4 ms·

Offer HN: Free licenses for two developer tools

24 points by viggity 16y ago

So, I've been working on two apps for the past year and a half. They're not extremely polished (I need better error handling), but the definitely get the job done and they've been paying a few of my bills. Atomiq (www.getatomiq.com) will find all the places someone has copy and pasted code in your project. It supports analyzing C#, VB, Java, Javascript, Python, Ruby, Actionscript, C and C++. We leave it up to you on how to refactor the duplicate code, but you should definitely check out "the wheel" visualization (www.getatomiq.com/images/faq/wheel.png) Nitriq (www.nitriq.com) is a code analysis, code review tool for .Net developers. It helps you find problem areas in your code by allowing you to write LINQ statements against your assemblies. It is in the same space as FXCop, but Nitriq makes in much more easy to tweak the kinds of problems you're looking for. Both apps are written with WPF, so they're windows only (sorry linux/osx devs). I love HN and find it to be a source of inspiration, so I'm offering free licenses to any HN'er who has been around for at least 6 months or has 50+ karma. Please send your name, HN ID, and email address to me (info in profile) and I'll send you a free license. Also let me know which tool you'd like. The system we have to generate licenses is kind of a pain to use right now, so it may take me a day or two to gen the license for you depending on how many people respond. Thanks HN for being HN

rbxbx 16y ago
How about making these service-based tools, so platform isn't an issue? [and thanks for the offer]
- viggity 16y ago
  I've considered it, but right now I've got too much invested in my current presentation layer, which I think provides a large chunk of the value. That, and I'd be wary of uploading my company's IP to a third party system.
  - limmeau 16y ago
    Is Atomiq more about copy-paste from foreign code or more about copy-paste instead of refactoring to more general code? If the former, have you thought about a turnitin-like service for CS departments?
    - viggity 16y ago
      Atomiq is about finding duplicates in your own code (so, the later). Eventually, I'll be adding more robust pattern finding so it will find structurally similar code (like the cheat detection that some CS departments use). We ignore "fluff" like whitespace, capitalization, etc, but if the end user changes all the variable names, Atomiq isn't going to catch it.
- limmeau 16y ago
  Nitriq doesn't sound like it fits the service-based model -- you'd have to upload your source code or your binary assemblies everytime you want to analyze something. To me, that would be like a service-based compiler or a service-based debugger.
jayaram 16y ago
why is it only for people who are here for atleast for 6 months or 50+ karma ? Could you just change it to everyone ?
- smiler 16y ago
  Because it rewards people who are actively engaged in the HN community and contributing something, rather than someone reading this today, then signing up to HN and claiming the offer
- cubicle67 16y ago
  Hint: sometimes a private email or even just asking nicely goes a long way ;)
- swah 16y ago
  Because Google is almost real time.
- phoenix24 16y ago
  oh! i don't have enough karma :'(
  - viggity 16y ago
    but you've been on for at least 6 months - I said either, not both :)
- jayaram 16y ago
  Thanks guys for the negative reviews :)
cubicle67 16y ago
I'm not able to take you up on your offer (I'm a Linux/OSX user), but what you've got sounds pretty cool. Good luck with it
- owyn 16y ago
  Looks cool, but I'm in the same situation. Windows is not a deal breaker, but we're a PHP shop. :) Any intention of adding more languages?
smiler 16y ago
Viggity - I see you've been writing your apps in WPF. Did you see the news about Evernote switching from WPF to native code. What are your thoughts on that and do you find WPF to be a pain?
- viggity 16y ago
  Sure, I was following that story most of yesterday. I think it really comes down to what kind of app you're writing. Evernote could have written their app in assembly and it'd be screaming fast but it'd be a PITA to maintain. They chose to go C++ because speed is really important to their customers, but I think they're going to have a harder time adding new features and tweaking old ones. With such a robust, flexible system that WPF provides, you're obviously going to have some performance overhead, but creating new features becomes a lot more easy. And perf is obviously going to get better with time simply due to the speed of your average PC. For me, I absolutely love WPF. The thing I love about it is that it is stupid easy to make intuitive UI - I can put any kind of visual element ANYWHERE I want. And using MVVM lets me keep a very nice separation between my business logic and my presentation. In fact, I'm hooking up the same view model to several different views and via declarative binding, changes to one automatically update all the others. Granted, there is a fairly steep learning curve, but there is a lot more training material now than there was 4 years ago. Also, FWIW, I've been doing some Silverlight dev and if SL could step up a little and improve their binding system (WPF's is much more robust), I'd have no problem switching over to Silverlight. I consider them to be two branches of the same tech. I'm expecting a lot more parity between the binding systems in SL 5.
kingkilr 16y ago
I know you said they're windows only, but do you have any idea if they work under Mono or WINE?
- viggity 16y ago
  Mono doesn't have a WPF alternative, so no on that front. I'm not sure about WINE but I'm guessing so.
  - rlmw 16y ago
    Mono does have a Silverlight alternative. So if you're able to switch to Silverlight in future then that might enable to create a crossplatform version. Best of luck.

24 points by viggity 16y ago

rbxbx 16y ago

How about making these service-based tools, so platform isn't an issue? [and thanks for the offer]

viggity 16y ago
I've considered it, but right now I've got too much invested in my current presentation layer, which I think provides a large chunk of the value. That, and I'd be wary of uploading my company's IP to a third party system.
- limmeau 16y ago
  Is Atomiq more about copy-paste from foreign code or more about copy-paste instead of refactoring to more general code? If the former, have you thought about a turnitin-like service for CS departments?
  - viggity 16y ago
    Atomiq is about finding duplicates in your own code (so, the later). Eventually, I'll be adding more robust pattern finding so it will find structurally similar code (like the cheat detection that some CS departments use). We ignore "fluff" like whitespace, capitalization, etc, but if the end user changes all the variable names, Atomiq isn't going to catch it.
limmeau 16y ago
Nitriq doesn't sound like it fits the service-based model -- you'd have to upload your source code or your binary assemblies everytime you want to analyze something. To me, that would be like a service-based compiler or a service-based debugger.

jayaram 16y ago

why is it only for people who are here for atleast for 6 months or 50+ karma ? Could you just change it to everyone ?

smiler 16y ago
Because it rewards people who are actively engaged in the HN community and contributing something, rather than someone reading this today, then signing up to HN and claiming the offer
cubicle67 16y ago
Hint: sometimes a private email or even just asking nicely goes a long way ;)
swah 16y ago
Because Google is almost real time.
phoenix24 16y ago
oh! i don't have enough karma :'(
- viggity 16y ago
  but you've been on for at least 6 months - I said either, not both :)
jayaram 16y ago
Thanks guys for the negative reviews :)

cubicle67 16y ago

I'm not able to take you up on your offer (I'm a Linux/OSX user), but what you've got sounds pretty cool. Good luck with it

owyn 16y ago
Looks cool, but I'm in the same situation. Windows is not a deal breaker, but we're a PHP shop. :) Any intention of adding more languages?

smiler 16y ago

Viggity - I see you've been writing your apps in WPF. Did you see the news about Evernote switching from WPF to native code. What are your thoughts on that and do you find WPF to be a pain?

viggity 16y ago
Sure, I was following that story most of yesterday. I think it really comes down to what kind of app you're writing. Evernote could have written their app in assembly and it'd be screaming fast but it'd be a PITA to maintain. They chose to go C++ because speed is really important to their customers, but I think they're going to have a harder time adding new features and tweaking old ones. With such a robust, flexible system that WPF provides, you're obviously going to have some performance overhead, but creating new features becomes a lot more easy. And perf is obviously going to get better with time simply due to the speed of your average PC. For me, I absolutely love WPF. The thing I love about it is that it is stupid easy to make intuitive UI - I can put any kind of visual element ANYWHERE I want. And using MVVM lets me keep a very nice separation between my business logic and my presentation. In fact, I'm hooking up the same view model to several different views and via declarative binding, changes to one automatically update all the others. Granted, there is a fairly steep learning curve, but there is a lot more training material now than there was 4 years ago. Also, FWIW, I've been doing some Silverlight dev and if SL could step up a little and improve their binding system (WPF's is much more robust), I'd have no problem switching over to Silverlight. I consider them to be two branches of the same tech. I'm expecting a lot more parity between the binding systems in SL 5.

kingkilr 16y ago

I know you said they're windows only, but do you have any idea if they work under Mono or WINE?

viggity 16y ago
Mono doesn't have a WPF alternative, so no on that front. I'm not sure about WINE but I'm guessing so.
- rlmw 16y ago
  Mono does have a Silverlight alternative. So if you're able to switch to Silverlight in future then that might enable to create a crossplatform version. Best of luck.