Chat @beehaw.org noctisatrae @beehaw.org 1y ago

What are some libraries, software, etc... that you'd like to see be built in open-source?

I’m trying to get accustomed to writing asynchronous/concurrent Rust or any language!

I just want to build software that helps people, and hopefully makes friends along the way.

21 comments

Google Maps replacement with local bus, transit, bike path navigation integration would be pretty sweet to see as a FOSS Rust app
- @recursive_recursion there's Organic Maps that does this but there are no options for my city.
  
  @noctisatrae
  
  Organic Maps currently only supports metro/subway navigation, not buses, trains or other types of PT (although they are planning on introducing a new map layer for that). Bike routing works, although only fully separated bike paths are rendered.
  
  The biggest problem I have with Organic Maps is that it doesn't have the bus routes for the city I live. Otherwise, yeah, I support it.
I'd like a FOSS equivalent to Google Pay, but I understand it's more complicated than just writing an app.
- Why not use F-Droid?
  
  Not Google Play, Google Pay. The NFC payments app.
A book/movie/object collection shelf app that has barcode scan, ISBN search, and custom database entries like money spent. They were really popular in the early 2010s but mostly subscription based and Mac only. I could probably repurpose something like Calibre to do similar things but that's a bit overkill and a lot of non-book entries would take too long to setup.
Background:

I use Obsidian for journaling and knowledge management. Each page is saved as an individual .txt file rather than in some database which ensures continuity of my data even if I switch applications one day.

I sync the files between my devices using Syncthing. Some of my notes are collaborative with others: by sorting my notes into specific folders and syncing select folders to select devices I have a notes library with a mix of personal and shared notes.

Syncthing is good at managing file conflicts. It surfaces the conflict and lets you select which file should remain. It also has options for very good versioning control.

Answer:

So, to your question, I would love to contribute to Syncthing to provide an optional capability to merge content from two conflicting .txt files rather than selecting one or the other. This would greatly improve the collaborative experience when using Syncthing to manage notes in Obsidian or similar applications.

I think there are a not-insignificant number of people who could get value from this. Syncthing is written in GO, and I've never contributed to an open source project before. I'm looking forward to giving it a shot but if someone else starts first that's just fine with me. :)
- Maybe you want to do that in collaboration?
I'd like a functional local LLM app for Android. I tried MLCChat, but it just spat out gibberish. I tried installing llamafile on a Linux VM with Termux, but it didn't work.

21 comments