Program Suggestions?

[Mister Ale]

Next week in my computer programming class we're going to begin our quater projects. We can choose any type of program to make (as long as it's appropiate for school), and we'll be given about 3-4 weeks to work on it. The project seems like a pretty fun thing to do, that is if I could think of anything to do. Some people in my class are making clones of Pac-Man, Galaga, etc., but I'd really rather not do a game. I'd like to make a program that could actually be useful to someone.

Well, to my question, does anyone have any ideas to what I could do? Keep in mind that I'm still a bit of novice with programming.

P.S. I'll probably end up making it available for download.

 

[onajourney87]

Hmm...

I'd suggest a simple utility type tool. Some suggestions:
- a MP3 catolog(sp) tool, read IDv3 tags outa MP3 files, and then catogorize the MP3s via folders. Auto-generating playlists for each artist and each CD would be cool too.
- a simple alarm/schedular program. Allow users to add new alarms(set the time, put in a little note), and then when the alarm goes off, pop a window up with the note
- a combination of notepad/wordpad perhaps... something with a very minimal interface that's extremely fast(notepad), but that can open DOC and RTF files, not just plain TXT files. You could toss in some simple things such as saving a text file to HTML too if you know how HTML works.

osm

 

[* kittie *]

i like the idea osmaker gave. make something that people use almost everyday. combine programs. but make it compact, because no one likes a program that's too heavy.
good luck

 

[WeakButHopeful]

You don't mention what language you're writing in (C++, Java, VB6, .Net) or for what platform (Linux or Microsoft).

And I don't want to discourage you, but *almost* anything you could think up has probably already been written. I only mean that, as kind and generous as your thought of writing something that would be useful to others is, I would suggest that you just pick something that you feel would help you learn the most.

For instance, a utility to compare two text files side by side and highlight in color the differences (additions, changes and deletions) between the two is harder than you'd probably think, and already exists (even in freeware) but would help you get a good handle on file manipulation, graphical presentation and analytical thinking. If that's too difficult you could just compare two hard disk directories (easier because the data is more structured).

I've been programming for 32 years, professionally for 28 (but only a few years on PCs), so if you want general advice (I won't be too specific since this is, after all, a school assignment) feel free to PM me.

Best wishes.

 

[Stryper]

make an alarm system. wether it be to wake up someone or to remind someone of something. that seems like a fun and productive idea.

 

[Mister Ale]

Well I decided on going with an AI program, where you 'talk' to your computer. Some guy suggested it on another forum, and he's helping me along with it when I need it. Hopefully once I get it done I'll be able to put it up for download.

 

[Beta-guy]

Could you make an uptime Client that tells information about the OS install date, and various System Specs? me and a couple of friends of mine are trying to see who can go the longest without formatting, and I've been braggin about my uptime hehe it would be really cool to see this