Project ideas.

Yes, I know the best projects are the ones you care about working on therefore get the most attention. But the problem is I am lacking in ideas!

I need to come up with some good examples in several languages, C++, C#.NET, ASP.NET, Python, some of those using SQL and XML (The .NET options are ideal for the XML stuff probably) perhaps Lua, Perl or PHP also just need to show I know the languages.

C++ and Python are probably my strongest languages, though Python more than C++ now a days due to lack of use.

Anyway, any ideas are welcome, even up for working on projects with others should there be desire. Or if you are working on a game and need tool (like for packing files or something) let me know perhaps we can work something out. (Not implying money but not up for some tasks)

EDIT: I am looking for a job now but have a month or two to spend working on a couple projects so projects large and small are both welcome ideas.

There was a cool idea on Daniweb a while back... something like write a program in python which accepted a chemical compound as input and returned the common name as output. I would have to study some chemistry again to do it but I thought it was interesting. My python progress has been relatively slow anyway, though.

For XML processing, you could do something related to RSS--either create a simple RSS feed reader, or do something more sophisticated, like something similar to Yahoo pipes.

I've always thought implementing a programming language is a generally beneficial exercise; languages like Scheme are surprisingly easy to write an interpreter for.
Writing a regular expression engine is a fun project along similar lines, but somewhat simpler. Or you could write a compiler, if you want to make it more challenging

Here's a fun idea I had a while back--there's a lunch place I like that doesn't take online orders, but they take faxes. If you happen have any places like that in your area, you could write an online front-end that takes orders, fills out the order form and faxes it automatically. Part of the fun is defining a data driven format to represent menus so you can easily extend it to other places. (I started doing this myself, actually, but ended up not eating there enough to bother finishing.)

Are there any things you do on a daily basis that you'd like to automate--e.g. log file analysis, needing a new feature for a text editor, etc. This is actually how I usually come up with projects--"gosh, I'm spending a long time doing X".

Participate in your favorite open-source project. Are you using Firefox? There's probably a nice amount of bugs that can be fixed by a newbie to the project. Or perhaps you use something that doesn't take an hour to build. The Python interpreter is probably something that would interest you. (It's written in C, though.)

You're in Portland? Hey there.

I need a GUI for an audio synthesis project I'm working on. Do you do any GUI coding in C++ or want to learn?

Whiteflags:
Chemistry has never really interested me very much, especially not the language that goes with identifying chemicals, but thanks for the idea.

Webmaster:

I am honored to see you post in one of my topics, I think that is a first for me! RSS is the first thing that came to mind when I was thinking of XML processing. I didn't know about Yahoo! Pipes and they look interesting. I may try something similar to their design and use the .NET languages to implement.

The fax builder seems like too simple of an idea to go with full on .NET for, but may do it as part of a site with a couple examples, could do that in PHP in an hour or so would spend more time on looks than implementation I am sure.

I have done that at several workplaces but typically I find most of those things that are taking me too long can be scripted into something smaller with 2-3 lines of AHK which hardly shows my coding skills and really just shows that I don't like to have to fill out a form myself if it is mostly the same each time (Win+1: *Poof* done!)

Cornedbee:

I have tried that in the past, it is really hard to start into bug fixing in large projects like that without getting some direction first. Especially stuff the size of Firefox or optimized as much as the Python engine.

Brewbuck:

Depends on the API, I have limited experience with Win32, I have used WxWidgets and played with GTK for a couple days at one point. Most of my QUI experience is in other languages, as I tend to write command line apps then write a interface using something easy like Perl/TK but I would be up for discussing it with you. Would be some good practice and would make for a really good example of code.

Send me a PM and maybe we can hook up at a 'net cafe (Backspace downtown used to be cool, not sure if you are on the east or west side though) or something, or at least trade IM names.