Discussion about a community project for Utility Subroutines

stevel05

stevel05

Expert
Licensed User
Longtime User
@DonManfred and I have briefly discussed the possibility of creating a repository for Utility Subroutines for all users to share (albeit on an existing thread).

Current thinking is that the wiki may be a good place to put this. I have posted some of mine in the open forums as have many others, but a single repository seems to be a good idea.

I'm sure @Erel will have input as to the best location, and we'd need to draw up a proposed format for entries. I would happily volunteer to Moderate entries if it's deemed necessary.

Using the wiki, it would be possible to place code for all to see, or another option would be (and I don't know if the wiki can currently do this), for users to post zip files containing a code module, with a detailed description of it's contents.

Users posting would have to agree that the subs are licensed as Libraries currently are, see the post here.

Any thoughts or comments welcome.
 
stevel05

stevel05

Expert
Licensed User
Longtime User
Yes, I've seen that, it would be a great place to start. Thanks Klaus
 
stevel05

stevel05

Expert
Licensed User
Longtime User
Another possibility may be to create a project on GitHub or similar, I've not really used it much except for pulling a few projects. Does anyone know it well enough to say if it would be suitable? And easy enough for beginner programmers to get to grips with? Or if it's a suitable place for such a repository?
 
NJDude

NJDude

Expert
Licensed User
Longtime User
Not to be a party pooper but, here in the forums there are literally tons of examples, the problem is NO ONE USES THE SEARCH FEATURE, so, creating a section here or in GitHub or whatever will suffer the same fate of all the code posted here, in fact, even Klaus' excellent guide is overlooked.

My 2 cents.
 
Last edited:
stevel05

stevel05

Expert
Licensed User
Longtime User
I don't disagree with you NJDude, it could potentially be a very useful tool. If it's not used, it won't be. If it's done correctly it should be easy to see if the code your after is available. The forum has many technical discussions that end up with a nugget of code being written, which may not be easily located by the threads title.
 
LucaMs

LucaMs

Expert
Licensed User
Longtime User
I do not know the English idioms, but "2 cents" I think is Scottish, right? :D

One of the things that I immediately hated about Java are the repositories, I do not know them at all.

It is true that through the search you can find good examples, but I think it would be useful a section or similar where Anywhere SW collects and catalogs the most useful routines (and then insert them into the new versions of B4A).

We know that Erel has so much free time to take care of this too :p

(I have a feeling that sooner or later he will ban me :))
 
stevel05

stevel05

Expert
Licensed User
Longtime User
stevel05 said:
The forum has many technical discussions that end up with a nugget of code being written, which may not be easily located by the threads title.
Click to expand...
And it's not only the examples in the forum we're after. It's the utility code that is used over and over again by us all that could be of use to others.
 
HotShoe

HotShoe

Well-Known Member
Licensed User
Longtime User
I like this idea. Especially if we use categories to classify the routines so it's easier to browse through. Something akin to the file download areas of old BBS systems.

--- Jem
 
LucaMs

LucaMs

Expert
Licensed User
Longtime User
Yes, but I noticed your signature now, AFTER reading that post!

Usually I do not read the signature and probably many others do so.

All this made me think more about how much advertising for an app is important, probably more than the quality of the app!
 
DonManfred

DonManfred

Expert
Licensed User
Longtime User
We could think over how to advertise a snippet-database-tool/app/wiki if we have one :D
 
Erel

Erel

B4X founder
Staff member
Licensed User
Longtime User
I believe that most members use the search feature quite a lot. I check the logs from time to time. It is quite busy.

While this idea sounds nice it suffers from the same problem that the wiki suffers. It needs to be constantly maintained. Someone needs to collect the snippets and organize them. It is easy to start with but after several months it can be annoying to maintain (a bit like our family hamster ;) )

Wiki recent changes: http://www.b4x.com/android/wiki/index.php?title=Special:RecentChanges&days=30&from=
You can see that only the libraries page is updated. Personally I think that this page is also not really important. It is easier to search for libraries and find them in the forum.

As I see it the search engine is the key. We should just post the snippets as answers or as examples / tutorials and the search engine should allow other members to find them.

The search engine uses all kinds of inputs to decide which results are the most relevant.
For example:
- Post date
- Author posts count
- Back links. This one is very important.
- Thread category

The search engine is not perfect and will never be perfect.
However it does seem to do its job. If you feel differently or if you weren't getting the results that you expected then please post your feedback (with concrete example).

My 2 cents...
 
thedesolatesoul

thedesolatesoul

Expert
Licensed User
Longtime User
Hi Erel,
For me personally, I think this discussion is not about how to find the code snippets, it is about how to integrate them into our projects more easily.
For instance, the 9patch subroutine (using reflection), is one I use a lot, almost in every project. For me it would be nice to have it in a module that I could add to every project. I usually do create sub a generic bas file (UIUtils) but unfortunately I end up with too many copies of it with slightly different versions in different projects.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top