Ask HN: Ideas for small web apps that are good for learning? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Ideas for small web apps that are good for learning?

Hi Everyone,

I'm in a dev bootcamp a the moment and obviously at the end they want us to take on a project to build in ~2 weeks to demonstrate what was learned.

I want to take the opportunity to take on a project that will A) be a good looking demonstration of what I learned and B) be a good learning opportunity (building something that I may work on the future).

Any thoughts or ideas? I did some searches but I cant find too much that would be doable within 2 weeks or so. I think a single page web app would be ideal.

For information I'm learning RoR at the moment

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The usual advice is to build something meaningful or useful for yourself. (Track time, fitness, recipes, baseball, build a blogging tool, etc.)

Once you're comfortable with RoR you might branch out and build a Ruby gem or two, as these are relatively self-contained and allow you to focus on the language, testing principles, etc. (Some might suggest doing that first to become more comfortable with the language itself, but I think staying within the established bounds of the framework is a good way to get started.)

Gems, and an accompanying GitHub profile, are also good for the resume if you intend to seek employment.

Thanks for the help eh. Great thoughts. I would love to eventually dive into gems but I think thats easily a later date thing as I am still getting the foundation.

A single page site for people to quickly sell things. Craigslist, but faster.

Think sub 2 hour turnaround. Maybe simple sorting methods. Infinite scroll.

That's something that I could see being built in 2 weeks. Has the potential to become more than just a project too.

The first one sounds interesting. I think thats something I can probably do since its pretty basic but I can make it look nice.

Cheers!

You could make a start page. Users can add calendar info, schedules, pictures of family/friends, and anything else that they want to see when they open up their browsers.

Of course this would also be useful for yourself if it's more of a personal project.

Interesting idea. I think personal projects are fine, as long as I can make it look slick really.

Thanks for the help!

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