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What's your idea of a "fun" coding project ?
Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 1:12 pm
by Chris Corbyn
Just something ~Roja says in this thread got me wondering what you guys actually find most exciting/intersting in PHP.
I used be really into front-end design but since getting into OOP PHP on the backend has become far more fun. I love to code anything that gets me using new ideas and I seem to have a bit of code fetish for things that manipulate strings like regex/tokenizers/lexical analyzers. It struck me that the things I find "fun" are probably mind numbingly boring to loads of other people
I think I'm going to pick up the phpMyAjax project I left behind again soon... that was pretty cool OOP/AJAX to work on

Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 1:25 pm
by feyd
I've always been more into the backend work than the frontend stuff.
Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 1:27 pm
by Benjamin
I like building anything that is "cool" and fun to play with. I pretty much code for fun.
Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 1:30 pm
by Oren
For me, it's a combination of both. I don't design myself, but I feel that everything is done only once I see the final result.
Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 1:47 pm
by Roja
The Linux Kernel has a concept called "Janitors". They are people that do 'thankless' work, much as Janitors in real life do. Things like fixing trivial warnings, cleaning up formatting, fixing layout, etc.
Anytime I want to have a really good time coding, I pick up a janitor project. Its a lot of work, and its usually repetitive, so its an ambitious undertaking. It improves the overall quality of the code, while usually having minimal impact on the app itself, so it doesn't require substantial testing. Best of all, since it doesn't have user-impact, the only people likely to complain would be other devs - and they LOVE code that has been cleaned up.
I know, it sounds very OCD, and perhaps thats where I channel my OCD-ness (cause man, it aint anywhere else in my life!). But for me, thats my idea of a great time. As an example, I recently had to manually convert over 1,000 SQL statements in Blacknova Traders to use bind variables - adding more security to the game.
I also enjoy adding new features that people really want that I have a unique solution to. Unique solutions mean you get to describe them, and explain them, and thats fun.

Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 2:02 pm
by Todd_Z
I'll work my way backwards in answering this question.
I hate making front ends work for IE. That is the worst, I used to love frontend work and being able to do crazy javascript and whatever, but now I have lost most interest in the subject.
OOP standards have got me going recently - keep php to a strict almost java like structure.
Design Patterns are fun too, creating new ones, adapting old ones.... good fun.
Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 2:03 pm
by infolock
one that does not include numerous "um.. can we do this instead?" statements..
Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 2:09 pm
by Luke
I like taking weak/featureless applications and giving them steroids (adding cool features).
Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 2:13 pm
by Todd_Z
On a side note, if I'm bored of creating new pages or need a break from what I'm doing, I'll take 4-5 line functions and try to boil them down to 2-3 lines.
I don't mean taking out whitespace, just using creative methods to accomplish the same task.
Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 2:14 pm
by Roja
The Ninja Space Goat wrote:I like taking weak/featureless applications and giving them steroids (adding cool features).
I'm totally picturing the HULK.
"YOU WOULDNT LIKE SWIFTMAILER WHEN HE'S ANGRY!"
Funny stuff. That also reminds me of
Zawinski's Law.
Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 2:20 pm
by Todd_Z
See here is when I wish i had some photoshop/creativity skills:
Image an avatar of a hybrid of the hulk and swiftmailer.
Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 2:29 pm
by Benjamin
Zawinski's Law
“Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs which cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can.” Coined by Jamie Zawinski (who called it the “Law of Software Envelopment”) to express his belief that all truly useful programs experience pressure to evolve into toolkits and application platforms (the mailer thing, he says, is just a side effect of that). It is commonly cited, though with widely varying degrees of accuracy.
I don't get it, is this saying that every computer program evolves to the point that it can check email?
Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 2:43 pm
by Oren
Todd_Z wrote:On a side note, if I'm bored of creating new pages or need a break from what I'm doing, I'll take 4-5 line functions and try to boil them down to 2-3 lines.
Ohh... I used to do that in Assembler classes.
Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 2:45 pm
by Roja
astions wrote:I don't get it, is this saying that every computer program evolves to the point that it can check email?
Yes. It happened with Emacs, and other programs, and was meant (somewhat jokingly) to point out that featurism runs rampant once you let it do so.
Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 2:56 pm
by Benjamin
Ah, The joy of feature creap.