I’m constantly looking for ways to make FOSS more approachable and in particular easier to build source. Hare is on my radar for this reason, though lately I’ve been working on more HLL software using Lua and LÖVE (a game engine I use to build non-game tools). Both are quite easy to build. My most recent project is a little programming environment that you can use to create small Lua programs on your phone: Lua Carousel.
Carousel is hackable in two ways:
- You can use it to create little scripts on your phone or computer.
- You can connect to it on a computer to modify its source code as it runs without needing to restart it.
Check out the devlog there for lots of examples of the sorts of things it enables. One idea I have lately is it’s a public service to not just list our favorite tools but also be showing off things we build using them. Doing so alleviates the pressure on projects to put out new releases to show “proof of life.” In this vein, if you use Carousel please send me any scripts you build no matter how trivial. I’d love to showcase them on the devlog.