is that the work involved in the modification should not be too little.

So, all in all, when I want to develop a new application, my options are indeed wide open. Whatever I do, except for the algorithmic part, I will have to learn the corresponding stuff from scratch...

--EDIT--
And, even though most of my programming until now has been in c and c++, I would prefer using Python for the project.

Daveski
April 23rd, 2009, 12:53 AM
Wide open field.
Are you after creating an application, a simple tool, or something a bit more abstract like investigating some new angles on a theory?

Perhaps now that Adobe have opened their PDF specification as an open standard you could implement some of the simple features of a PDF creation and manipulation app. At least you could start simple like just having the ability to re-arrange page order, cut pages and merge pages from several PDF files. The app could grow depending on the timescales.

Berserker v7
April 23rd, 2009, 11:36 AM
Are you after creating an application, a simple tool, or something a bit more abstract like investigating some new angles on a theory?
Yes, I want to create a full-scale application. Not just a simple tool, but possibly a collection of simple tools that add to something nice and big. Abstract investigation is enough by the project specifications, but then I would end up programming nothing at all. Matter of fact, I did a paper for my Mini Project and got deprived of the oppurtunity to fine tune my programming!!


Perhaps now that Adobe have opened their PDF specification as an open standard you could implement some of the simple features of a PDF creation and manipulation app. At least you could start simple like just having the ability to re-arrange page order, cut pages and merge pages from several PDF files. The app could grow depending on the timescales. Sounds good, but ain't there open softwares out there that do all these? and also, for doing something like this I would need a whole lot of guidance :(... I mean, its more about understanding the different standards instead of any algorithmic approach to problem solving, right?

Daveski
April 23rd, 2009, 01:04 PM
Ah, so you want to create an application which will be useful. You want it to be an algorithmic solution to a problem (or problems) that have not really been done before?

I'll put my thinking cap on.