New project, "Code to Code"

Madison Kelly linux-5ZoueyuiTZhBDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org
Tue Dec 16 20:38:33 UTC 2008


Pardon the in-line reply, but you have some great points I want to 
respond to individually!

Marc Lanctot wrote:
> Madison Kelly wrote:
> 
>>   I decided to start a little project to see if it might go anywhere. 
>> It's simple, just a(nother) wiki. I've called it 'Code to Code'. It's 
>> hosted on an unused domain of mine. Should this get past go, I'll 
>> register a proper domain. In the meantime:
>>
>> http://madisonave.ca
>>
>>   I was wondering what it would take to interest folks here who are 
>> comfortable in two languages help get the ball rolling?
>>
> 
> Madison,
> 
> Firstly: totally awesome idea. I would certainly use this if it was 
> populated with examples. I would/will also help populate it with 
> examples. I think this has a lot of potential and I urge you to go 
> through with it.

Any and all help is appreciated!

> A note about the UI or navigation: I think it would be better to have 
> the algorithm/"thing" (let's call it a "coding concept" because in 
> general these are simpler than full-blown algorithms) that I'm trying to 
> implement as the first level choice and *then* see which source/target 
> languages are available for it.

First and formost, I want to standardize on actual article being called 
'Foo to Bar', then within it I would like to have all functions in their 
own section that can be linked to individually.

With that structure in place, It would be relatively easy to create an 
interface that does just what you want. I agree though, my current UI is 
terribly simple, but I meant it to be a framework that can be expanded 
on more than a final product. :)

> For example, suppose I want to find out how to implement a method 
> override in a subclass via inheritance in C++, I know Python, and I know 
> Java. It doesn't matter to me what my source language is as long as it 
> exists for one of those two, so I can easily choose the source language 
> without wading through all the other "source language" pages looking for 
> the concept.

So something like a searchable index? IE:

"Show me source languages showing how to use function X in language A"?

This would be great, any suggestions on how to implement that in a wiki? 
The closest thing I can think of is the "What links here?" special page 
for the section talking about the function.

If you have any ideas you would like to try, by all means please 
experiment on the project wiki.

> There's also the advantage that you can quickly assess whether or not 
> the concept exists in your collection, and and even better advantage: 
> you can put a pseudo-code version on the concept's profile.

True, I think this would be a very useful feature. Again though, how to 
implement... ?

> Once the concept has a profile you could even add some comments to it. 
> Like, for example, in the above case someone could add a very useful 
> note: "Note that in Java all class methods are virtual so that methods 
> in a subclass with the same signature are always overrides where in C++ 
> this is not true unless the method is declared as a virtual. "

That would need to be a "glue" page, I think. To keep to focus of the 
project narrow, I would like to keep the "core" articles strictly 
referencing the source language. Perhaps have a "More" page for any 
given feature that can be followed off the main article?

> All in all excellent idea and I'm looking forward to helping you with 
> it, but from a programmer's perspective I think this UI issue is critical.
> 
> Marc

UI is everything, I agree. People won't contribute if the interface 
feels clumsy or inhibiting.

Anyone who has any idea, please play around and let me know what you 
have in mind. I am quite open to suggestions.

Madi
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