Software Development Bonanza
There has been quite a big gap between blog posts, mostly because I've been having so much fun working on new projects that I haven't been feeling inspired to write down what I've been up to. But I think it's past time to get caught up, and actually I plan to do several posts covering each of these projects in detail, but this will kind of be the executive summary of all of those.
Most of these are personal projects, little applications that have been written only for me to use, but maybe someone else will find them useful as well. Yes, they've all been vibe-coded, and I'm not afraid to admit that. LLMs these days write quite good code, and a majority of these have been written with GPT Astra, Sol, or Luna, or Qwen 3.8 Flash Next (Qwen 4). Maybe a little Claude here and there, but I really prefer the others.
Despite most of the grunt work being done by LLMs, I do have technical knowledge of exactly what's happening behind the scenes, I do review every change, and I do test the software after every change and only approve commits once they pass my personal testing. Do I really need to be so thorough in my reviews? Probably not, but it certainly helps me to feel like I still have my hand in things!
New Public Projects
I'm not 100% sure how to organize these, so maybe I'll do them from most complicated to least? I'll be making separate, more-detailed posts on most of these.
- TRust: This is a browser written completely in Rust, with both a desktop and terminal-based mode. It features full JS implementation, HTML, CSS, images, the whole nine yards, this is a FULL browser, built from the ground up. It currently supports the HTTP, Telnet, Gopher, Gemini, finger, WHOIS, and DICT protocols, as well as file:// for accessing the local filesystem. It's a huge, ongoing project, but I'm really enjoying working on it and am learning a lot about browser design and development. TRust Github
- nyaa: This is Nice YouTube Alternative Access application (see what I did there?). It's terminal-based, includes the ability to perform searches, import, manage, and locally add to your subscriptions, keep track of your feed, and plays videos through mpv. It requires yt-dlp and mpv to be installed locally to function, that's all. Oh and it's cute! nyaa Github
- RubyReader: This is an RSS feed tracker and reader, with its presentation engine based on TRust. It's super kawaii decora to the max and probably not to everyone's taste, but it's mine and I don't care. :) An RSS reader isn't something that's difficult to make, but I'm glad I did, because of course now I use it every day to keep up with my feed. RubyReader Github
New Private Projects
These are projects that aren't really ready for primetime, but which I've sunk a lot of time into. One of them at least is something that you can go and try RIGHT NOW if you want, even though it isn't finished.
- InfiniMUD: This is an infinite MUD, based on LLM technology (but not entirely random). A player can specify a one or two-word description of the place where they would like to adventure, and an area will be generated according to that prompt. Or they can just accept something completely random. Alternatively, every area that is generated is then permanently part of the map and so someone could theoretically just spend some time adventuring through the areas which other people have generated previously! Most of the generation aspects are in place, but the class, leveling, and gear systems still need work. And you can play right now if you want! InfiniMUD Server
- Crystal Linux: There's already a Linux distro named Crystal, but you know what? This is a distro just for me, so I don't care. :D The base is an LFS system, and the package manager is source-based, so it checks the source repos for updated releases, downloads the new code, and recompiles the software when something has changed. New package recipes are built by LLMs, various build tests are implemented and all build flags are targeted for my particular hardware. It works pretty well, I've been using it for a few months now. No link for this one.
- MagicalText: A text editor that looks like it was paid a visit by Sailor Moon, idk, I thought this was a fun idea. It's not really a complete product but nevertheless I'm using it as my main text editor right now. Come and stop me! No link for this because it's not worth sharing.
- RubyBlog: What I'm writing this post in right now. You write in markdown and it formats it for my website's layout, and automatically generates files for Gemini and Gopher as well. There's tons of these out there already, this isn't a fresh new idea, but this one is mine. No link, because nobody needs another one of these. BTW this one's built in C++! Most of the rest are Rust.
Summary
Yeah, so, uh, I've been busy doing things, even if it may not seem so from the posts here! Keep your eyes open because I hope to go more into depth about some of these projects soon. TRust especially is a project that I at least hope may have some legs to it... Let's see.