I use a plugin called Grep Console in my JetBrains Rider IDE. It lets you auto highlight, color, or play a sound when certain regular expressions are found in the log output.
So I set it to play an 8-bit sounding “thump” sound whenever it sees an [ERR] in the log output to hear any handled, but logged, errors. I also set up other sounds for specific things I’m looking for so I know when they’ve occurred (sirens, ahooga horns, sproings). It’s a great help, along with color coding, to find things in a long log file when verbose logging is turned on.
Ask HN: Does anyone use sound effects in their dev environment?
321–330 of 336 posts
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone use sound effects in their dev environment?
#322Something I have often thought about for years but never implemented was "sound logging" where you get specific points of your code to play audio clips or tones instead of/as well as logging to console etc. The idea being that you can test the app.and hear the sound logs going off as you go. In a tight loop that executes quickly I would hope that you could hear something "being off" in the same way that a mechanic ca…
The Grep Console plugin for JetBrains IDEs lets you do this.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone use sound effects in their dev environment?
#323It's not a dev environment, but when I have been observing at large (inter)national telescopes, there are often a variety of sound effects in the control room. These sounds often announce a change in status (e.g., observing script started, observing script finished, script failed, script added to the queue). One example is the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, that in practice is three separate arrays of telescopes (an…
Correction: there are up to 12 of the 7 meter diameter antennas.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone use sound effects in their dev environment?
#324I feel like I would get PTSD eventually. The slack new message sound triggers my anxiety, I can only imagine what a compiler error sound would do to me :D
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone use sound effects in their dev environment?
#325This sounds like an idea borrowed from games or other media where doing certain actions results in an audible feedback. This is often done for the benefit of the audience, or to enhance the gaming experience, but I had an idea to implement this in my workspace to somehow influence my brain and make it more enticing to write code and somehow beat procrastination. I wrote a Python daemon which on startup loads small .w…
Sounds cool. I'm definitely interested. Were you procrastinating when you wrote this?
The project is up on GitHub, here's Show HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41577391
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone use sound effects in their dev environment?
#326This sounds like an idea borrowed from games or other media where doing certain actions results in an audible feedback. This is often done for the benefit of the audience, or to enhance the gaming experience, but I had an idea to implement this in my workspace to somehow influence my brain and make it more enticing to write code and somehow beat procrastination. I wrote a Python daemon which on startup loads small .w…
I'd love to try this out, do you have a name for the project so I know how to search in a later date?
The project is up on GitHub, here's Show HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41577391
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone use sound effects in their dev environment?
#327Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'll set it up on GitHub in 1-2 days and publish it on Hacker News.
Yes! Please do!
The project is up on GitHub, here's Show HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41577391
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone use sound effects in their dev environment?
#328Sure. I've used `say` on macos (spd-say for linux) like so: mvn clean install ; say "Done" It's great for those build times that're awkwardly long. Just long enough that you get bored waiting, too short to accomplish something else in the meantime. So you crank up the volume, load up HN, read an article and "DONE!" OH HOLY SHI--. Back to work. that said it sucks to set up that flow when you /sometimes/ are around oth…
> it's pretty jarring if anyone can hear it
That's only because you haven't put any effort into sound design. Notification and alert sounds can be horrible like many of the ringtones people choose or they can be pleasant and unobtrusive like certain defaults in various apps. Try browsing some sound effect libraries on various game asset stores, there are many free effects available, and choose something that isn't jarring but is still unique enough to recognize. Avoid sharp beeps and boops or loud melodies, look for ambient sounds like the click of a lock or switch, the swish of paper or fabric, a soft impact sound like dropping a slipper or flip-flop, something you'll notice but won't startle you.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone use sound effects in their dev environment?
#329Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, this. Imagine an elevator, gas pump, vending machine, or laundromat emitting sound effects constantly. Quite the dystopian hellscape.
> gas pump Most of them play advertisements while you fuel up. I hate it. The only thing that I like about New Jersey forbidding me from touching a gas pump is that I'm not subjected to ads for diarrhea medication or low-APR loans every time I fuel up.
Gas pumps at the local grocer play beeps when you hit a key (consumer loyalty # entry), but with a random delay. It's maddening how much harder this makes typing. OTOH, these pumps don't have video ads yet.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone use sound effects in their dev environment?
#330I would really really like a VSCode extension that went "bing" when a build finishes. I think that would seriously boost my productivity.
Great starting point for a fun little project. Let us know how it goes :)
Tragically, I'm deep in the weeds on a fun BIG project at the moment. :-P