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Ask HN: What weekend Project to show off ability to develop in other languages?

5 points by MonkoftheFunk ↗ HN
My job has me in OO PHP, Javascript, and Actionscript, I used to program in C++, Java, ASP.net, I haven't in 5+ years and I want to apply to jobs that use those languages and perhaps others, what kind of project can I do to show potential employers that I can still program in other languages? Are tutorial projects enough?

12 comments

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MonkoftheFunk
Knowing a language versus getting creative with it is different. Perhaps start with criteria for a project larger then a todo app. The project would need to deal with databases, session / account management, tracking input/output, maybe some calculations, parsing, multiple forms/screens, and maybe reporting, anything else? But would that all make it a bit much for it's worth to an employer?
ahefner
MP3 player.
MonkoftheFunk
nice though I think it needs more breadth of development involved. but perhaps it could grow to something more complex, perhaps I need to look at final projects found in text books.
Pyrodogg
This could be pretty broad. You could take it all the way from the DSP of working with the MP3 encoded audio to gui design and development. It would also show a great deal of skill in overall application architecture.
BookPage
Maybe try and contribute to an open source project? Find some bugs and create fixes, I'm sure it will look good on your resume and you'll be helping out the community at the same time :)
MonkoftheFunk
Ya I like that it would be code that would be used and scrutinized.
groundCode
RSS readers seem the app-de-jour :)
fbuilesv
This a list of projects I'd like to implement, a couple of them are there only because I want to learn the specifics about a language/tool: http://mheroin.com/projects. Some I consider fun:

* Basic HTTP Server in X language (Go in my case)

* Controversipedia: Take a dump of Wikipedia, publish only the controversy/criticism of entries.

MonkoftheFunk
Thanks, cool ideas, Ya you could also make that eventual tweet for linked in and facebook, I hope you get some time to start chipping away at these.