What is your most wanted non-existent or underdeveloped open source project?

Question

I am wondering if people have any ideas for open source projects that don't exist yet that they would like to share. Also, submit ideas that may be under open source development but need considerable work. I want to gauge the need for various projects.

Please submit one idea per answer for effective voting, thanks.

Answer 1

A fully featured IDE without a bunch of bugs. Something that could actually compete with, say, visual slickedit or visual studio when it comes to features and stability.

I am aware that there are free solutions out there that claim to do this, but I have found that they fall far short of the commercial solutions.

Answer 2

A flash compiler that works.

Answer 3

open source web-dev IDE.

currently in the news again due to Mozillas recent anouncement

The only stuff in the field right now is the dead Nvu, eclipse web tools etc.

Nothing that can compete with e.g. dreamweaver, visual studio (unless i have missed it)

Answer 4

The apd-pecl-plugin for PHP.

Yes, it does exist, it hasn't been updated since 2006 though, and it doesn't work on "newer" versions of PHP. Probably the best debugging / profiling plugin for PHP.

Answer 5

I would like to see more convenience libraries for the Rhino JavaScript interpreter. Currently in order to use most of the Java libraries in Rhino, you end up coding directly to the Java APIs, which defeats the point of a scripting language.

For example, I'd like to do this in Rhino to echo stdin to stdout (the resemblance to Python is not accidental):

for each (line in iterlines(java.System["in"]))
    print(line);

But you can't do that out of the box or with a well-known library -- you have to write your own iterlines:

function iterlines(inputStream) {
    var br = new java.io.BufferedReader(
        new java.io.InputStreamReader(inputStream));
    var line;
    while (line = br.readLine())
        yield(line);
}

JavaScript would be a great Java scripting language with those kinds of convenience functions built on top of it.

Answer 6

a command-line Unix equivalent of Microsoft's Logparser. There are a few similar projects but all scripts.

Answer 7

A usable operating system.

Just kidding, Linux/BSD.

I'd like an open-source audio editing program, like FL Studio.

Answer 8

A SQL change management tool!

Answer 9

Something simple and slick that bridges the gap between MSWord and Latex.

Answer 10

A working Exchange connector in component form that could be used by KMail, Thunderbird, Evolution, etc.

Answer 11

A version control client which can be used for multiple VCS.

Answer 12

Someone picking up the old NDoc code base and bringing it up to par with support for all the new language features. SandCastle does a good job but it is still much harder to use and doesn't have as many features.

Answer 13

A big red button that makes IE6 go away and never come back :)

Answer 14

A free C++ library that supports generically connecting to all (well most) databases. Oh and the whole point is for it to be covered with a license that can be used commercially

Answer 15

mapping elements like virtual earth or google maps for silverlight.

I know that SharpMapmight eventually do this but its long far away from this ability.

Answer 16

A better editor for FitNesse pages; their edit mode is very very rudimentary right now and I think it's one of the top 3 entry barriers to using the tool for less technically inclined users.

Answer 17

I'm really missing FolderSize in Vista. I loved it in Win XP; it simple did what it was supposed to do and otherwise stayed out of the way.

Answer 18

Id like to see more research on the .NET Operating System... Singularity

Singularity - Wikipedia

Singularity - MSDN

Answer 19

A good open-source touch typing game.

Answer 20

A professional-quality game.

Answer 21

well this was my master plan Idea but anyway i do not have time for it now and maybe i will never have enough time and resources to do it

the idea is a web based IDE fully featured (including GUI designing, Database Designing, intelisence, etc) for Java,php, ROR

well i mean i want a web based version of netbeans :)

Answer 22

An open-source Flash player built with .NET would be pretty handy.

Answer 23

An open source .net reflector.

Answer 24

ICQ library for .NET

Answer 25

An open source IDE or addon for Eclipse or Netbeans which will allow to code and debug in VC++ for Windows, and will be better then Visual Studio in everyway.

Answer 26

Visio

Visio

Visio

(SO doesn't allow one-word responses, thus the triplication.)

Answer 27

A native Python reporting tool, similar to JasperReports for Java or Crystal Reports for every damn thing.

Answer 28

I really want something like Delicious Library, that will let me use a webcam to scan barcodes to easily import the contents of my real-life library. The closest I've found is Zebra Barcode Reader, but it's not integrated into any collection management software.

It's on my TODO list (itch, scratch) but there's so many other things on there too...

Answer 29

I would love to see a tool to generate XAML from an existing Winform.

Answer 30

A good video editing program.

Answer 31

A professional video editing program.

Yes, Cinelerra is almost there, but it's problems are down in the core - and noone wants to use ages to fix it up.

So Lumiera would be the obvious successor to be the Open Source Video editing program. But it needs to be finished.

Answer 32

• THE BEST MEDIA PLAYER. Something that would combine the versatility of VLC and the user interface of WinAmp/Windows Media Player.
• Something like DropBox, but one that I can put on my own server.
• A good advanced pixel/animation editor. Like Paint.NET but with focus on animations and pixel-by-pixel editing. Full support for GIF and MNG should be out-of-the-box with endless possibilities for plugins.
• Antivirus substitute for computer experts. I'll have to explain a bit. The idea is that I don't like antiviruses because they slow down the computer quite considerably. And I haven't gotten any viruses for the past 5 years anyway although I don't use anything else besids Windows Firewall. But staying completely unprotected isn't very nice either. So I'd like some tool that would keep a record of all known programs and would warn me if an unknown program wanted to execute. Of course, it should be possible to make exception folders too - don't want a popup each time I recompile the program I'm working on. But the main idea is - it'd have to consume next to no system resources. It'd only check programs when they started up and then only their filenames/modify dates/sizes (no hash calculating).
• A tiny Windows software that would show the status of Num Lock/Caps Lock/Scroll Lock in my systray (in a single icon). Wireless keyboards are nice, but the lack of indicator LED's is not. :P
• Developer's SMTP/POP3/IMAP server. I'm thinking of a tool which would help to develop application that deal with emails. It would act as these three servers and you could develop your client against it. The SMTP server would not actually relay any emails, but would instead store them in a local folder where you could look at them with the built-in MIME analyzer (would help to hunt down MIME bugs). All actions would be looged in great detail so you can analyze what went wrong. I could go on for quite a bit about useful features in such a tool, but I'm sure you all can imagine them too.
• Forum administrator helper tool. The idea is that many internet forums out there use volunteer moderators who participate while doing their daily jobs. This utility would help them. It would sit in systray (on Windows; don't know anything about *nix) and light up when new topics were created or new posts were made. Clicking it would bring up an UI which would allow to do most normal and administration tasks in the forum. And all that without actually visiting the website. On the forum's side there would have to be some kind of web service of course that would support this. Again - the possible feature list is enormous.
• A GOOD CD/DVD burner software. One that would be as good as Nero Burning ROM when it comes to burning. I don't mean all the other software that comes with it, just the burner software. I know that there are some out there, but I haven't found one that even came close...
• A good icon editor. So far Axialis AxIcons is the only normal software for it, but it's not free.
• Microsft Exchange alternative.
• Ultimate Driver Diagnostics Tool. A bootable CD/DVD which would allow you to do anything imaginable with your hard drive(s). Whether it would be low-level ATA commands or high-level filesystem structural repairs - it would have it.
• Alternative to the abandoned CDMage software which would also support DVD images. That was a GREAT tool.
• A nice kaleidoscope screensaver for windows that would use hardware acceleration. Actually - you can never have to many nice screensavers. :)

Answer 33

No one wants a Quicken replacement? I'd move my Mom to Linux in a heartbeat with one.

Answer 34

A good Quicken replacement - one that's backed by a real (i.e., queryable) database. Something backed by SQLite would be great.

Answer 35

DDD the graphical front-end for command-line debuggers to run natively on Windows.

Answer 36

I'd like to see a vim-port to symbian-s60.

€: shoot there are so many programs I want to see ported to my mobile

a proper java impl, a proper browser that does not proxy everything to opera, a proper go-program, a good pdf-viewer ...

Answer 37

A full replacement for Access. Like it or not there's a vast amount of business investment in Access applications, many not easily replaced by web apps due to close integration with other Office components and Exchange. The lack of something suitable to port existing applications too - ideally binary compatible but a reasonably parallel rewrite would be ok - is the problem stopping many SMEs moving to the Linux desktop.

Answer 38

C#/.NET UPNP/DLNA Media Server Library