Ask HN: Tools you have built for yourself?

This page summarizes the projects mentioned and recommended in the original post on news.ycombinator.com

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  • SurveyJS - Open-Source JSON Form Builder to Create Dynamic Forms Right in Your App
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  • rgca

    Experiment in SSL CA management.

  • I built a TLS certificate tool targeted towards my company usecase for internal certificates (developers, OpenVPN, internal certificates): https://github.com/linsomniac/rgca

    It's big features are that the cert generation can entirely be controlled from the command line, config, or environment, or any combination of the above, and it has tooling for the situation where I have an existing cert but want to add or remove a name from it. It also has pre/post scripts so I can have it do things like add it to the Ansible repo, vault encrypt it, and commit it. Beats the 10+ year old script that didn't work with Subject Alt Names.

  • dasdashboard

    local dashboard with focus on easy editing

  • A UI for shell commands. It started when a project had so many helper scripts that I kept forgetting how to call them, so I made this dashboard or command-runner. https://github.com/seldomU/dasdashboard

  • SurveyJS

    Open-Source JSON Form Builder to Create Dynamic Forms Right in Your App. With SurveyJS form UI libraries, you can build and style forms in a fully-integrated drag & drop form builder, render them in your JS app, and store form submission data in any backend, inc. PHP, ASP.NET Core, and Node.js.

    SurveyJS logo
  • json-formatter-live

    json formatter live / Keyboard first, privacy-friendly, installable JSON formatter

  • After being annoyed by most online json formatters out there, I decided to build a simple keyboard-driven one. One of the main things that I was looking for was to have it easily accessible, without the need to open new browser tabs or programs that I might need later like vscode so I enabled PWA for it.

    When I noticed https://jsonformatter.com domain was not used I sent an email to the owner and he actually agreed to host my app since it was open source.

    There are other people using it right now, but I enjoy using it every time I need to make a json more readable.

  • kn

    kn — nvgt/fldrs/qckly

  • https://github.com/micouy/kn - Like `cd` but with abbreviations. Or like `z` but based on string similarity, not on location history.

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    Hcker News mobile web app

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    UltraWeather gives user-friendly, actionable weather forecasts.

  • rails-tabler-starter

    Free and open source Ruby on Rails starter kit built using Tabler

  • Ruby on Rails starter built using Tabler, mostly use it to quickly build and abandon ideas

    https://github.com/tarunvelli/rails-tabler-starter

  • WorkOS

    The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS. The APIs are flexible and easy-to-use, supporting authentication, user identity, and complex enterprise features like SSO and SCIM provisioning.

    WorkOS logo
  • Over the years, I've written many apps and utilities for myself or others (that didn't end up get used). These are the interesting ones I remember. Many not quite complete/usable. Other than hackerer.news none of them are 'up' and running. Some have and others haven't been published as opensource.

    - https://hackerer.news HN viewer (source[0]): I use daily so I can see today's top stories in reverse chronological order with mainstream topics sorted to the bottom.

    - qwickly[1] keyboard layout: I use all the time as an easier to learn and more comfortable to type than Colemak/Tarmak

    - safeql[2]: Java type-safe SQL expression composer that reduces constant expressions and eliminates N+1 queries loading associations by always operating on set relation or array of models.

    - moja[3]: Composable computation pipelines for Java: Async, Lazy, Option, Try, Result, Multi (List), Stated, Reader, Logger, Writer.

    - gitgrep.com[4] Opensource SaaS version of etsy/houndd (now called hound-search).

    - statuspages.me: Status page aggregator with dynamic javascript for scraping each source using selector expressions.

    - movies to watch aggregator: with links to sources to watch. It was hard then to get 3rd party deep links into streaming sites so included some torrent links. Got a DMCA phone call, so took it down. Combined thumbnails, summaries, actors(?), imdb ratings, links.

    - java2cpp: Translate a moderately sized java app with test suite to c++, not 100% required final manual fixups.

    - swift2java (or maybe it was java2swift, it's fuzzy now): translate Swift to Java obviously, using ANTLR4. Not 100% required final manual fixups.

    - gui2log: to make an ASCII rendition of on-screen GUI widgets into an application log file when form submitted, so users couldn't complain that they saw X, but got Y.

    - some basic stats/ML algorithms: k-nearest neighbour, RNN back-propagation, etc?

    - Java in-memory DB: Small SQL-like memory tables with indexing/searching.

    - wwwsqldesigner: This exists as opensource and I extended it to infer foreign key relationships based on naming conventions used in a MySQL schema. It was great for zooming around a large ERD.

    - tracelog: combination of microservices parent/child span logging and generated high level events shown as a sequence diagram. Integrated with Loggly for full/verbose logs of selected high-level events.

    - pcl2bmp downscaler: Reduce high resolution HP LaserJet (PCL5) printed to file to lower resolution bitmap pages for screen display (before retina DPI was common). It aimed to shrink same-color areas and preserve black/white transitions while reducing.

    [0] https://gitlab.com/karmakaze/hackerer-news

    [1] https://github.com/qwickly-org/Qwickly

    [2] https://github.com/karmakaze/safeql

    [3] https://github.com/karmakaze/moja

    [4] https://github.com/gitgrep-com/gitgrep

  • Qwickly

    An easy to learn keyboard layout that's fast and comfortable to type.

  • Over the years, I've written many apps and utilities for myself or others (that didn't end up get used). These are the interesting ones I remember. Many not quite complete/usable. Other than hackerer.news none of them are 'up' and running. Some have and others haven't been published as opensource.

    - https://hackerer.news HN viewer (source[0]): I use daily so I can see today's top stories in reverse chronological order with mainstream topics sorted to the bottom.

    - qwickly[1] keyboard layout: I use all the time as an easier to learn and more comfortable to type than Colemak/Tarmak

    - safeql[2]: Java type-safe SQL expression composer that reduces constant expressions and eliminates N+1 queries loading associations by always operating on set relation or array of models.

    - moja[3]: Composable computation pipelines for Java: Async, Lazy, Option, Try, Result, Multi (List), Stated, Reader, Logger, Writer.

    - gitgrep.com[4] Opensource SaaS version of etsy/houndd (now called hound-search).

    - statuspages.me: Status page aggregator with dynamic javascript for scraping each source using selector expressions.

    - movies to watch aggregator: with links to sources to watch. It was hard then to get 3rd party deep links into streaming sites so included some torrent links. Got a DMCA phone call, so took it down. Combined thumbnails, summaries, actors(?), imdb ratings, links.

    - java2cpp: Translate a moderately sized java app with test suite to c++, not 100% required final manual fixups.

    - swift2java (or maybe it was java2swift, it's fuzzy now): translate Swift to Java obviously, using ANTLR4. Not 100% required final manual fixups.

    - gui2log: to make an ASCII rendition of on-screen GUI widgets into an application log file when form submitted, so users couldn't complain that they saw X, but got Y.

    - some basic stats/ML algorithms: k-nearest neighbour, RNN back-propagation, etc?

    - Java in-memory DB: Small SQL-like memory tables with indexing/searching.

    - wwwsqldesigner: This exists as opensource and I extended it to infer foreign key relationships based on naming conventions used in a MySQL schema. It was great for zooming around a large ERD.

    - tracelog: combination of microservices parent/child span logging and generated high level events shown as a sequence diagram. Integrated with Loggly for full/verbose logs of selected high-level events.

    - pcl2bmp downscaler: Reduce high resolution HP LaserJet (PCL5) printed to file to lower resolution bitmap pages for screen display (before retina DPI was common). It aimed to shrink same-color areas and preserve black/white transitions while reducing.

    [0] https://gitlab.com/karmakaze/hackerer-news

    [1] https://github.com/qwickly-org/Qwickly

    [2] https://github.com/karmakaze/safeql

    [3] https://github.com/karmakaze/moja

    [4] https://github.com/gitgrep-com/gitgrep

  • safeql

    Composable / async / functional / type-safe / parallel-pipelined queries and relations without SQL injection or N+1s. (by karmakaze)

  • Over the years, I've written many apps and utilities for myself or others (that didn't end up get used). These are the interesting ones I remember. Many not quite complete/usable. Other than hackerer.news none of them are 'up' and running. Some have and others haven't been published as opensource.

    - https://hackerer.news HN viewer (source[0]): I use daily so I can see today's top stories in reverse chronological order with mainstream topics sorted to the bottom.

    - qwickly[1] keyboard layout: I use all the time as an easier to learn and more comfortable to type than Colemak/Tarmak

    - safeql[2]: Java type-safe SQL expression composer that reduces constant expressions and eliminates N+1 queries loading associations by always operating on set relation or array of models.

    - moja[3]: Composable computation pipelines for Java: Async, Lazy, Option, Try, Result, Multi (List), Stated, Reader, Logger, Writer.

    - gitgrep.com[4] Opensource SaaS version of etsy/houndd (now called hound-search).

    - statuspages.me: Status page aggregator with dynamic javascript for scraping each source using selector expressions.

    - movies to watch aggregator: with links to sources to watch. It was hard then to get 3rd party deep links into streaming sites so included some torrent links. Got a DMCA phone call, so took it down. Combined thumbnails, summaries, actors(?), imdb ratings, links.

    - java2cpp: Translate a moderately sized java app with test suite to c++, not 100% required final manual fixups.

    - swift2java (or maybe it was java2swift, it's fuzzy now): translate Swift to Java obviously, using ANTLR4. Not 100% required final manual fixups.

    - gui2log: to make an ASCII rendition of on-screen GUI widgets into an application log file when form submitted, so users couldn't complain that they saw X, but got Y.

    - some basic stats/ML algorithms: k-nearest neighbour, RNN back-propagation, etc?

    - Java in-memory DB: Small SQL-like memory tables with indexing/searching.

    - wwwsqldesigner: This exists as opensource and I extended it to infer foreign key relationships based on naming conventions used in a MySQL schema. It was great for zooming around a large ERD.

    - tracelog: combination of microservices parent/child span logging and generated high level events shown as a sequence diagram. Integrated with Loggly for full/verbose logs of selected high-level events.

    - pcl2bmp downscaler: Reduce high resolution HP LaserJet (PCL5) printed to file to lower resolution bitmap pages for screen display (before retina DPI was common). It aimed to shrink same-color areas and preserve black/white transitions while reducing.

    [0] https://gitlab.com/karmakaze/hackerer-news

    [1] https://github.com/qwickly-org/Qwickly

    [2] https://github.com/karmakaze/safeql

    [3] https://github.com/karmakaze/moja

    [4] https://github.com/gitgrep-com/gitgrep

  • moja

    Composable computation pipelines for Java: Async, Lazy, Option, Try, Result, Multi (List), Stated, Reader, Logger, Writer.

  • Over the years, I've written many apps and utilities for myself or others (that didn't end up get used). These are the interesting ones I remember. Many not quite complete/usable. Other than hackerer.news none of them are 'up' and running. Some have and others haven't been published as opensource.

    - https://hackerer.news HN viewer (source[0]): I use daily so I can see today's top stories in reverse chronological order with mainstream topics sorted to the bottom.

    - qwickly[1] keyboard layout: I use all the time as an easier to learn and more comfortable to type than Colemak/Tarmak

    - safeql[2]: Java type-safe SQL expression composer that reduces constant expressions and eliminates N+1 queries loading associations by always operating on set relation or array of models.

    - moja[3]: Composable computation pipelines for Java: Async, Lazy, Option, Try, Result, Multi (List), Stated, Reader, Logger, Writer.

    - gitgrep.com[4] Opensource SaaS version of etsy/houndd (now called hound-search).

    - statuspages.me: Status page aggregator with dynamic javascript for scraping each source using selector expressions.

    - movies to watch aggregator: with links to sources to watch. It was hard then to get 3rd party deep links into streaming sites so included some torrent links. Got a DMCA phone call, so took it down. Combined thumbnails, summaries, actors(?), imdb ratings, links.

    - java2cpp: Translate a moderately sized java app with test suite to c++, not 100% required final manual fixups.

    - swift2java (or maybe it was java2swift, it's fuzzy now): translate Swift to Java obviously, using ANTLR4. Not 100% required final manual fixups.

    - gui2log: to make an ASCII rendition of on-screen GUI widgets into an application log file when form submitted, so users couldn't complain that they saw X, but got Y.

    - some basic stats/ML algorithms: k-nearest neighbour, RNN back-propagation, etc?

    - Java in-memory DB: Small SQL-like memory tables with indexing/searching.

    - wwwsqldesigner: This exists as opensource and I extended it to infer foreign key relationships based on naming conventions used in a MySQL schema. It was great for zooming around a large ERD.

    - tracelog: combination of microservices parent/child span logging and generated high level events shown as a sequence diagram. Integrated with Loggly for full/verbose logs of selected high-level events.

    - pcl2bmp downscaler: Reduce high resolution HP LaserJet (PCL5) printed to file to lower resolution bitmap pages for screen display (before retina DPI was common). It aimed to shrink same-color areas and preserve black/white transitions while reducing.

    [0] https://gitlab.com/karmakaze/hackerer-news

    [1] https://github.com/qwickly-org/Qwickly

    [2] https://github.com/karmakaze/safeql

    [3] https://github.com/karmakaze/moja

    [4] https://github.com/gitgrep-com/gitgrep

  • gitgrep

    Lightning fast code searching made easy

  • Over the years, I've written many apps and utilities for myself or others (that didn't end up get used). These are the interesting ones I remember. Many not quite complete/usable. Other than hackerer.news none of them are 'up' and running. Some have and others haven't been published as opensource.

    - https://hackerer.news HN viewer (source[0]): I use daily so I can see today's top stories in reverse chronological order with mainstream topics sorted to the bottom.

    - qwickly[1] keyboard layout: I use all the time as an easier to learn and more comfortable to type than Colemak/Tarmak

    - safeql[2]: Java type-safe SQL expression composer that reduces constant expressions and eliminates N+1 queries loading associations by always operating on set relation or array of models.

    - moja[3]: Composable computation pipelines for Java: Async, Lazy, Option, Try, Result, Multi (List), Stated, Reader, Logger, Writer.

    - gitgrep.com[4] Opensource SaaS version of etsy/houndd (now called hound-search).

    - statuspages.me: Status page aggregator with dynamic javascript for scraping each source using selector expressions.

    - movies to watch aggregator: with links to sources to watch. It was hard then to get 3rd party deep links into streaming sites so included some torrent links. Got a DMCA phone call, so took it down. Combined thumbnails, summaries, actors(?), imdb ratings, links.

    - java2cpp: Translate a moderately sized java app with test suite to c++, not 100% required final manual fixups.

    - swift2java (or maybe it was java2swift, it's fuzzy now): translate Swift to Java obviously, using ANTLR4. Not 100% required final manual fixups.

    - gui2log: to make an ASCII rendition of on-screen GUI widgets into an application log file when form submitted, so users couldn't complain that they saw X, but got Y.

    - some basic stats/ML algorithms: k-nearest neighbour, RNN back-propagation, etc?

    - Java in-memory DB: Small SQL-like memory tables with indexing/searching.

    - wwwsqldesigner: This exists as opensource and I extended it to infer foreign key relationships based on naming conventions used in a MySQL schema. It was great for zooming around a large ERD.

    - tracelog: combination of microservices parent/child span logging and generated high level events shown as a sequence diagram. Integrated with Loggly for full/verbose logs of selected high-level events.

    - pcl2bmp downscaler: Reduce high resolution HP LaserJet (PCL5) printed to file to lower resolution bitmap pages for screen display (before retina DPI was common). It aimed to shrink same-color areas and preserve black/white transitions while reducing.

    [0] https://gitlab.com/karmakaze/hackerer-news

    [1] https://github.com/qwickly-org/Qwickly

    [2] https://github.com/karmakaze/safeql

    [3] https://github.com/karmakaze/moja

    [4] https://github.com/gitgrep-com/gitgrep

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NOTE: The number of mentions on this list indicates mentions on common posts plus user suggested alternatives. Hence, a higher number means a more popular project.

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