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Show HN: My weekend project - Codestagram

by abemassry on 1/2/13, 3:14 PM with 38 comments

  • by JoeCortopassi on 1/2/13, 4:40 PM

    I would love this idea, if it was limited to 10-20 lines. The forced conciseness of it would make devs focus on brief concepts and structure, rather than complex methods. It would end up being like Dribble rather than Gist/PasteBin, and be a great place to browse for techniques I hadn't previously encountered. Think about how fun it would be to scan through an Instagram style list of stuff like this:

    ############~C~#############

      if ((1?1:var)/2) {
      /* it's floating point */
  } else {
      /* it's an integer */
  }
    #######~Objective-C~########

      + (NSString *) append:(id) first, ...
  {
      NSString * result = @"";
      id eachArg;
      va_list alist;

      if(first)
      {
          result = [result stringByAppendingString:first];
          va_start(alist, first);
          while (eachArg = va_arg(alist, id)) 
              result = [result stringByAppendingString:eachArg];
          va_end(alist);
      }

      return result;
  }
    #########~PHP~##############

      $object = new StdClass;
  $object->foo = 'bar';
  echo json_encode($object);
    ############################

    I know they aren't the best example, but I would love to be able to scan through a list of small code snippets (by language) that demonstrate concepts. On the plus side, it would be an easier way to show some competence in a language (for future employers) than having to do massive contributions to open source projects (don't have that much free time). The thing that makes or breaks this project is a smallish limit on lines. Without it, you are just another Gist/Pastebin, without the benefits of the wide user base and additional features. I have zero desire to chill at night and scan through a bunch of random 100+ line snippets that I have no context for, but I love goofing around on Stackoverflow, looking at fancy code snippets

  • by ruswick on 1/2/13, 4:36 PM

    It's a nice novelty, but it certainly won't ever usurp Gists. I'm not sure that it was intended to. However, there is one aspect of the site that really irks me: the wood grain background. For whatever reason, this style has become really pervasive among "hacked-together" sites. Moreover, it sucks. The site would be better served with a geometric pattern, or no background at all.

  • by Hawkee on 1/2/13, 4:30 PM

    So ACE editor + GitHub API + Commenting and Liking. It's a very, very simple concept. I think mainly what it has going for it is the limited barrier to entry. I'm just not sure what the long term sustainability is. Mainly its lacking the personal network aspect. I have no way of finding the developers I'm following on GitHub.

  • by justjimmy on 1/2/13, 5:57 PM

    I see it more akin to Dribbble than Instagram. You could also introduce 'rebound' - which is improving/optimizing/add your personal touch to the 'shot' (uploaded image, or code in this case).

    I'm actually going to try and redesign this as my case study for this weekend, thanks for sharing!

  • by mjt0229 on 1/2/13, 4:26 PM

    If you want to hipster it up, you can convert the code to punchcards.

  • by prezjordan on 1/2/13, 3:45 PM

    Not sure I understand. Is it just a pasteboard?

  • by travisby on 1/2/13, 5:08 PM

    I would benefit from a "copy" button. When I highlight the code snippet, I also got the line numbers with it. Would be a hassle for large codestagrams

  • by jvictor118 on 1/2/13, 3:47 PM

    It'd be cooler if you could evaluate the expressions. I saw an API for save evaluation of user's code somewhere on reddit the other day, that might help

  • by solox3 on 1/2/13, 4:28 PM

    So many solutions, so few problems :/

  • by m_pagliazzi on 1/2/13, 3:45 PM

    Don't see the difference with github gists...

  • by sturmeh on 1/2/13, 4:55 PM

    Awesome, but I can't delete my comments or posts. D:

    Also I think a great purpose for this would be to highlight particular bits of code/changes found in git, even if it is just a part of a gist.

  • by sundara on 1/2/13, 7:50 PM

    Nice Idea - I had developed http://www.Codeshelve.com sometime back - might want to check that out.

  • by vojant on 1/2/13, 7:14 PM

    Really nice weekend project.

    Only one column layout isn't the best idea for such site. Maybe 3 thumbnail in a row would be better?

  • by intermeddle on 1/2/13, 8:05 PM

    This is similar to https://snipt.net

  • by rmanyari on 1/2/13, 4:30 PM

    Really interesting idea, could become something big for the opensource community.

  • by pablasso on 1/2/13, 8:31 PM

    I got the feeling that this got to the frontpage mostly because of the name.

  • by cpdean on 1/2/13, 5:26 PM

    where are the cross-processing filters? Where's the vignette button?

  • by shuzchen on 1/2/13, 11:25 PM

    This project is missing one major, necessary feature: direct submission from your IDE/editor of choice. Creating a write-enabled API is probably the first step towards that.

  • by smonte on 1/2/13, 9:42 PM

    I also had a similar weekend project, but specific to Java, http://javasnips.com/

  • by thomasvendetta on 1/2/13, 3:44 PM

    Nice job Abe, keep up the good work!

  • by bennyg on 1/2/13, 5:47 PM

    No Objective-C?