hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr4438.txt

Episode: 4438
Title: HPR4438: doodoo zero 
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr4438/hpr4438.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-26 00:41:53

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This is Hacker Public Radio Episode 4,438 for Wednesday the 6th of August 2025.
Today's show is entitled Due to Zero.
It is the 20th show of Jezra and is about 7 minutes long.
It carries a clean flag.
The summary is Episode 0 in a miniseries about creating a To-Jew application.
Hello, my name is Jezra and I am in need of a To-Do list.
Quite often I find myself saying things like, hey, it would be great if I did this or, hey,
I really need to go buy some propane.
But then when I've got some time and I can go to town to go buy some propane, I completely
forget that I need to go buy some propane.
What I would like is a To-Do list that I can check before I leave home to see if there's
something I'm supposed to be doing and a To-Do list that I can check before returning
home to see if there's any task I need to complete before I go home.
It seems to me that there are three ways I can accomplish this.
One, I could write software in the form of a mobile phone application that would allow
me to have a To-Do list.
Hold on, back up.
Yesterday, I opened up F-Troid on my phone trying to find a To-Do application, To-Do list
application.
That suited my needs.
After five installs and tests, I deleted every one of those apps because they didn't
do what I needed it to do in one way or another where there was a bug.
And if I'm going to be using buggy software, it's absolutely going to be buggy software
that I wrote for myself.
In terms of writing software to get this job done, I can write an Android app or I could
write a web server that I host somewhere and I can access through a web browser on both
my phone and my desktop.
Another option for getting this job done is to use a pen and paper.
The problem I have with that, and I tested this out today, is that paper runs out of
space quickly.
And if I'm writing a To-Do list by hand, it means I'm doing it with my own handwriting,
which means there's a good possibility I won't know exactly what I wrote.
It's not like my handwriting is easy for me to read.
It also requires that I have a pen and paper on me at all times.
I change my clothes throughout the day depending upon what sort of work I am doing.
If I'm crawling around underneath a building, I'm going to put on a full suit of protective
gear so that I don't get bit by spiders and I'm crawling around a dirt blah, blah, blah.
And then when I'm done, it's I live in California and it's summertime, I'm putting shorts
on.
So, will that piece of paper be in my pocket all the time?
No, it will not.
Will I remember where I left that piece of paper and that pen?
No, I will not.
However, I have a fairly good grasp of where I left my phone and I certainly know where
my desktop computer is.
So I've decided that for this project specifically, I will be creating a To-Do list that I can
access from my desktop computer and from my mobile phone.
Here this episode to be episode zero in a short series of Jezra creates Do-Do.
That is the name of the To-Do app that represents all of the done that I need to get done.
Do-Do, what a great name.
So here's what I envision for the development of this application.
I'm going to be writing a server and Python using the micro.framework.
It is a framework I have used previously and it did the task at hand.
Once the framework is done for the back end, there will be a need to write some sort of
web front end and it will use JavaScript and the fetch API to send commands to a API
created using the micro.framework.
As I am creating this server and the application interface for it, I will be recording an
episode of HPR starting prior to when I begin coding and recording some afterwards because
what I want to do and what I end up doing are going to be two completely different things.
For the most part, it has been my experience that coming up with a design and writing
software to implement that design is great but once that design is complete and it starts
getting used and tested, there will be a need to change that design and I am talking
about both the design of the user interface as well as the design of the API and the structure
of how the code is written in general.
By creating an application in this fashion, that is writing an app while recording HPR
episodes about that app, I am really feeding two birds with one scone and at some point
in the application development, I am going to need to implement some sort of authentication
because there is no way I am going to put a server out there for me that one can enter
text into without authenticating that the person entering the to-do item is myself and since
I have never done that, it is going to be a great learning experience for me.
I look forward to that and how will I do that?
I have no idea but I will burn that bridge when I get there and on that note, I have
some code to start writing.
To limit the amount of difficulty I have in the future with this project, I have already
created a repository for the code on GitLab and I will share that in the show notes.
If you would like to follow along, please do and I will maybe hear from you in the comments.
Okay, thank you.
Have a great day.
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