Ask HN: Does anyone still use code snippets?

Lots of them, not only fu -> function, but whole blocks of code with parameters (snipmate style). A few of half-pages of code and then dozens of little expansions, for many filetypes.

This is a result of a process I call experience distillation. I notice what code I write often but tend to either forget (bash) or outthink much faster than I can type (common syntax, libs, boilerplate), and routinely add it to snippets in hope that it sticks. Then I learn to actually use it. Once in a while I delete the unused or reshape it for second attempt with the understanding why it failed the first time.

I am generally fine with duplicating some of the "scaffolding" between projects to aid with readability and have less magic when trying to understand the code.

Eg. most languages would enable you to build a custom library, but then it becomes non-obvious what's exactly happening to someone diving into the project, a most engineers never bother fixing/improving the original library, and you end up with crap on top to "work-around" the poorly understood behaviour.

Eg. recently, I've fixed an internal library holding multiple locks around one tiny block of async code, rendering the entire thing synchronous, which was being worked around by devs using multiprocessing or multithreading for a couple years. I've reduced that library code to basically a couple of functions, but my preference would be to actually copy-paste those 200 lines into every component using it — while you have the problem when you want to update it everywhere, your average engineer focused on solving a different business problem will be better equipped to handle it.

My personal gripe is with the abuse of @decorators in Python, which are side-effect pits of hell (yes, the code can look really nice).

I personally don't use snippets, but I do copy-paste some of that scaffolding between projects (though I am mostly a manager these days and hardly get any time to code, so take that with a huge grain of salt) — snippets as such never added much value to me.

Are local models accepted or just unpopular?

All the time. I write a lot of typescript and don't enjoy typing out brackets, so I have snippets like:

`af` expands to `() => `

`naf` expands to `export const foobar = () => {};`

The expanded snippets can be tabbed through as well

It feels like a big timesaver

I am using Alfred's Snippets feature. I have registered several snippets of GH Markdown and HTML.

note - gh:

> [!NOTE] > Highlights information that users should take into account, even when skimming.

ruby - html:

WORD(CAPTION)