Rambling

I have some ideas about what I want to do in the web. Its primarily a little creative outlet. I would like to build some simple applications, for which I would need to run a VPS. At the moment I'm using the static site hosting utility of couldflate, form whom I purchased the domain.

I know how to program a little, but I've learned primarily in the scientific computing context, and I've never written a UI outside of simple TUIs or a file-system interface, i.e. input and configuration files.

But the idea that I can hook a program upto a simple hypertext page, and have it interact with users besides me is pretty interesting

I've followed some of the developments in software engineering as an outsider, and htmx seems like a technology that is simple enough for me to use. I've read the hypertext book which I found very inspiring.

I've got a list of projects that I want to try out that I think are within my abilities.

Climate change website/blog

A hypertext document with notes on climate-change and resilience.

Site to keep track of fitness

Adding entries such as gym sessions, runs and also keeping track of things like weight. Can make nice visuals and render them onto the screen using seaborn or something.

Object tracking system for distributed library

Prototyping a format for keeping track of objects, such as books and tools, that can be used in a distributed library.

My own presentation software

I've knocked a little prototype up already, but I would like to re do it and make it much more robust. I think hypertext is a perfect fit for a presentation due to its potential branching nature. Also I think using a client server model, I could expose the presentation live, and incorporate interactive elements like a live chat and voting and a follow live button. I could also incorporate a local model to generate a transcript live. Id like to have a really live along the lines of the unix Talk program, were the others can see live typing rather then composed messages. I think that gives a more alive and present feel to conversations.

Ive also got some speculative ideas that I would love to try out. They are explorations in the themes of connecting digital and physical spaces and communities. For example a collaborative hypertext with pages connects a digital locations to an online one. The physical is linked to the digital with a QR code. People can edit the hypertext, and participate in a live chat. Viewing the page adds you to the room, so that the page feels more like a place with people init. If your interested you can follow the page for updates. The page would contain discussion or information about the place, and it would link to other places.

Since thi is just a fun project, I'm not going to use a framework or anything, instead im going to try and implement this by my self. I would like to write my own webserver in go I think. I've not got a vps going atm so before I get there Ill probably just be writing this whole thing by hand.