Planned changes to CodeSnip's handling of the Code Snippets Database - comments please

-

I'm considering a major change to the way CodeSnip handles the online Code Snippets Database and am seeking comments, either here or on CodeSnip's Google+ page.

First, a little background

CodeSnip v1 was just a read-only viewer for the online database. It simply displayed a searchable snapshot of the database. Users could update the snapshot from time to time as the database changed.

Users wanted the ability to store their own snippets alongside those from the database. That was tagged on in CodeSnip 2 and developed in versions 3 and 4, but underneath its still rather a hack. (User snippets are still stored separately the imported database code - the two even use different data formats).

The program needs, and is getting, a major overhaul in an attempt to cure its split peronality.

Proposed changes in CodeSnip 5

  • There will be just a single code bank where users will store all snippets, both user-created and imported.
  • Instead of treating the online database a separate entity users will be able to import a some, none or all snippets from the database into their code bank. The ability to import only a selection of the database should help keep the size of the code bank manageable: there are currently over 600 snippets in the database. My thinking is that very few people want all of them!
  • Snippets will also be able to be imported from other sources, e.g. other users or the SWAG database. This means that users will be able to share snippets and keep them in synch if they wish†.
  • All snippets will now be editable.
  • The rigid system of categorisation of snippets will be scrapped and replaced with a flexible system of user-defined tags, where each snippet can be grouped under one or more tags (a bit like in GMail and GistBox).
  • The code bank will now be friendlier towards non-Pascal snippets, with a new sytax highlighted editor etc. However, Pascal snippets will continue to be the main focus with unit generation and test compilation etc. still available.

† NOTE: Over a year ago I had a request to allow users to share their snippets via a web space. While I would like to include that it's proving harder to implement than I first thought, so it may have to slip to version 6. Unless there's demand of course.

My questions

Before I go too much further with development I'd like to get some feedback from you about these proposed changes. In particular:

  • What do you think of them: useful or not?
  • Anything else / different you'd like to see?
  • Should CodeSnip become mainly a code bank for your own code with links to the online database and other sources, or should it treat the online database as special as now?
  • Is there any demand for an online code sharing repository accessible from CodeSnip? What what it do that can't be done with the likes of Gists on Github.

I'm still hoping (rather than planning!) to get a preview release out before the end of Q2 this year and hope to start the next stage in development around the end of March.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Released v2.2.0 of the Code Snippets Collection

-
Image
Finally, months after I meant to, I've released v2.2.0 of the DelphiDabbler Code Snippets Collection. This is a collection of snippets that can be loaded into CodeSnip program. To do so, download csdb-v2.2.0-data.zip from the GitHub release page . Unzip it somewhere on your system then run CodeSnip. Select the Install or Update DelphiDabbler Snippets Database  menu option and follow the wizard. If you would like to run tests on some of the snippets then download  csdb-v2.2.0-tests.zip  from the same place. Read the included read-me file for info about how to run the tests. Finally there's comprehensive documentation in  csdb-v2.2.0-docs.zip . In this release the main feature is the addition of a few routines to the Mathematics category. Specifically there are three IEEE conformant Pown routines and a couple of heavily overloaded summing functions. For details of these and other changes see the change log .
Read more

CodeSnip v4.23.0 Released

-
Image
Today I released an  update to CodeSnip  that makes two little changes: The marketing names have been removed from later Delphi versions (e.g. Athens & Rio) to save space in the UI if you have several versions of Delphi registered. So now instead of seeing Delphi 12 Athens you will see Delphi 12.x , for example. The built in REML markup language that can be used to format snippet descriptions and "Extra" text, now supports the ' character entity that gets replaced by a single quote when rendered. For the complete change log see here . Compiler name changes in v4.23.0 New REML character entity in v4.23.0
Read more

Never make new year's resolutions - dumping CodeSnip Belvedere

-
Image
Over 9 years I've had three attempts at creating CodeSnip 5. All have been very ambitious. The latest was CodeSnip Belvedere, rashly announced on new year's day this year. Now I never normally make new year's resolutions, and I should have stuck with that tradition! Of course Belvedere foundered - it was way too ambitious. Again. I was overwhelmed right from the start. Just look at the repo where there have been bugger all commits . So here's a new announcement I can stick by: Belvedere is dead, abandoned, gone. The idea to rebuild CodeSnip from the ground up was an attractive proposition, but it was way too much work. Right from the start I seemed to have an inkling I might have bitten off more than I could chew, because I even queried the wisdom of the new year's resolution in the announcement itself ! And that's what all the failed attempts to create the next release have in common: the plans for the new version were always too ambitious . Maybe I've le...
Read more