IdeaWell

Project ideas from Hacker News discussions.

The Little Bool of Doom (2025)

Original Article

Hacker News Discussion

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

Three prevailing themes in the discussion

Theme Key points Representative quotes
Debugging strategy Whether to read generated assembly or rely on tools like sanitizers. kccqzy: “If I were the author, I would skip the part about using the compiler explorer and reading the assembly… I would honestly do that first.”
direwolf20: “If you merely want to fix the problem, you can stop as soon as you find something that's awry… but don't you want to understand the problem?”
C’s undefined‑behaviour pitfalls Misusing bool, -1 values, and the compiler’s strictness. Joker_vD: “Sticking anything other than 0 or 1 into C99 bool type is UB. Use ints.”
lowbloodsugar: “That’s a compiler bug… C decided to favor pedantry over working code.”
munchler: “This line of code undermines the type system by spraying –1’s into an array of structs.”
Compatibility & maintainers’ role Choosing language standards, handling legacy code, and the responsibilities of maintainers vs packagers. Joker_vD: “Explicitly set the C standard to C17 or older… you can't expect the old C code to follow the rules of the new versions of the language.”
wk_end: “If you’re just a packager, it’s your job to get the package to build… get it building with the old language version and file a bug report.”

These three themes capture the main concerns: how to debug effectively, the dangers of undefined behaviour in C, and the practicalities of maintaining and porting legacy code.

🚀 Project Ideas

Generating project ideas…

UB Insight

Summary

  • A static analysis and runtime diagnostics tool that automatically detects undefined behavior (UB) patterns in C code, provides actionable fixes, and integrates with sanitizers for immediate feedback.
  • Core value: Reduces debugging time for C developers by catching UB early and offering clear, non-assembly explanations.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience C developers, maintainers of legacy C code, open‑source packagers
Core Feature Static detection of UB patterns (e.g., memset on structs, bool misuse, out‑of‑bounds accesses), sanitizer integration, automated patch suggestions
Tech Stack Rust (for safety), Clang/LLVM libclang, WebAssembly for sandboxed analysis, optional VS Code extension
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Hobby

Notes

  • HN commenters lament “I have zero knowledge of x86 assembly” (djoldman) and “reading the generated assembler is usually a slow way of debugging” (kccqzy). UB Insight eliminates the need to dive into assembly by surfacing UB at the source level.
  • “It prints a nice error message about the exact issue” (kccqzy) – UB Insight provides similar, but richer, diagnostics.
  • Practical utility: Packagers can quickly fix UB without modifying the original code, aligning with wk_end’s advice to “make minimal changes to the underlying code”.

C Standard Enforcer

Summary

  • A build‑time tool that automatically detects and enforces the C standard per source file, injecting appropriate compiler flags or pragmas, and warns when code violates the targeted standard.
  • Core value: Keeps legacy C projects compliant with modern compilers while preserving intended behavior.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Maintainers of legacy C libraries, open‑source contributors, CI/CD pipelines
Core Feature File‑level standard detection, automatic flag injection (-std=c89, -std=c99), pragma generation (#pragma clang diagnostic push/pop), compatibility warnings
Tech Stack Python (CLI), libclang for parsing, Git hooks, Docker for CI integration
Difficulty Low
Monetization Hobby

Notes

  • “If you’re just a packager, it’s your job to get the package to build and work correctly” (wk_end) – C Standard Enforcer automates this.
  • “I would honestly do that first” (kccqzy) – the tool encourages early detection of standard mismatches.
  • “Use ints” (Joker_vD) – the tool can flag improper bool usage and suggest integer alternatives.

Assembly Visualizer

Summary

  • An interactive web tool that compiles C snippets, displays the generated assembly side‑by‑side with annotated C source, and explains each instruction in plain language.
  • Core value: Empowers developers with zero assembly knowledge to understand compiler output without deep dives into manuals.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience C developers, students, open‑source contributors
Core Feature Live compilation (Godbolt‑style), assembly‑to‑C mapping, hover explanations, optimizer pass visualization
Tech Stack React, WebAssembly (Clang compiled to WASM), Node.js backend, Docker for sandboxed compilation
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Revenue‑ready: Freemium (basic view free, advanced optimizer insights paid)

Notes

  • “I have zero knowledge of x86 assembly” (djoldman) – this tool directly addresses that pain point.
  • “Reading the generated assembler and understanding it is usually a slow way of debugging” (kccqzy) – the visualizer speeds up comprehension.
  • Practical utility: Helps developers spot UB patterns by correlating C code with the exact assembly that triggers them.

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