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

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

#2
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

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

#3
post #2

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…

(in fact, resource usage efficiency for each code area could be a helpful metric too; CPU, memory, network, etc)

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

#5
post #2

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…

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.

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

#10
post #5
post #2

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…

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.

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.

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