Anyone need a program written?

[Dave Brueck]

I.j.w.Wever at student.tnw.tudelft.nonsense.nonsense.nl (Fused) wrote in message news:<3ca43ef4.3666136 at news.tudelft.nl>...
> I'm currently trying to master Python, but to succeed I need to
> exercise. However, I detest building programs that have already been
> built a kazillion times and aren't of use to anyone. 
> Can anyone think of a program that I could build that would actually
> have use to someone (you?)? I'm trained in Delphi, know some Java and
> rudimentary C, so the programs don't need to be newbie-easy ( I like a
> challenge: the greater the challenge, the faster I'll learn ;-) ).

To each his own, I guess, but IMO the best thing you can do at this
point is make something that *has* been done a million times before.
The fact that you want to do something unique generally implies
non-trivial, and so you'll be confronted with both coming up with a
good design and mastering the new language at the same time. It's a
bit masochistic and odds are you'll never finish it (which is a shame,
since whatever it was was a unique idea - save it for when you know
what you're doing and do it right!).

For a long time I would write a Tetris clone for each new language or
platform I learned. It's a simple game, has an easily-definable scope,
is interesting, and gives you a decent set of sub-problems to solve in
a bunch of different domains (this would be a lot of fun with Pygame,
btw), and once you get the most basic version done you can use it as a
stepping stone to more complex problems (local multiplayer, high
scores on a central server, network play, custom graphics sets, sound,
music, play versus computer, etc.).

Starting off with a large and unique project can be discouraging and
slow, but if you take the time to learn the language with a simpler
project you'll probably get it *and* the killer app project done in
less time and have more fun in the process.

-Dave