Writing something.......

[Micah Yoder <lyoder@cyberis.net>]

Anyone want to start writing something just for the heck of it???????

Perhaps an educational program, since there's a major consensus that we
need some.

Just a simple, small project to start.  It will perhaps get us focused
and help us to learn to work as a team creating something.  And it would
be something we could contribute back to Linux right away!

So........what fairly simple things is Linux still lacking?  I have some
ideas....please throw out more, and maybe we can run with something!

1.  A simple Q&A/flash card/quiz program.  Administrators (parents,
teachers, etc) could easily put in items to be quizzed on, as well as
multiple choice or fill-in-the-blank answers.  Eventually, if this is
written abstractly enough, it could be expanded to be a real networked
testing environment that teachers could use to give entire classrooms
tests.

2.  Similarly, a basic math tutor.  When I was in grade school, I was
fairly fond of a Commodore 64 program that tutored basic math.  It gave
problems (+, -, *, /), and you could work them out in your mind and type
in digits in the same order as you would write them down if you were
doing it on paper.  If you were doing something wrong, you would know
about it immidiately.

3.  Little board games.  Has anyone played the Commodore 64 game "Chain
Reaction"?  It came from a Compute's Gazette magazine, but I was quite
addicted to it for a while.  It's just a little two player strategy
game, and I could explain the rules if anyone's interested.  The C64
program had computer AI, which shouldn't be hard to implement.

4.  A typing tutor.  Something that measures speed and accuracy.  Could
be extended (with SEUL-help?) to actually give typing tips, diagrams,
etc.

5.  A free form note program.  A user could type in anything he/she
wanted to remember - any quick note - and click Save.  It would then
archive all the notes for quick searching based on keywords in the
text.  Would be nice to imbed in the GNOME panel.

More ideas?????  Anyone want to run with one of these and create a team
to do it???  SEUL would be just a bit more interesting if we were
actually producing something, even if it was minor.  :-)

-- 
Linux: Everything else is just a toy!
http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Shores/2359