Coming up with ideas
-
Hey, how do you guys come up with ideas for new programs? I'm going
nuts trying to figure out what type of application I should make. -
On 13/06/2009, at 12:30 PM, Development wrote:
> Hey, how do you guys come up with ideas for new programs? I'm going
> nuts trying to figure out what type of application I should make.
I wish I had your problem ;-) I come up with ideas for new apps
several times a week. I'm going nuts trying to figure out how I'll
ever find time to implement them without dozens of developers!
--Graham -
Mostly listening to people going, hey I wish this was easier or if
this program I always use had xyz and did abc better. Also ideas from
yourself when you find something you need to make your life easier.
I'm sure many developers have made their own various mini-tools to do
random things for them and some don't realize other people might find
them useful too. Several of my public projects started as stuff I
made for myself and later realized with some polish could be something
good for the public.
On Jun 12, 2009, at 8:30 PM, Development wrote:
> Hey, how do you guys come up with ideas for new programs? I'm going
> nuts trying to figure out what type of application I should make.
-
Development wrote:
> Hey, how do you guys come up with ideas for new programs? I'm going
> nuts trying to figure out what type of application I should make.
How about an idea generator app?
To get ideas for it, google keywords:
idea generator
If that seems like a joke, do it anyway, but mindfully observe your
own feelings, judgement, and behavior during the process. Most good
ideas begin with thoughtful observation of something that already
exists, but is so ordinary that most people don't notice it. Be
unusual: Notice things.
-- GG -
On Jun 13, 2009, at 4:36 AM, Graham Cox wrote:
> On 13/06/2009, at 12:30 PM, Development wrote:
>
>> Hey, how do you guys come up with ideas for new programs? I'm going
>> nuts trying to figure out what type of application I should make.
>
> I wish I had your problem ;-) I come up with ideas for new apps
> several times a week. I'm going nuts trying to figure out how I'll
> ever find time to implement them without dozens of developers!
>
> --Graham
Hi Graham,
care to share some of them? I'm sure lots of people like the OP and
myself, who are not as prolific in coming up with ideas as you are,
would be happy to take a shot at some of your ideas.
Wagner -
On 13/06/2009, at 1:27 PM, WT wrote:
> On Jun 13, 2009, at 4:36 AM, Graham Cox wrote:
>
>> On 13/06/2009, at 12:30 PM, Development wrote:
>>
>>> Hey, how do you guys come up with ideas for new programs? I'm
>>> going nuts trying to figure out what type of application I should
>>> make.
>>
>> I wish I had your problem ;-) I come up with ideas for new apps
>> several times a week. I'm going nuts trying to figure out how I'll
>> ever find time to implement them without dozens of developers!
>>
>> --Graham
>
> Hi Graham,
>
> care to share some of them? I'm sure lots of people like the OP and
> myself, who are not as prolific in coming up with ideas as you are,
> would be happy to take a shot at some of your ideas.
>
> Wagner
>
Well, most of them reflect two things: a) my interests and b) the lack
of certain categories of affordable software on the Mac.
So these aren't necessarily original ideas, but I wish there were:
a) really good CAD software that was in a hobbyists price-range but
was of professional quality and a true OSX app, not a crappy port or
half-baked shareware effort
b) ditto PCB design software
c) ditto electronic simulation software (both digital and analogue)
d) ditto mechanical/kinematics design and simulation software
In recent years the quality of shareware or low-cost apps in certain
sectors such as drawing and painting has improved dramatically. I'd
like to see the same ethos spread to some of these other areas, but of
course such apps are far from trivial.
On d) if anyone can point me to a decent open-source kinematics
library I'm all ears...
--Graham -
I usually like to develop something that helps me. If it helps me fix
something that's broken. Or make something last longer I go for it. I
define the problem. Define solution(s). Then code. Then design. Just a
thought and my $0.02.
Sent from my iPhone
On Jun 12, 2009, at 9:30 PM, Development <development...>
wrote:
> Hey, how do you guys come up with ideas for new programs? I'm going
> nuts trying to figure out what type of application I should make.
-
On 13/06/2009, at 4:54 PM, Rick Langschultz wrote:
> Then code. Then design.
Or preferably, vice versa... ;)
--Graham -
On Jun 12, 2009, at 11:54 PM, Rick Langschultz wrote:
> Then code. Then design.
Ugh ...
--
I.S. -
On Jun 12, 2009, at 7:30 PM, Development wrote:
> Hey, how do you guys come up with ideas for new programs? I'm going
> nuts trying to figure out what type of application I should make.
Make something that *YOU* would want. What problem do YOU have that
can be solved with a program? Write that.
--
"If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the
newspaper, you're misinformed." Mark Twain -
On 6/12/09 11:34 PM, Graham Cox wrote:
> On 13/06/2009, at 1:27 PM, WT wrote:
>> On Jun 13, 2009, at 4:36 AM, Graham Cox wrote:
>>> On 13/06/2009, at 12:30 PM, Development wrote:
>>>> Hey, how do you guys come up with ideas for new programs? I'm
>>>> going nuts trying to figure out what type of application I should
>>>> make.
>>>
>>> I wish I had your problem ;-) I come up with ideas for new apps
>>> several times a week. I'm going nuts trying to figure out how I'll
>>> ever find time to implement them without dozens of developers!
>>
>> care to share some of them? I'm sure lots of people like the OP and
>> myself, who are not as prolific in coming up with ideas as you are,
>> would be happy to take a shot at some of your ideas.
>
> Well, most of them reflect two things: a) my interests and b) the lack
> of certain categories of affordable software on the Mac.
>
> So these aren't necessarily original ideas, but I wish there were:
>
> a) really good CAD software that was in a hobbyists price-range but
> was of professional quality and a true OSX app, not a crappy port or
> half-baked shareware effort
While it is still not as good as Illustrator at what it does and still not
quite as good as Claris CAD at what it did, I found IlexSoft's HighDesign to
be reasonable value in this category. Download and checkout their demo, it
certainly bests VersaCAD, Graphite, AutoCAD, Canvas, PowerCADD, ArchiCAD,
MacDraft, and VectorWorks when considering both value and ease-of-use.
That said, there is still A LOT of room for improvement.
Regards,
Grant -
On Jun 13, 2009, at 9:13 AM, Grant Erickson wrote:
> While it is still not as good as Illustrator at what it does ...
This discussion is wildly off-topic for cocoa-dev. It would be
better off on mac-sb or other non-Cocoa-related forums / lists.
--
I.S. -
On Sat, 13 Jun 2009 16:34:00 +1000, Graham Cox
<graham.cox...> wrote:
> On d) if anyone can point me to a decent open-source kinematics
> library I'm all ears...
I've considered kinematics pretty much "open-source" since Newton
published "Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica" in 1687. ;-)
I wonder how many times I've (re)invented that wheel?
Humor aside (too late…):
A developer on the gamedev.net site posted this one a while back: <http://www.assembla.com/wiki/show/ikanimationtoolkit>. I downloaded and played with it and while not 100% "complete" did
do most of the job.
QVM is a library that's specialized for 3D kinetic problems (vector,
matrix and quaternion C++ classes for 3D kinematics).
You may also want to go to <sourceforge.net> and search for
"kinematic". ;-)
--
Enjoy,
George Warner,
Schizophrenic Optimization Scientist
Apple Developer Technical Support (DTS) -
On 14/06/2009, at 3:13 AM, Mr. George Warner wrote:
>> On d) if anyone can point me to a decent open-source kinematics
>> library I'm all ears...
>
> I've considered kinematics pretty much "open-source" since Newton
> published "Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica" in 1687. ;-)
>
> I wonder how many times I've (re)invented that wheel?
Well, this is the problem. I'm not super hot on maths, so for me to
reinvent the wheel from first principles would be a long drawn-out
process. For example, I found a very nice paper that fairly clearly
laid out an approach to the problem that made sense to me, but didn't
include much detail, and talked about "Jacobians" as if anyone would
know exactly what they were and how to code them. What little code it
included was in Eiffel - typical academics ignoring what people
actually use in the real world.
Therefore not reinventing the wheel is exactly why a good open source
library is needed...
> Humor aside (too late…):> >. I downloaded and played with it and while not 100% "complete" did
>
> A developer on the gamedev.net site posted this one a while back: <http://www.assembla.com/wiki/show/ikanimationtoolkit
> do most of the job.
>
> QVM is a library that's specialized for 3D kinetic problems (vector,
> matrix and quaternion C++ classes for 3D kinematics).
QVM I have come across. There are others too, such as KDL.
The problem I seemed to run into (but maybe it's my misunderstanding)
is that most of them are solving simple-ish chains of joints such as
robot arms, whereas many of the mechanisms I'm interested in involve
feedback connections and "loops". I could be wrong but these libraries
don't tackle this adequately. Also many are focussed on inverse
kinematics, though for me I think I just need forward kinematics but
allowing loops.
--Graham -
On Jun 13, 2009, at 17:35, Graham Cox wrote:
> On 14/06/2009, at 3:13 AM, Mr. George Warner wrote:
>
>> I've considered kinematics pretty much "open-source" since Newton
>> published "Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica" in 1687. ;-)
>
> Well, this is the problem. I'm not super hot on maths, so for me to
> reinvent the wheel from first principles would be a long drawn-out
> process. For example, I found a very nice paper that fairly clearly
> laid out an approach to the problem that made sense to me, but
> didn't include much detail, and talked about "Jacobians" as if
> anyone would know exactly what they were and how to code them. What
> little code it included was in Eiffel - typical academics ignoring
> what people actually use in the real world.
It occurs to me that if the clever people at Apple (and NeXT) had just
got their act together a *little* earlier, Newton could have published
in Objective-C, instead of a dead procedural language that no one uses
any more. ;) -
>> Hi Graham,
>>
>> care to share some of them? I'm sure lots of people like the OP and
>> myself, who are not as prolific in coming up with ideas as you are,
>> would be happy to take a shot at some of your ideas.
>>
>> Wagner
>>
>
> Well, most of them reflect two things: a) my interests and b) the
> lack of certain categories of affordable software on the Mac.
>
> So these aren't necessarily original ideas, but I wish there were:
>
> a) really good CAD software that was in a hobbyists price-range but
> was of professional quality and a true OSX app, not a crappy port or
> half-baked shareware effort
> b) ditto PCB design software
> c) ditto electronic simulation software (both digital and analogue)
> d) ditto mechanical/kinematics design and simulation software
>
> In recent years the quality of shareware or low-cost apps in certain
> sectors such as drawing and painting has improved dramatically. I'd
> like to see the same ethos spread to some of these other areas, but
> of course such apps are far from trivial.
>
> On d) if anyone can point me to a decent open-source kinematics
> library I'm all ears...
>
> --Graham
Nice ideas, but I think they're far too challenging for the amount of
Cocoa programming experience I have, so I won't be taking any shots at
them any time soon. :) This discussion reminds me, by the way, of an
idea of my own that I've had nearly 20 years ago, back when I was a
particle physics grad student.
Back then, I wanted to write an application that would draw all
Feynman diagrams of a particular kind for a particular interaction
Lagrangean. You'd specify the interaction vertices, the incoming and
outgoing lines, and the number of loops, and the application would
draw all diagrams with those properties. I also wanted the application
to output (in LaTeX-typeset form) the associated Feynman integral for
each diagram it generated.
Now, back then I had the math and physics understanding necessary to
write such an application, but not the programming experience. Today,
I'm much better prepared on the programming end of it, but I've since
forgotten some of the math and physics knowledge required. Moreover,
it's still a daunting task, I think. So, if anyone else wants to give
it a shot, please do. I'm sure it would be very useful to a lot of
particle physics students and professionals out there.
Wagner -
Am 12.06.2009 um 19:30 schrieb Development:
> Hey, how do you guys come up with ideas for new programs? I'm going
> nuts trying to figure out what type of application I should make.
I'm in a similar boat as Graham, in that I'm so busy working on
existing apps that I actually blogged a few ideas here:
http://www.zathras.de/blog-software-ideas-up-for-grabs.htm
Apart from those, I also see the need to create "a new HyperCard".
Here, my basic thought is:
- Easy for beginners to learn
- English-like programming language, but more like Inform 7 than the
classic HyperTalk
- Real-life metaphors
- Powerful enough that beginners can graduate to "pro-level" projects
w/o having to leave the language
I've blogged about a few interesting articles that can serve as
inspiration for new features:
http://zathras.de/blog-nice-ideas-for-a-future-hypercard.htm
http://zathras.de/blog-headaches-further-revelations.htm
http://zathras.de/blog-how-xtalk-syntax-should-be.htm
Also, I've done a nice app for doing screencasts that I just can't
seem to get finished. It is *not* a screen recorder, but more of a
"snippet monkey" thing that shows you your script. However, it lets
you pre-record bits and pieces of your script, so you can just run
through the script and concentrate on what you're doing on the screen,
while text gets automatically typed into fields, Keynote slides get
shown and hidden and switched through fairly automatically, and your
recorded voice does a perfect voice-over.
If any of this interests anyone, let me know.
Cheers,
-- Uli Kusterer
"The Witnesses of TeachText are everywhere..."
http://www.zathras.de -
> On Sat, 2009/06/13, Grant Erickson <erick205...> wrote:
> From: Grant Erickson <erick205...>
> Subject: Re: Coming up with ideas
> To: "Graham Cox" <graham.cox...>
> Cc: <cocoa-dev...>
> Date: Saturday, 2009 June 13, 11:13
>> On 2009/06/12 23:34, Graham Cox wrote:
>>> On 2009/06/13, at 13:27, WT wrote:
>>>> On 2009 Jun 13, at 04:36, Graham Cox wrote:
>>>>> On 2009/06/13, at 12:30, Development wrote:
>>>>> Hey, how do you guys come up with ideas
>>>>> for new programs?...
>>>> I wish I had your problem ;-) I come up with
>>>> ideas for new apps several times a week.
>>>> I'm going nuts trying to figure out how
>>>> I'll ever find time to implement them
>>>> without dozens of developers!
...
>> Well, most of them reflect two things:...
>> a) my interests and
>> b) the lack of certain categories of affordable
>> software on the Mac.
>> a) really good CAD software that was in a
>> hobbyists price-range but was of professional
>> quality and a true OSX app, not a crappy port
>> or half-baked shareware effort
> While it is still not as good as Illustrator
> at what it does and still not quite as good
> as Claris CAD at what it did, I found
> IlexSoft's HighDesign...
> VersaCAD, Graphite, AutoCAD, Canvas,
> PowerCADD, ArchiCAD, MacDraft, and
> VectorWorks when considering both value and
> ease-of-use.
I've been longing for a good, inexpensive app
along those lines, too, since working on one
years ago. We had over 200 developers working
mostly on one CAD/CAM product, but with others
working on integration with others' specialized
packages, e.g. for plastic mold design and the
CAE packages.
The best I've seen have disappeared from the
markets or cost a king's ransom (ours was $100K
a pop, as I recall, but you could have 64 or
more designers using it). The ones I've run
across more recently are mere toys, and
cumbersome at that.
I've thought about what it would involve, and
turned back each time. Neither the Quartz
nor OpenGL libraries/frameworks lend themselves
to it. In some ways it was simpler way back
when drawing consisted of sending escape
sequences to graphics terminals, and it didn't
require standing on your head to draw something
elsewhere than the view origin; you just said
"draw an ellipse with foci there and there",
or "draw a circle inscribed in the triangle" or
"draw a circle with center there, in that part
of the sky-scraper and with radius of
2 millimeters and parallel to the current view
plane".
Others would be to see gimp ported to use Quartz
instead of X11 or whatever, better bidness
graphing programs, outlining/writing assistants,
reading/writing teaching programs & games,
poor man's GIS, more graphical report options
for genealogical info, EASY to use encryption/
decryption, bibliographic data-base, games that
did not skimp on physics but ditched the speed
gimmicks, weather-watching app that would let
me watch an imagery loop that lasted 30-120
seconds instead of skimping and showing a jerky
5-second loop, handy integrated program for
sending out resumes and tracking when which
version was sent to which e-mail address
(I'm using iCal and AddressBook and MarinerCalc
and TextEdit and lots of copying and pasting,
and file selecting, now; but would much prefer
to just click on a dozen check-boxes, and then
a "do it" button, and have it keep track of
which ones bounced, too ;B-) and a handy
data-base to keep and share my black-list
of firms with unethical practices (though I
suppose a group in AddressBook would suffice).
"The best way to have a good idea is to have
a lot of ideas." --- Linus Pauling (quoted
in Martin Edelston & Mary Buhagiar 1992
_I Power_)
