Archives 2019

Mac OSX app started – XCode integration

A Mac app is being developed to provide integration with the web based assets. Through this integration, snippets and other assets can be incorporated directly into an XCode project. Template generation can also be accomplished either directly from the app or from the web, once generation has completed.

Versioning snippets

Versioning … a crafty way to make updates and keep previous changes around. A novel idea – it takes us back to childhood, when we gave our siblings hair cuts with safety scissors and then showed our mother our new skills – that would be a great thing to revert to a previous version.

Change is inevitable and allowing for the versioning of our snippets is paramount to maintain our intellectual property – versioning allows for us to update to the shifting winds of our requirements but maintain historical values of our assets.

Change is good !

I have been dragging, now its time to drop

We all feel like this … in the morning. Until that first cup of coffee, we feel like we are dragging, and then that first drop of caffeine arrives. In a similar fashion, as developers (as most of us rely on coffee) like ease of use, CodeNeighbor has added the ability to drag code into the editor window and drop it in for use.

We aim to provide these type of features, while in this case, not earth shattering, undeniably is a great thing to provide ease of use – this is the outcome we expect:

but not this:

Template generation development

One of the primary purposes for creating CodeNeighbor was to enable builders to build faster, with more standardized procedures (best practices) and simplify the traditional boilerplate code that exists is most applications. While this is not new, CodeNeighbor provides the ability to find those chunks of code (snippets) to either add to a template or simply add to your code directly (in XCode).

Template generation, the CodeNeighbor way, enables you with a green field / clean slate approach. You can use existing templates, build your own or a combination of both. You identify the snippets, if any, to include in those templates and then you click a button and sit back while the magic happens.

Traditional sites which enable the non technical individual to build mobile apps is something that was once very popular, but that popularity came at a price. The app stores started rejecting those apps based on various criteria, the apps were generally no more than brochure-ware quality and to be honest, those apps that require the thing that makes them stand out, well, was not possible with those site generators.

We do not approach app building with that philosophy, rather, we enhance the building of apps through these templates and snippet inclusions directly while allowing the mobile developer to focus on that which makes the app a work of art, a thing of beauty and a joy forever.

— Pete (landlord)

Have you seen my profile

Today the ability to update your profile has been made available. This improvement allows for the update of details previously unavailable. This accompanies other new sections as well, including the viewing of neighbors, teams, messages and other content all from one location – pretty snazzy !

Our head is in the clouds

Well, we have decided that our current platform has out grown us and now, our head is in the clouds. We have decided that now is the time to migrate to the cloud (no, we won’t name names, but … it is not a non-player … i.e. a database driven cloud provider … who shall rename nameless).

By positioning ourselves to be a cloud minder, we realize that this puts us in a position to scale to new neighbors, like yourselves and to continue to grow towards tomorrow … and who doesn’t want to look towards tomorrow?

Snippets – your friend and mine

“Snippet”: definition

To say “a small piece snipped off; a small bit, scrap, or fragment” is selling snippets short. All developers since the beginning of time (well, after the first line of code was created) have copied from existing code, creating a snippet. Why do we do this?

The rule of thumb is – ‘be lazy’. That’s the truth … developers are inherently lazy. To be fair, it is not truly laziness, but the desire to reduce the mundane, low brow, pain staking effort of typing the same thing over and over until our fingers go numb. So, we copy and paste – and that is more efficient, quicker and ideologically, gets to the finish line faster.

But … be sure of what you are copying, as an error in a snippet, pasted, will increase technical debt, cost and in the end … WE WILL HAVE TO TYPE THINGS IN ANYWAY – therefore, just be careful of what snippets you craft !

— Pete (landlord)

Agents are now running the show

As of today, we have fully automated the discovery, retrieval and analysis of repositories for the purpose of analysis and identification of assets for CodeNeighbor. This has allowed us to focus on providing more features to you and ensure that content is obtained on a timely basis, is processed quickly and available for consumption as soon as new repositories are located.