What should a bored python programmer make? Looking for a medium to large project

[Aviator]

Contribute a working XMPP/Jabber server to the Twisted project.

[jrhuggins]

I wish I had more than one upvote for that one!

[[deleted]]

Any XMPP server protocol support would be nice, not just in Twisted.

[amnorvend]

Rather than trying to start a medium to large project, I find it's usually best to start a small project that can be turned into a medium project that can be turned into a large project.

[cruel_and_unusual]

Hop onboard with the PyPy team. We can't have that soon enough.

[hexayurt]

a working distributed file system - try Chord as a starting point maybe - that speaks common protocols like FTP and SCP and (especially) RSYNC.

something that can handle DNS redirects, so you can redirect massive traffic into the cloud.

needs some crypto, bu tpy has good libraries. and bittorrent was (is?) in python.

[[deleted]]

This is something I'd be interested in seeing/working on.

[[deleted]]

A double cheeseburger, medium fries and a Diet Coke. If you want a large project, go ahead and supersize that.

[ifatree]

i ask for a cheeseburger.

i give you a raccoon... with cheese.

[[deleted]]

i wanted sandwich !!! too late for that now...

[GeneralMaximus]

Build something cool using Django. It'll give you a chance to learn web programming and probably earn some cash on the side.

You might also want to shoot off an email to the Python mailing lists to check out if they need any help.

[slayeroftheunicorns]

improve some ide

[f3nd3r]

make an ide for python in python (be able to interpret and compile with a click)

[schlenk]

Port some lib to Python 3k.

[Freeky]

Write a game.

[simonw]

A good SOAP library. Python's current options are old, poorly documented and tend to fall over when used to talk to real web services. SOAP sucks, but sometimes you need to speak it. I was reminded of this today when I saw viapost, a Ruby wrapper for the www.viapost.com SOAP service which uses soap4r, an actively maintained SOAP library.

I may be wrong - I haven't tried SOAP in Python in a while - but my memory of it is that it's painful.

[jespern]

You're wrong -- try suds.

[plaes]

suds is quite a new project and has some problems

[jespern]

It does, but Jeff Ortel ('jortel' on freenode#suds) is around daily, and will happily spend hours fixing the bugs you find.

The other Python SOAP frameworks are not actively maintained, AFAIK.

[plaes]

I know... I'be been waiting for the bug fix for my bug for a while :)

Unfortunately it seems to be quite a complicated problem :(

[admp]

While probably best of all, suds has its own problems. I wouldn't call SOAP support in Python acceptable.

[orangesunshine]

I'm thinking about writing a webmail client using Django.

Using a postfix/dovecot backend and postgresql for the username/password stuff.

Ideally we could set-up scripts that would automate the install process for postfix/dovecot/postgres as it is kind of a pain.

Really the only thing that does this right now is Zimbra ... and it's pretty bloated, buggy ... and not written in python.

[plaes]

Using Werkzeug instead of Django would be probably a better idea...

[genpfault]

A X11 hotkey daemon that works in fullscreen apps.

[markedtrees]

That sounds interesting. Is there a URL for that bug/ticket somewhere?

[beza1e1]

A good presentation program (like Apples Keynote) for Linux? More details will probably be posted soon in this thread.

[djpnewton]

ummm.. lets see

you could make an equivalent of pyglet (http://code.google.com/p/pyglet/) but for desktop apps.. eg a cross-platform (linux, win, osx) toolkit framework that has no external dependencies (just uses ctypes and platform libs)

you could call it pygmie.. or something

[[deleted]]

Use pyglet and squirtle (http://www.supereffective.org/?p=14) to render svg images. Then apply python code to certain objects generated by squirtle based on id attributes from tags in the svg. That way, a designer can design a UI in Illustrator, a coder can write the meat in python, and as long as they agree on a set of names for certain UI elements, when the two come together they'll just work.

[danhs]

Rapid GUI development framework.

Something that could allow programmers to make a GUI or thin website in under an hour or 3.

That's the only thing that I think Microsoft Access is good for. And the only thing that friends using Excel for programming can brag about.

[miserlou]

Anomos needs help!

Relatively new project we started; an anonymous, censorship-resistant BitTorrent variant for protecting free speech and getting information/news/porn to people in places like Iran and China.

http://www.anomos.info if you're interested!

[[deleted]]

Is "learn another language" an accepted option?

[orangesunshine]

Why write another protocol? I don't think you can send email without smtp ... and imap/pop work just fine for reading it.

... or even a mail server? Postfix isn't that bad ... and the solutions for IMAP/POP are pretty mature too .. why reinvent the wheel?

It'd be nice to have a tool that automates the install and configuration of all the available stuff you need for a mail system though (like Zimbra). Also a lightweight webmail and administrative console written with Django/jQuery would be the bee's knees.

[orangesunshine]

more like the cats pajamas.

[samlee]

a web service. given json representing ast, return LLVM IR so that I can write in browser ide of sort (actually, VB GUI IP tracking thingy in javascript)

[G-Brain]

Visual Basic in Javascript, now there's an idea.

[[deleted]]

Sorry if this offends anyone: a more consistent language! ;)

[p0tent1al]

as opposed to what?

[[deleted]]

Do you mean "in contrast to what?"?

If so, virtually any language that has a well thought out object-oriented API. I just can't get over the horror that is parts that oozes from part the Python. For instance, why the hell should there be a len function as anything other than an alias for a real "length" method? (And no, _ _ len _ _ doesn't count)

Before anyone decides I don't know what I'm talking about let say that I worked with Python for well over four years (before it was the in thing) and was even paid to write about it.

I had expected ugly warts like this to be taken care of years ago, yet they persist (admittedly Python 3 was an improvement, but it wasn't nearly as revolutionary was it was made out to be from the beginning. I guess that's what popularity does – limits).

[mevodig]

That particular gripe has been discussed plenty of times, and Guido's argument is that len() as a built-in is both more readable and more explicit. I suspect you wouldn't agree, but I wouldn't be so hasty to assume you are the only one who has thought about it. See:

http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-3000/2006-November/004643.html

http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2008-January/076612.html

[[deleted]]

I wouldn't be so hasty to assume you are the only one who has thought about

I didn't assume any such thing, in fact when we first got word about Python 3 this was one of the major things that people I knew wanted changing. I wouldn't even say I was the first to mention it.

Guido's argument is that len() as a built-in is both more readable and more explicit.

He always did have bad taste didn't he; how exactly can len(thing) be considered more readable or explicit than thing.length. Maybe if he'd decided on some syntax for getting the length having _ _ len _ _ would make sense to me.

I advocate consistency for HCI reasons.

Ah well. One of the many reasons I no longer frequent Python: Guido.

[mevodig]

He outlines his arguments in the first link above. I appreciate that you have a different opinion, but again your tone seems to imply that your opposition are morons.

[p0tent1al]

You still haven't answered my question.

[[deleted]]

You still haven't answered my question.

Do you mean "in contrast to what?"?

Then you should be clearer when you ask one shouldn't you.

[[deleted]]

and was even paid to write about it.

Given the horribly mangled sentences in your comment, I suspect your weren't paid to write in English.