C++/Unix Home Project Ideas

Question

I am a C++, Unix developer, mostly in systems side, product domain. I would like to take up some side project to improve my skills in the following :

• Object oriented Design
• Multithreaded Programming, with ample scope for mutexes and semaphores
• Interprocess Communications in Unix
• Core C++ stuff (wanna use templates, handle exceptions, use smart pointers n stuff)

I have decent "bookish" knowledge of all of the above but haven't got enough opportunities to get my hands dirty. Recently I went for an interview and they gave me really good (and tough) real life problems from the above and I failed miserably. Hence this effort :-)

I am looking at something like a 6 month project, spending about 3 hours on a daily basis. Any suggestions would be great.

Thanks.

Answer 1

With that sort of extra time and motivation, you might as well get paid while you train! http://www.rentacoder.com

For a good challenge, try some sort of network application. Maybe a server that reports system status. Things you'd learn:

• Socket programming.
• Asynchronous event handling.
• Multithreading (handle one request while awaiting the next).
• System calls, to retrieve the status info
• Very useful real-world debugging skills.
• Patience. :-)

Good luck -- enjoy!

Answer 2

Adam's suggestion is a good one - but if you're more inclined to just do it for yourself and have fun, I would implement a network multi-player action game using OpenGL, OpenSceneGraph, or one of the other game-oriented toolkits out there.

Answer 3

You could make sport of it at Top Coder.