Ask HN: What’s an app that you wish you had? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What’s an app that you wish you had?

10 pointssaadalem17 comments

What’s a problem that you and/or others have that you desperately want solved?

What’s an app that you wish you had?

If you had a software developer that could make you whatever you wanted, what would you have them make?

I’m not happy with the static site generator offerings. Some require a bunch of dependencies like ruby. I guess that’s not so bad now I know docker. But they all have some system of generating from templates that feels limited and annoying. Something I thought of that I’d make if I got time is a simple static site generator based on a JSON data model (that can pull in markdown references). This gets fed into a function in JS that you write to convert that into a bunch of files ie your website. This makes it 100% hackable in a familiar and general purpose language - JS, with the ability to use any template system eg handlebars or hell... just backticks. You’d have the whole Node ecosystem at your disposal or even call out to other exes such as pandoc.

I built something like this for myself as I was unsatisfied with systems like pelican or jekyll. Currently it’s not documented at all but you can have a look at it here:

https://github.com/adewes/beam-up

It’s a very simple system that relies on Yaml files for configuration and uses plugin-based builders and processors (e.g. for Markdown or Jinja). We use it for all our production sites (e.g. https://gdpr.dpkit.com, source at https://github.com/dpkit/gdpr-portal) and it works very well without getting in the way. If there would be some interest I’d be happy to write up some docs for it, right now I’m just scratching my own itch with it.

I think I wrote what you’re talking about for private use. You give it a folder where you have all your data arranged in markdown files and it outputs a JSON. You can specify which view component you want to render any given piece of content. It also preserves your flat file structure and maps it on the router. Is this close to what you’re looking for?

There should be a documentation system that suits the role of each job role, group, and company division. There should be something better than the landfill of data that are wikis or confluence.

Why can't there be a system that summarizes the details of apps based on README files or architecture files? Supporting documentation should be personalized to the user so if you're a developer you'll get API info and sequence diagrams (product managers could get product notes, etc.).

The documentation system should be alive with interactive examples that drive home what the experience is (embedded invision, web pages, swagger docs, etc.).

Documentation should be automatically deprecated as the state of your system and product change. Archives of old stuff could be kept for reference but the actual interactive system should be only live things so they're relevant.

Does this already exist?

Espresso Shot timer.

- I have side project that i have made physical one - to see how long you extract coffee from espresso machine . (traveldrip espresso shottimer) but i would love to make simple phone app that goes like this:

- launch app in calibration mode - allow mic to record 3x sound of machine going on (usually distinctive click), same for off.

- leave my phone on and by coffee machine when pulling espresso shots. It recognizes the sound pattern of defined click, times it till recognizes the click of turning off. what is needed - simple and sleek interface - solid real time sound recognition. machine learning to filter out chatter

dm me if you want to create it :D

I already have Mobirise builder as it's free. I would like to have their extension Code Editor but it's too expensive for me. Costs $69 https://mobirise.com/extensions/code-editor.html. But I guess that it's a really useful thing, one day I would get it.

Ok here’s a good one. Photo apps already do face recognition. It would be neat if you could add a birth date to each person and have it show you side by side photos of kids or relatives when they were the same age.

I think that would be really popular with parents and you’d get some organic growth by people posting to social media.

An app that translates legalese to conversational language. I want to point my camera at:

- housing lease

- healthcare enrollment forms

- loan documents

- EULA

and the app will spit out a translation. There's a slider on the app that will adjust that translated txt from conversational all the way to colloquial.

Or maybe a browser plugin

edit: formatting

Do machine learning on the subreddit cozyplaces. Then have an app where users can upload pictures and you can tell them how cozy it is.

Here’s one. Recommend where to place things in your kitchen to minimize movement, congestion.

This would be tricky with an app but maybe.

An app that teaches sign language. Not only ASL but every variant there is. Like Dutch German French etc sign languages.

A way to talk to and hear Siri when my phone is in my pocket. (Without headphones)

When I receive a harassment call(usually an AD), I can play an AD to it.

Take a picture of a phone number and call it.

Genius, I would make one, but seems like Google Goggles is already doing this via: https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/101543/how-can-i...

Google goggles ain’t around no more, friend.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Goggles

Almost all of the functionality has been rolled into Google Lens[0], except for the built-in camera.

Unfortunately, that renders it a 2-step process for taking photographs of phone numbers and calling them, which loses most of the convenience behind the idea.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Lens

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