I would like to do some programming stuff during summer, what do you recommend?

Question

Preferable C/C++, Python or Java. I'm tired of doing simple and silly applications. I would like to start or help in a big project, but I don't know how to do it and what to do. Any idea?

Answer 1

Make a game in Python using Pygame: www.pygame.org XD

EDIT: As far as game ideas go...try a sidescroller, maybe a ripoff of sorts to Mario. :) It should be fun to do, and it's not terribly simple or silly.

Answer 2

http://code.google.com/soc/

Answer 3

Head over to OpenHatch and see what looks interesting. E.g. OpenSolaris has a lot of bugs open, that might be a fun project to dig into.

Answer 4

Make a J2EE Web Application with Java, something that could be able to talk to a database and or use some ORM technology like Hibernate.

I would recommend the following stack for that purpose:

Java + Hibernate/ JPA + Spring + JSF 2.0 + Tomcat + MySql

Answer 5

I'd recommend having a look on Sourceforge and finding an open-source project you are interested in. You might just start of with bug triage or something simple but its the way to start. When you're familiar with the project you might decide to commit some code.