Sunday, October 26, 2008

Higher-Order Applications

Going to attempt another crowd-sourcing :D

I'm trying to compile a list of popular or interesting meta applications. Essentially, they should take existing applications (preferably web ones!) and create new ones. The one caveat is that they should manipulate the structure of the applications, not static parts. For example, I want examples like Dapper, which exposes changing data embedded in application as an RSS feed, or Pipes and Mashmaker, which allow feeds to be combined. However, something like a Greasemonkey spellchecker does not -- it operates over a static page. Arguably, Greasemonkey itself counts :)

To start the list:

-- Application launchers and shortcuts (Quicksilver, Spotlight, Sapiens, ...)
-- Alternative command line interfaces (Inky, Ubiquity)
-- Macro learners and composers (Mashmaker, Pipes, iMacros, ...)
-- Content extractors (Dapper, iMacros, ...)
-- Search engines
-- Program extractors

addendum: debugging tools (profilers, etc.), GUI simplifiers (Opera Mini)

Any other categories?

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