Snippets are the backbone of CodeNeighbor – they define a one-liner, a function or something larger. When CodeNeighbor started out, the concept of snippet types grew and this outpaced the system defined types where it all began.
As the imagination and creativity of our neighbors increased, it became clear that there was a need to allow them to create custom snippet types, to better organize and categorize what they were saving. To that end, there now exists the ability to create custom snippet types which enables snippets of any type.
As always, you feedback on this new feature is welcomed and we hope you can use this new capability to its fullest! Happy type-ing.
This whole business of ‘low code / no code’ has its merits – for non developers. Those of us who are ardent fans of coding, dismiss this thinking as ‘for others, not ourselves’ … but is that totally true ?
The concept of no code / low code stems from those business models that aim to entice non developers into believing that an app can be built with no or very little code, OR, those pundits that aim to push a new paradigm that this approach represents less effort / time / cost and improved speed to market.
Well … some of that does ring true, but what CodeNeighbor believes is that code generation is in this camp as it relates to the effort, or lack of, using templates. Generating code is nothing new – many tools and IDE’s have been providing this for years, but typically the boilerplate mutators or syntactical structures such as loops or blocks. While all of this is fine and good, what is really valuable, is building using structures of code that have defined purpose and can be connected like Lego blocks.
Imagine, if you will, the ability to connect the core architecture aspects of an app together with blocks that work, have been tested and can easily be plugged in (pluggable architecture) into the scheme of things and allow the developer to focus on the really important stuff. In that sense, this does provide an aspect of low code / no code, allowing you to spend you valuable time on the high brow stuff.
This is by no means simple, but it is also not rocket science (does anyone actually attend school for rockets these days ?) … so stay tuned for what lies ahead.
We all love diagrams (well, pictures). Sitting back and admiring works of art can take us to a peaceful place where we can reflect … yet I digress.
The ability to have a visual display of our project can aide in understanding the ‘big picture’ (pun intended) and help identify issues before them become … um … issues. CodeNeighbor has begun researching how to generate diagrams for XCode projects, models for data design and other such fun stuff.
Our roadmap takes us all over the land before us and project diagramming is just the tip of the iceberg – but we do need the ice. Thoughts of pretty pictures which represent our own mobile works of art is just the beginning … you will have to stay tuned to see what lies ahead (hopefully, not an iceberg).
Finding a needle in a haystack – that proverbial elusive thing (needles are not expensive, just buy another one). First, one has to find a haystack – those should be easy enough and CodeNeighbor has lots of haystacks. But … that tiny needle, how did we lose it in a haystack anyway ?
After finding that needle, or in our case an asset, notifications will be sent to our neighbor through the channels they have chosen. Search results can be reviewed to validate whether the located assets align with the search criteria and can be added to their asset library for later use. These types of searches can be automated by adding the search criteria to our machine learning minions and once they locate those needles, have those results brought to your attention.
The search feature has been enhanced to search for assets by library (or kit), further improving the changes of finding exactly what you are looking for. Multiple kits can be used to search across multiple vectors to locate those assets you require.
Machine learning. It brings about thoughts of computers playing chess, identifying food (hotdog / not hot dog) or finding information from a mountain of data. At CodeNeighbor, we focus on the value of our assets and have begun research on identifying valuable content that matches your needs and expectations.
A short questionnaire is provided to learn the types of assets you are looking for and that is used to seek out those assets automatically and notify you when they have been found. We know that everyone’s time is valuable and what better way to save time than to have those metal servants find the things we are looking for while we enjoy binge watching Silicon Valley.
CodeNeighbor is adding a voting capability to voice your thoughts on features that should be added, removed or enhanced. This platform is for you and is only valuable if it provides … value to you. In order to maintain this value, your input is crucial to ensure each neighbor has what they need to build their next masterpiece.
Topics will be gleaned from the neighborhood and those topics will be voted on, for what features are in demand. Those will then be voted on regarding priority and specifics for how they will be provided. CodeNeighbor, from its’ inception, was to provide a portal to what the neighborhood needs and to learn and grow to support those needs. A healthy neighborhood is one that grows, keeps neighbors talking and occasionally keeps the grass mowed at the correct level.
Chat is such an important feature and CodeNeighbor likes to stay with the hip crowd. Chat is being added to the Mac OSX app as well as the iOS app to allow neighbors to stay connected wherever they are. Features like this are only available with a subscription but there is a trial option to test drive this capability before purchasing.
A mobile app is being developed to provide remote features to CodeNeighbor. The ability to search for assets and be notified when saved search criteria has located assets is one of the primary features of this app. Collaboration with your neighbors via chat is also a feature that will keep you connected and provide communication on demand.
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.
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.
