Weekend Projects: Accessible Color Tools, Postgres Lock Analyzers, and Cognitive Science

A look at what developers, designers, and creators are building and learning reveals a vibrant mix of practical tools, ambitious learning goals, and personal development projects. The activities range from intricate software engineering challenges to creative pursuits and self-improvement, showcasing a broad spectrum of interests.

Practical Tools for Developers and Designers

One of the standout projects is an effort to make web accessibility more intuitive. A developer is iterating on an accessible color palette designer, Inclusive Colors, and writing a tutorial to help designers understand the "why" behind WCAG contrast rules. The goal is to move beyond simply failing a contrast check to developing a sense for what works, especially when constrained by brand colors like orange or yellow. This addresses a common frustration where fixing one color contrast issue inadvertently creates another.

In the database world, another developer is building pglockanalyze, a CLI tool to demystify PostgreSQL locking. The tool works by:

Opening a transaction in a database (ideally an ephemeral one in a CI pipeline).
Executing a set of DDL statements or migrations.
Analyzing the pg_locks view to see which locks were acquired.
Rolling back the transaction and reporting the findings.

This provides a practical way to check the locking behavior of migrations before they hit production, complementing static analysis and documentation.

Other notable tools in progress include:

An addon for the Godot game engine, Godot Sandbox, being rebuilt as an embeddable module.
An LLM+Docker omnitool designed to take a task and produce a result entirely within a container.
Header-only C libraries for an ASCII font renderer and a fast, zero-allocation GIF decoder, both aimed at embedded systems.

Learning, Growth, and Personal Development

Beyond coding, many are dedicating time to learning and personal well-being. One individual is finishing a deep dive into analogical reasoning by completing the book The Analogical Mind before shifting focus to semantic networks. Others are tackling complex topics like Variational Inference, learning Spanish to a B1 level, and getting hands-on with automation tools like n8n.

Personal growth isn't limited to technical skills. Several people are focusing on non-code aspects of their lives:

Financial Health: Budgeting and switching to a cash-based system to better manage spending while living off savings.
Physical Health: Evaluating weight loss progress and charting results.
Creative Pursuits: A band is preparing for a bluegrass festival to promote their newly recorded album.

This blend of technical projects and personal enrichment highlights a holistic approach to a productive and fulfilling weekend.