The Developer Who Added Morse Code to a Side Project
Every developer has that one side project that starts with a sensible idea and then slowly accumulates features nobody asked for. For Marcus, it started as a simple typing speed test app. Then someone in the comments asked if it could support Morse code input. Marcus, who had never thought about Morse code a single day in his life, typed back "Sure, why not?" and immediately regretted it.
Meet Marcus
Marcus is a front-end developer who builds small tools in his free time. His typing test app had picked up a small following, and the Morse code feature request came from a user who wanted to practice CW keying speed. Marcus figured it would be a weekend project. It became three weekends, one deep dive into International Morse Code standards, and a genuine appreciation for why people who build Morse code translators for a living deserve more credit.
The Problem
Before Marcus could write a single line of Morse code logic, he needed to understand what correct output looked like. Was it dots and dashes? Was it · and –? What separator went between letters versus words? What happened with numbers? Punctuation? Was there an edge case for the letter É?
He needed a reliable reference to verify his own implementation against — something he could use to quickly translate morse code test strings and confirm his function was producing the right output. He didn't want to spend three hours reading through ITU specification PDFs when he just needed to check whether his output for "HELLO WORLD" was correct.
The Fix
Marcus found morse-code-tool.com while searching for a fast way to verify his output. He used the Morse code translator as a ground-truth reference throughout the build. Type in a string, compare the output to his function's result, find the discrepancy, fix it, repeat.
"It sounds simple, but having a reliable tool to test against saved me from shipping a broken encoder," Marcus said. "I found three edge cases I'd missed just by running random strings through both tools and comparing."
He also used the Morse letters chart and numbers chart as structured references when writing his encoding table, rather than transcribing it by hand from a PDF and introducing typos.
Benefits Marcus found
- Instant, accurate translation for verifying his own implementation
- No API key or authentication needed — open in a tab and compare
- Free to use, no rate limits on manual verification queries
- Clean, readable output format that made comparison straightforward
- Beginner-friendly enough that he could learn the Morse code format while building the feature
The Morse code feature shipped four weeks after the original request. It works. Marcus's encoder passes every edge case he originally missed. He's still not entirely sure why the letter É exists in Morse code, but he handles it correctly now.
Try it for your own project
If you're building something that involves Morse code — a game, a learning tool, an accessibility feature, or a typing speed test — morse-code-tool.com is a fast, free reference to learn Morse code online and verify your output against. No setup, no download, just open the translator and start testing.
Suggested image: a developer's dual-monitor setup showing a code editor on one screen and a Morse code translator on the other — coffee mug on the desk, late night aesthetic.