5 ms·

Ask HN: What are some developer tools you wish existed?

jka 6y ago
A way to surface code quality -- across various metrics -- at any level of code (individual token, line of code, file, directory, package, library, application, ...). Metrics could include: code style consistency, stability (has the area of code changed much over time), risk (is there potential for security vulnerabilities related to the code area), and test coverage. The metrics - if displayed visually - might look something like a Heat Map[1], and would ideally be represented in the same place as the code itself, perhaps via background colours. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_map https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_map
- jka 6y ago
  (in fact, resource usage efficiency for each code area could be a helpful metric too; CPU, memory, network, etc)
- lumpa 6y ago
  So either IDE and/or repository would show these? Sounds very useful and somewhat straightforward (if involved) to create, so I expect it to exist in some form. Will report back if I find anything.
  - jka 6y ago
    Yep, it wouldn't be too surprising if it does already exist. It'd also potentially function something like a more advanced diff tool that can provide time-saving efforts to those who use it. If mature and reliable enough it could actually be used to predict which changes are likely to cause future problems, and then the code reviewer(s) would have to decide how they'd like to act based on that information.
- Chyzwar 6y ago
  Examples: Code Climate https://codeclimate.com/ https://codeclimate.com/ SonarQube https://www.sonarqube.org/ https://www.sonarqube.org/ There is plenty of tools like this. I find them not very useful. They do not provide more value than standard project CI/CD setup eslint/jest/typescript/dependabot. These create a lot of false positives and act as rubber stamp for incompetent managers. Look our code is great, but we just failed to release for 4 weeks because of bugs and infra. Best code quality measure is rate of defects. Tracking these and properly labeling issues by component would give better indication where to invest time into refactors/rewrites. In current climate good QA are rare and companies believe that devs can do everything.
lumpa 6y ago
Something that could ingest an app's GUI code then render it as some accessible and editable... thing? So that users (and devs?) can easily produce mocks and proposed feature screenshots. Like some sort of generic reverse wireframe sketcher.
fiftyacorn 6y ago
A tool to autogenerate sequence diagrams for when I'm working on a method or function
- Chyzwar 6y ago
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5LA7ivUb2c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5LA7ivUb2c Not same thing but VSCode have call hierachy.
speedgoose 6y ago
A no-code/little code platform that is open-source, well designed, powerful but simple, and does the GUI as well. Like Hasura but not only for the data, or Microsoft Access but without Microsoft or vba.
dave_sid 6y ago
A machine that dispenses chocolate for every 100 lines of code I write.
shayac2 6y ago
A heat-map of sorts for a codebase showing the files that have the most-frequent/most-recent edits as hottest. Purpose being to help acclimate new developers to a project by easily seeing which parts of the codebase are most actively worked on.

jka 6y ago

A way to surface code quality -- across various metrics -- at any level of code (individual token, line of code, file, directory, package, library, application, ...). Metrics could include: code style consistency, stability (has the area of code changed much over time), risk (is there potential for security vulnerabilities related to the code area), and test coverage. The metrics - if displayed visually - might look something like a Heat Map[1], and would ideally be represented in the same place as the code itself, perhaps via background colours. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_map https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_map

jka 6y ago
(in fact, resource usage efficiency for each code area could be a helpful metric too; CPU, memory, network, etc)
lumpa 6y ago
So either IDE and/or repository would show these? Sounds very useful and somewhat straightforward (if involved) to create, so I expect it to exist in some form. Will report back if I find anything.
- jka 6y ago
  Yep, it wouldn't be too surprising if it does already exist. It'd also potentially function something like a more advanced diff tool that can provide time-saving efforts to those who use it. If mature and reliable enough it could actually be used to predict which changes are likely to cause future problems, and then the code reviewer(s) would have to decide how they'd like to act based on that information.
Chyzwar 6y ago
Examples: Code Climate https://codeclimate.com/ https://codeclimate.com/ SonarQube https://www.sonarqube.org/ https://www.sonarqube.org/ There is plenty of tools like this. I find them not very useful. They do not provide more value than standard project CI/CD setup eslint/jest/typescript/dependabot. These create a lot of false positives and act as rubber stamp for incompetent managers. Look our code is great, but we just failed to release for 4 weeks because of bugs and infra. Best code quality measure is rate of defects. Tracking these and properly labeling issues by component would give better indication where to invest time into refactors/rewrites. In current climate good QA are rare and companies believe that devs can do everything.

lumpa 6y ago

Something that could ingest an app's GUI code then render it as some accessible and editable... thing? So that users (and devs?) can easily produce mocks and proposed feature screenshots. Like some sort of generic reverse wireframe sketcher.

fiftyacorn 6y ago

A tool to autogenerate sequence diagrams for when I'm working on a method or function

Chyzwar 6y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5LA7ivUb2c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5LA7ivUb2c Not same thing but VSCode have call hierachy.

speedgoose 6y ago

A no-code/little code platform that is open-source, well designed, powerful but simple, and does the GUI as well. Like Hasura but not only for the data, or Microsoft Access but without Microsoft or vba.

dave_sid 6y ago

A machine that dispenses chocolate for every 100 lines of code I write.

shayac2 6y ago

A heat-map of sorts for a codebase showing the files that have the most-frequent/most-recent edits as hottest. Purpose being to help acclimate new developers to a project by easily seeing which parts of the codebase are most actively worked on.