CoffeeScriptLineMatcher

#1

Post by showell30 » Tue, Mar 06, 2012, 3:51 PM UTC

Re: CoffeeScriptLineMatcher

#2

Post by showell30 » Tue, Mar 06, 2012, 3:59 PM UTC

CoffeeScriptLineMatcher lets you see CoffeeScript/JavaScript code side by side. It's mostly geared toward debugging, but it also helps you examine the transformations made by the CS transcompiler.

Re: CoffeeScriptLineMatcher

#3

Post by phren0logy » Tue, Mar 06, 2012, 4:38 PM UTC

Nice to see this, as it seems to address one of the most common concerns about using CoffeeScript. I have to wonder, though, how many minds will it really change? Maybe a lot, but I'm wondering how this will pan out. I'm guessing some people provide line matching for debugging as a concern but will continue to move the goal posts as this and other barriers are removed.

I feel like that's a pattern I see around here, which is odd because if you'd rather just use javascript that seems totally reasonable without an excuse.

Re: CoffeeScriptLineMatcher

#4

Post by showell30 » Tue, Mar 06, 2012, 4:51 PM UTC

phren0logy wrote: post #3

Nice to see this, as it seems to address one of the most common concerns about using CoffeeScript. I have to wonder, though, how many minds will it really change? Maybe a lot, but I'm wondering how this will pan out. I'm guessing some people provide line matching for debugging as a concern but will continue to move the goal posts as this and other barriers are removed. I feel like that's a pattern I see around here,…

I agree with you that are some skeptics who will continue to move the goalposts. I also think that the tool itself won't change any minds.

My hope is that it can help early adopters get over the initial debugging barrier, which, despite the hype, is a legitimate concern. The tool can also be an aid for advocates in teaching coffeescript.

Re: CoffeeScriptLineMatcher

#5

Post by jhrobert » Tue, Mar 06, 2012, 5:06 PM UTC

Great.

Based on that, what would be even more useful still is a way to browse my code from a within the editor itself. Something with say line numbers on some left pane synchronized with the corresponding file section on the right pane.

Some editors already provide a similar feature using line numbers from compilers ; that's usefull to fix syntax errors typically.

Re: CoffeeScriptLineMatcher

#6

Post by showell30 » Tue, Mar 06, 2012, 5:30 PM UTC

jhrobert wrote: post #5

Great. Based on that, what would be even more useful still is a way to browse my code from a within the editor itself. Something with say line numbers on some left pane synchronized with the corresponding file section on the right pane. Some editors already provide a similar feature using line numbers from compilers ; that's usefull to fix syntax errors typically.

Yup, there is some support for editor integration, although it's still up to you to actually glue it into your editor of choice. See the issue below for more discussion.

https://github.com/showell/CoffeeScriptLineMatcher/issues/13

Re: CoffeeScriptLineMatcher

#7

Post by mike-cardwell » Tue, Mar 06, 2012, 5:34 PM UTC

I just tried this out and the web interface it provides is awful. You're better off opening the .js and .coffee files in vi and finding things manually. The page is twice the width of my browser as I'm looking at it now.

Re: CoffeeScriptLineMatcher

#8

Post by Timmy_C » Tue, Mar 06, 2012, 5:43 PM UTC

mike-cardwell wrote: post #7

I just tried this out and the web interface it provides is awful. You're better off opening the .js and .coffee files in vi and finding things manually. The page is twice the width of my browser as I'm looking at it now.

I think you should fork it and rewrite the CSS for the dashboard. The markup for the code snippets is just

 elements. You could set the white-space to 'pre-line' for those elements to take care of the width issue.

Re: CoffeeScriptLineMatcher

#9

Post by mike-cardwell » Tue, Mar 06, 2012, 5:53 PM UTC

Timmy_C wrote: post #8

mike-cardwell wrote: post #7

I just tried this out and the web interface it provides is awful. You're better off opening the .js and .coffee files in vi and finding things manually. The page is twice the width of my browser as I'm looking at it now.

I think you should fork it and rewrite the CSS for the dashboard. The markup for the code snippets is just elements. You could set the white-space to 'pre-line' for those elements to take care of the width issue.

I just tried setting white-space to "pre-wrap" and it improves the interface greatly. It still needs a lot of work though to make it pleasant to use.

Re: CoffeeScriptLineMatcher

#10

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Mar 06, 2012, 5:58 PM UTC

phren0logy wrote: post #3

Nice to see this, as it seems to address one of the most common concerns about using CoffeeScript. I have to wonder, though, how many minds will it really change? Maybe a lot, but I'm wondering how this will pan out. I'm guessing some people provide line matching for debugging as a concern but will continue to move the goal posts as this and other barriers are removed. I feel like that's a pattern I see around here,…

[deleted]