HN Explorer

Ask HN: Need an Idea for a simple Java project

7 points by shorty_ ↗ HN
Hey,

I am looking for a good idea for a simple Java project. We have been learning Java in the bootcamp for only 2-3 weeks and are supposed to write a small program. We have about 3 days for this task.

Does somebody has any idea? I can hardly guess what would be feasible.

Thank you for your ideas!

6 comments

[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 26.2 ms ] thread
mike-selmo
So for your first project I would do something simple in concept so you don't get wrapped up in feature creep.

Think about what you have learned so far and how you could demonstrate those topics. I don't think it needs to be a fresh new idea.

3 days is pretty short, without knowing what topics you have covered I would pick 3 and think of a way to combine them.

Say you learned a bit of UI, a bit of sorting, and a bit of OOP. Maybe create a todo list app that sorts tasks by priority.

shorty_
Thanks, Your idea sounds very good. I think that we can use everything learned so far (OOP, arrays, lists, exception handling, etc.)!
exabrial
This might be a little advanced, but I'm writing a Maven plugin that verifies pgp signatures on your artifacts going into your build. The motivation for me was that almost no one checks signatures! We all should be doing that to prevent hostile bytecode from getting into our systems. So this plugin automatically does it :)

I could use some assistance writing unit tests and hacking on missing features.

https://github.com/exabrial/pgp-signature-check-plugin

shorty_
I'd be glad to assist, but this sounds way too advanced for us haha.

But thanks anyway for your response!

fuball63
I always like to use games as small projects. They usually require the use of a wide variety of programming concepts, and can be scaled up or down as needed.

If you know GUI like Swing or AWT, you can use that to do simple games like space invaders or pong.

If not, text based games work too. Good examples are battleship, tic tac toe, number guessing games, small adventure games, or dice and card games.