Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by ChuckMcM 4365 days ago
This is very cool, it is very close to a product I would spend money for. The product I would spend money for is an e-reader for code. I would copy a 'blob' to my tablet (ipad preferred by Android is ok too) which has all of the code in my example (could be small like an application, could be large like the entire 3.13 kernel source) There would be an ever present search bar or hot-gesture that would let me search for function, definition, callers, or callees. Think cscope on steroids for the language of my choice. Browsing around the source code would bring up source in syntax colored glory (either dark motif or light). It would use high resolution fonts on my retina display for crisp clear text. The typography would be optimized for reading code. It would remember my walks through the code, it would be able to recreate them on request, it would have a swipe-able interface to get to a notes pad "behind" the code where I could at notes about what does what. I would have the ability to fold entire functions, clauses, or loops, and unfold them as needed. It could bring up doxygen comments, when I gave a long press on a function name, it could jump between call graph and code mode. In short I could read code of arbitrary complexity while I rode the train home from work, or sat on the tarmac at JFK. I would pay $100 for an App that could do that for me.
1 comments

As I write this the parent comment is sitting at 0 points (downvoted by 1). Given that everyone here is looking for the "next big thing" and given that I expressed a potential market for a product which doesn't exist, I would think people might say "impractical" or "too limited a market" But I don't get the person with enough karma to down vote, doing so without a comment. I would love to know what they were thinking.