Ionrock Dot Org

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Free Time Coding

The other day a miracle happened and I had a little time to code on whatever I wanted. Lately I've been so busy with music and work that there has been almost no opportunities to hack on something fun. Honestly, even though work as been tough, I've actually been having a lot of fun with Javascript, so it is not as though coding is a chore. The bigger issue is finding something creative to code.

The last time a little free time came up I took a look at Javascript on the server. I wrote a tiny framework and started writing a simple template language. Eventually I got stuck trying to figure out to compile/eval some Javascript code within the context of a set of variables, which is something I had done in Python. Since the tactic wasn't going to work and it seemed as though time was no on my side, I figured I'd move along.

This most recent bit of free time got me thinking about Erlang. Recently _why disappeared and as a result Hacker News became a posting board for theories and eulogies. To combat this theme a bunch of users started posting Erlang articles. It got me interested so I started taking a look at the Erlang web frameworks and tools out there. It didn't take long for me to lose interest in Erlang. It seems like a great language in terms having functional qualities, but past that it doesn't seem like that much fun. I'm sure I'll take a stab some other time at really digging in, but for now, I'm ok letting Erlang gestate a bit more in my head.

So, the big question is what's next? I'm coming to the conclusion that my desire to start something new is rapidly falling by the wayside. I'm not in the mood to learn an entirely new framework or language at this point. This attitude could change, but at the moment it seems like it would be better to really dig in on an idea or existing project. The hardest thing about figuring out what that project or idea might be is simply an itch that needs to be scratched.

I know Bob has quite a few projects that could use help. Dejavu seems incredibly interesting as an ORM, but I'm really not much of a database guy. There is always making an effort to tackle a ticket on CherryPy, but again, that code is darn solid with quite a bit of history, so bugs seem like they would need a good deal of knowledge. This is totally fine, but it doesn't necessarily fit my free time coding ideal of doing something that lets me code quickly. That said, I also don't want to be lazy either so biting the bullet and working with something like Dejavu or CherryPy would be worthwhile.

Another area that is of interest to me is creating some tools for Ume. We are terribly unorganized when it comes to our merch. We're hitting the road soon and having some simple tools to help keep track of how we're doing financially seems like it might be nice. The problem there would be getting users. I know my wife pretty well and suggesting that we use some hacked together web page to input how many shirts we sold is going to be a challenge when you have a mini-rush at the merch table. Also, it is doubtful a well designed spreadsheet wouldn't be more than adequate.

It looks like my best bet is to take another look at Dejavu and see if there might be something I could do. At the very least it would be nice to get back in to the SQL world a bit and possibly brush up on things that I've long forgotten. I can use a simple accounting or merch tracking app as an example and see what I figure out. Making it a CherryPy app instead of WSGI might also help me learn something as well and it might be possible to help folks out on the mailing list a bit more.

Honestly, I can't imagine I'm going to get very far, but having a plan seems like part of the battle. Wish me luck as I'm sure I'll need it!