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Show HN: CodeHalf – Write Code Everyday, new design and new features

codehalf.com

41–50 of 53 posts

Re: Show HN: CodeHalf – Write Code Everyday, new design and new features

#41
post #38

Easy to understand UI, imho. It'd be nice to be able to add notes for days in the past, in case you forgot to fill in one day. Also, is it possible to edit a topic once it's created?

Hey, You'll be able to add notes for previous days but not for days prior to when you signed up, sorry I don't think this is particularly clear at the moment and maybe I should remove this restriction from the UI.

Currently it's not possible to edit topics, high up on the todo list though! :D Thanks for your feedback, muchly appreciated!

Re: Show HN: CodeHalf – Write Code Everyday, new design and new features

#42

(Not commenting on the site/feature directly just the idea.) As a person who wrote code for a year every day working on a game in my free time, you'd be surprised how much progress you make even if only putting in a bit of time every day. Or maybe you wouldn't be surprised. After all, 365 days * 0.5 hours / (40 hour/week work week) = 4.5 work weeks. So about a month of "full time work" that you would never have if yo…

Due to context switching costs, I'd think the progress made working 30 minutes a day would be nowhere close to what you would achieve if you did it all at once. For me, I think my output would be closer to 2 weeks worth of work than 4.5...

Re: Show HN: CodeHalf – Write Code Everyday, new design and new features

#43

(Not commenting on the site/feature directly just the idea.) As a person who wrote code for a year every day working on a game in my free time, you'd be surprised how much progress you make even if only putting in a bit of time every day. Or maybe you wouldn't be surprised. After all, 365 days * 0.5 hours / (40 hour/week work week) = 4.5 work weeks. So about a month of "full time work" that you would never have if yo…

Due to context switching costs, I'd think the progress made working 30 minutes a day would be nowhere close to what you would achieve if you did it all at once. For me, I think my output would be closer to 2 weeks worth of work than 4.5...

If you don't do it in-between your other work you can avoid the cost of context switching. And consider that you spend a lot more time refining your ideas (whether consciously or not), so I bet you'll be a lot more focussed during those 30 minute sprints than on average during your work days.

Re: Show HN: CodeHalf – Write Code Everyday, new design and new features

#44
post #35

Awesome work. But I would prefer log-in/registration with own email/password combo. I hate 3rd party logins. One alternative would be, and what worked for me, is a simple old school pomodoro tracker: 1: get pomodoro app/timer like http://tomato-timer.com/ 2: aim for 3 or so pomodoro sessions/day for your project or new thing you want to do or to learn 3: profit Nice thing about pomodoro technique is that the distract…

Hey, thanks for the feedback it's much appreciated! Already planning to add the email/password login option as it's been requested quite a few times. I've thought about app/widget/thing for doing time tracking and pomodoro style but decided against it right at the beginning, I'll keep thinking about it and see what feedback I get from others regarding it.

Also consider using passwordless authentication instead, see http://passwordless.org/

Re: Show HN: CodeHalf – Write Code Everyday, new design and new features

#45

(Not commenting on the site/feature directly just the idea.) As a person who wrote code for a year every day working on a game in my free time, you'd be surprised how much progress you make even if only putting in a bit of time every day. Or maybe you wouldn't be surprised. After all, 365 days * 0.5 hours / (40 hour/week work week) = 4.5 work weeks. So about a month of "full time work" that you would never have if yo…

Due to context switching costs, I'd think the progress made working 30 minutes a day would be nowhere close to what you would achieve if you did it all at once. For me, I think my output would be closer to 2 weeks worth of work than 4.5...

I think this is where planning and leaving notes for yourself comes into play. If you can spend one hour long span planning out what you're going to work on for the next 6 days of 30 minute sprints, it should lessen the time loss due to context switching. That's what I found worked best during my year of writing code every day. I would sit down on a weekend day and plan out a bunch of bite sized tasks. That way I could look at the list, pick something that could be done in 30 minutes without much thinking and get right to the task of writing code.

(That being said, I didn't restrict myself to 30 minute sprints during that year and there were certainly things I did that either could not be done in 30 minute sprints or would require quite a bit of extra planning to be able to be broken up into subtasks and done in 30 minute sprints.)

Re: Show HN: CodeHalf – Write Code Everyday, new design and new features

#46
post #3
post #2

Nice work! It would be cool if you pulled my commits for the day and showed them in the log. I experimented with a similar idea ( https://github.com/samertm/githubstreaks ), and it's a lot of fun to see a detailed breakdown of your commits and the commits your friends make.

Thanks for the comment! I've got a plan of integrating with Github, just trying to decide how it should work as I wouldn't want my commits from work showing up which are on the same github account. Do you think it'd work well if I implemented something to allow picking a commit for a daily entry or would you prefer more automatic tracking?

I honestly don't know what work is involved, but if you integrate with Github, please do the same for BitBucket. BB gets less visibility because most people use it to keep their repositories private, but it's used by a huge amount of people for real work and personal projects.

Re: Show HN: CodeHalf – Write Code Everyday, new design and new features

#47
post #46
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the comment! I've got a plan of integrating with Github, just trying to decide how it should work as I wouldn't want my commits from work showing up which are on the same github account. Do you think it'd work well if I implemented something to allow picking a commit for a daily entry or would you prefer more automatic tracking?

I honestly don't know what work is involved, but if you integrate with Github, please do the same for BitBucket. BB gets less visibility because most people use it to keep their repositories private, but it's used by a huge amount of people for real work and personal projects.

I was just collating some of the feedback from this and right next to Github integration I wrote BB integration :) I use BB a lot as well personally to keep repos private. Thanks for the feedback

Re: Show HN: CodeHalf – Write Code Everyday, new design and new features

#48

(Not commenting on the site/feature directly just the idea.) As a person who wrote code for a year every day working on a game in my free time, you'd be surprised how much progress you make even if only putting in a bit of time every day. Or maybe you wouldn't be surprised. After all, 365 days * 0.5 hours / (40 hour/week work week) = 4.5 work weeks. So about a month of "full time work" that you would never have if yo…

Due to context switching costs, I'd think the progress made working 30 minutes a day would be nowhere close to what you would achieve if you did it all at once. For me, I think my output would be closer to 2 weeks worth of work than 4.5...

OTOH full work days involve fatigue, which you won't run into only working for 30 minutes. And there's a good amount of context switching that goes on at the workplace as well.

Re: Show HN: CodeHalf – Write Code Everyday, new design and new features

#49
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to give an alternative point of view - I prefer third-party login whenever it's available, so the current flow works for me. I'm not saying you shouldn't add first-party login, just don't get rid of third-party login in the process.

I don't say that 3rd party logins are bad and should be removed, I just hate when website assumes that "everyone has Facebook, Google, GitHub, etc." We fought long and hard to get rid of vendor locks as much as possible, why go back to these dark times?

My problem is that I can easily create account and store it in my Keepass, however when there are only 3rd party logins I have no idea which third party login I chose to use for a specific site. This sometimes means trying to authenticate with multiple third party vendors and sometimes accidentally creating a new account as I logged in with a wrong one.

Re: Show HN: CodeHalf – Write Code Everyday, new design and new features

#50
post #49
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't say that 3rd party logins are bad and should be removed, I just hate when website assumes that "everyone has Facebook, Google, GitHub, etc." We fought long and hard to get rid of vendor locks as much as possible, why go back to these dark times?

My problem is that I can easily create account and store it in my Keepass, however when there are only 3rd party logins I have no idea which third party login I chose to use for a specific site. This sometimes means trying to authenticate with multiple third party vendors and sometimes accidentally creating a new account as I logged in with a wrong one.

Good points there and having done that myself as well I can definitely sympathise with you. Working on the email/password auth as we speak ;)
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