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Ask HN: What is your dumbest project on Github?

26 points by pjungwir ↗ HN
Since people are mocking strangers' code on Github, maybe in solidarity we should share our own most embarrassing contributions to Open Source/Free Software. I see a lot of people saying they are hesitant to contribute things now, which is a terrible shame. Perhaps we can encourage others by showing that none of us are perfect.

25 comments

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pjungwir
I'll go first. Here is a command-line utility in C that counts:

https://github.com/pjungwir/range

I thought I had a worse example, but it turns out it's not on Github . . . yet. :-)

krallja
Awesome - it's like `seq(1)` but with other bases.
pjungwir
It's not totally useless, but then neither are search/replace. I'm pretty sure I hadn't seen seq when I wrote it. Perhaps the most embarrassing thing about it is how over-engineered it is. But I don't get to write C very often, so I wanted to enjoy it as long as possible. :-) What's wrong with sharing something like that with the world?
dwyer
I realize you wrote this quite some time ago, but I hope you're now aware that sh has range built-in.

    % echo {13..24}
    13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
    % echo {24..13}
    24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13
pjungwir
I didn't know that, but it's great to learn I can get this functionality on any machine I want. Thanks for pointing it out!
pantoine
https://github.com/PAntoine/look

There is many, many, many reasons this is bad. Just look at the command line.

PS: It also duplicates several unix CLI functions, just like the project in question.

zenojevski
A (general purpose) migration tool written in bash.

https://github.com/zenoamaro/rash

Honestly, I planned to do much more work on it before showing it to someone, like tests (yes) and a real launch script, and then it would probably become less ridicolous. Or maybe not.

But even then, why not? I had fun building it, and I learned a lot. And if there's something in the world that I like, it's a fun toy.

CptCodeMonkey
I've seen a bash migration thing in a production environment before but yours is a lot cleaner and well organized.
hamax
Most of my personal projects are at least a bit embarrassing, but those two are the worst:

XML to LaTeX parser (failed proof of concept) https://github.com/hamaxx/lml

And shell simulator in JS (just for fun project) https://github.com/hamaxx/jsbash

pjungwir
Wow, this reminds me: it's not on Github, but I have a project that uses XSLT to convert a data.xml file into both LaTeX and HTML versions of my resume. On the one hand it's useful enough that I still use it, but on the other it's pretty hideous. The XSLT looks for special XML elements representing characters that will need to be escaped for either LaTeX or HTML, like <underline/> and <amp/>. Pretty ironic that I generate my resume with code I wouldn't want an employer to see. Maybe I should put it on Github after all.... In my defense it looks like it dates from 2006.
robotmay
Regrettably, this is my most popular piece of code I've released: a ruby gem for parsing a goddamn stupid text format used only by the website Rightmove. I pity the poor fools who have needed to use it.

https://github.com/robotmay/blm

jakebasile
I wrote my own dotfile backup tool[1]. I am, as far as I know, the only one that uses it. Untold millions of these exist, I'm sure there are many that do it better.

Now that I think about it, most of my stuff on GitHub is, well, not necessary. I always think to myself "I enjoyed writing it, maybe someone somewhere can find it useful."

[1]:https://github.com/jakebasile/dotback

Jemaclus
I tried to make a PHP-based (it's my primary language at work, so easy enough to dabble in) version of the classic BBS game TradeWars. (https://github.com/brianseitel/oasis-wars)

I got universe generation down (though it's slow), and I started on populating it with ports, but I couldn't quite figure out how to properly figure out how much the traders should charge for goods.

Anyway, it was fun while it lasted, but I got distracted by other projects. Maybe some day I'll come back and work on it some more...

tlack
This project is definitely not dumb to me. I have many fond memories of TW2002 and I still can't find anything online that matches its level of involvement (fairly low with the turn limiting) and excitement. EVE is out of the question - it's just too much for me.

I seem to recall finding a text file years ago that laid out the algorithm for port material buy/sell pricing. Can't seem to locate it now but if I find it I'll report back.

Keep up the good work. :)

krapp
I made a watermarking plugin for jQuery/canvas mostly because someone asked if it was possible to do entirely in javascript (for a Business Catalyst client, so no backend was available) and after I explained why it was a terrible idea I went ahead and tried it anyway.

Most of my projects are like that... experiments and self-education which are probably useful just to myself.

https://github.com/kennethrapp/cmark