Project Ideas?

How about a Quick Look command-line tool that accepts HTML fragment identifiers:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1358893

 

rather than bump around in circles and learning everything the hard way, why not learn from success and contribute to a reputable open source project?

 

In the past few months/years (based on your posting history) you've gone from trying to learn Applescripting to trying to learn Python to trying to learn C to trying to learn Objective-C. Either you really aren't cut out for programming/coding or your lack of patience is holding you back from learning any of them well enough to do something with it.

Canonical examples are canonical for a reason.

 

Or, he mastered all of the previous languages, is already earning millions with the Apps he wrote, and is looking for a new motivation to pick up the next language

I'm very supportive of a learning by doing approach, I find that I'm not very persistent if I just try to follow a book. Jumping from one language to the next certainly doesn't help, but I can see how one ends up with ObjC for app programming on OSX.

 

Making a simple to use and free audio and/or video converter. I know there are lots of good and free command line converters out there, but I have not seen that many with a GUI. Porting old video games might also be a good idea.

 

Please explain the underlined part.

Seriously, are you really saying you have no means of learning Objective-C? Books, tutorials, Apple's language reference docs, Apple's sample code, are all means of learning Objective-C. You have no access to any of those materials?

There are numerous Objective-C projects on Google code, to take just one example of a repository for projects. Find one that's moribund and take it to the next level. And that's just one repository. SourceForge is another.


I have no specific suggestions on specific projects to attempt, because you haven't described your skill level, nor the kind of projects you might be interested in. If you've gone through Apple's sample code, and not found a suitable example, then please describe why they were unsuitable. For example, if they're all beyond your skill level, say that. If none of the topics interest you, say that, and then say where your interests lie.

Honestly, if you just through out a random question with no explanation of what you're looking for or why you can't find a suitable project, then are you really expecting us to trot out ideas until one meets with your approval? What are you doing to find projects yourself? In short, What Have You Tried?

 

his skill level is very apparent to me.

 

You can learn python, then learning objective-C will be easier as Apple documentation can really help you because they assume prior knowledge. Or if you are just beginning, there is a good youtube series by a guy called thenewboston. He makes amazing tutorials, and has also done a series on iPhone programming.

 

Oh yes, the locked-down Macbook. I remember that now.

So what you really meant to write was that your computer is locked down due to school policy, so you can't install a C compiler or Xcode or any other tools. In short, you have no means of learning Objective-C with your current computer.

The simplest solution to that is to get a different computer. See this thread for someone who's also looking to learn, and has a budget of $250. What's your budget, in both time and money? How much money can you put into a Mac that isn't locked down by someone else? How much time (work) are you willing to invest to get a Mac that isn't locked down?

If you insist on staying with the locked-down Mac, then your options are necessarily limited to the languages it comes with. Off the top of my head, that would be at least: bash, csh, awk, perl, php, python, and arguably sed (and bc & dc, but obscure). I'm not sure if Java (JDK) is present as command-line tools on a standard OS install.

Shell, awk, and perl programming are very useful skills, especially for text processing. See this thread for a recent example. The shell script could use some improvements (such as quoting) that will make it safer. Also, the program could have been written as awk or perl, and knowing how to do that is useful.


You still haven't said anything about what kind of programming interests you. Your MR profile lists these interests:

Computers, Computational devices, Graphical processing devices, world's most advanced calculators capable of programming, games, word processing, etc
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Unfortunately, each one of those items covers a broad spectrum. There are lots of graphical processing devices. There are lots of advanced calculators (well, not so much any more, but there are plenty of obscure ones). And there are zillions of games. If you can't be specific, then maybe you should do some more reading and research until you can be specific. I'm not trying to be obnoxious with that comment, but without specifics, what kind of suggestions can anyone offer?

Just take one item: games.

Have you tried designing a game from scratch? Copied and modified an existing game? What games have you actually written (and debugged)? What games have you tried writing but failed at for some reason? What was the reason? (Those questions go to your interests and skill level.)

What kinds of games interest you? What games don't interest you at all (so we know not to suggest projects in that area)?

Are you interested in game strategy (the "play" action) or game mechanics (physics, graphics, etc.)? How about game production tools (geography compilers, sprite compilers, etc.)? Would you want to make the AI behind NPCs (non-player characters)?

What about networked games? Have you written any? Tried writing any? Considered optimizing network communications for minimum latency?