lostintangent

If folks want to use a GitHub repo for note taking, you can also try GitHub.dev, which gives you the power of VS Code, to edit repos entirely from the browser. Since VS Code has a prolific ecosystem, you can enhance and augment your note taking workflow via extensions (themes, keybinding, productivity enhancements, etc.), which makes it a pretty nice experience: https://twitter.com/lostintangent/status/1429483662257446916....

Agreed! Unfortunately, most of the Codespaces team aren't even in the SF area, in order to actually receive this cake (like most modern teams, we're heavily distributed). But I love that this gave awareness for Camisha, and her unbelievable cakes.

If folks are curious about the kind of use cases this enables, I wrote a quick article last week that highlights some of the things that are currently possible (e.g. codebase walkthroughs, web playgrounds, knowledge-base management): http://aka.ms/githubdev-fun

Yep! That’s what I use for my personal notes.

Absolutely! If you end up checking out WikiLens w/GitHub.dev, don’t hesitate to let me know any feedback you might have. I’ll be iterating on the experience based on my own usage, but I’m keen to ensure this works well for others as well!

After GitHub.dev was released (hit “.” on any GitHub repo, to open it in browser-based VS Code), I immediately saw the notetaking workflow that I wanted: a GitHub repo, storing markdown that I can own/control, but editable in the browser, using my existing VS Code preferences (theme, keybindings, etc.).

Unfortunately, VS Code doesn’t natively support wiki links, so I created an extension that simply adds that feature on top of the core VS Code markdown editor: https://GitHub.com/lostintangent/wikilens.

Over the last week, this experience has really transformed my writing workflow. I can simply open https://GitHub.dev/lostintangent/wiki (my personal notes repo) and begin editing and navigating, without too much ceremony. As the extension ecosystem begins creating more extensions for GitHub.dev, this experience will only get better.

Yep exactly! You have access to full-fidelity VS Code, minus the capabilities that require compute: tasks, terminals, and debugging. Over time, as extensions start to add support for this browser-local compute model, github.dev will enable new and interesting ways to learn and communicate about code:

1. Collaborative diagramming: https://twitter.com/hediet_dev/status/1425844785240236032

2. Lightweight notebook environment: https://twitter.com/DynamicWebPaige/status/14255023797770199...

3. Interactive walkthroughs: https://twitter.com/LostInTangent/status/1425901618780729345

I have some of the worst home wifi possible, and have been comfortably developing from Codespaces for over 6 months :)

Editing happens locally in the client (and is synced to the service in parallel), and so you shouldn’t notice any latency when typing.

If you create a Codespace, then install Projector, you can securely forward its server port and then access it from your browser: https://docs.github.com/en/codespaces/developing-in-codespac....

The IntelliCode and Copilot teams have been collaborating closely together, since we want them to provide a "better together" experience. However, the underlying tech isn't the same. Copilot is powered by OpenAI Codex, and enables rich code synthesis via a cloud service. Whereas IntelliCode uses multiple local models, to enhance various parts of the editor (e.g. prioritizing the completion list based on your context, detecting "repeated edits" and suggesting additional refactorings).

I wrote a GitHub Gist management experience for VS Code, since I wanted an extremely easy way to capture notes, docs and code snippets throughout the day: http://aka.ms/gistpad.

It completely transformed my behavior of writing and sharing, and I ended up expanding the experience to support GitHub repos as well, so that I could access and edit any of my “knowledge bases”, regardless how they’re stored in GitHub.

This is awesome to hear! So did you recently join a team/company that used CodeTour to help onboard new devs? If so, that makes me so happy :D

Hey! When you record a tour, it simply creates a JSON file that can be committed/maintained as part of the associated codebase. Then, when someone takes the tour later, they're simply "reading" that file locally in their editor, and so no data about the codebase is ever sent externally.

You are my total hero for building this! Please let me know if there's anything you need from CodeTour in order to improve this experience :D

With CodeTour, you can have "content only steps" (introductories, interstitials), steps that speak to directories, and also, add steps to files that don't necessarily support comments (e.g. JSON). So there seemed to be some value in having the tour be more flexible, than what what might be achievable code comments alone.

Additionally, after speaking with a bunch of folks, there are definitely teams that weren't interested in "polutting" their code with comments that might be tailored to onboarding new team members, and therefore, didn't need to be always visible.

That said, I totally agree with the value of a literate programming-based solution. But there may also be some nice properties to a "side car" file as well, and so I'm primarily trying to explore how well we could make that work, in a resilient and easy-to-maintain way. We'll see how it goes!

I'm exploring this exact thing right now! I'm hoping to have something out in the next couple of weeks.

I originally added the Git ref solution, as a simple way to enable "resilient playback" for some scenarios. In practice, that seems to work pretty well for many folks. But I agree that this isn't a full solution to the problem of code churn. I'm working on an enhancement right now, that will attach the steps to code in a more robust way.

In general, I've seen a pretty great reaction from folks about the concept of CodeTour, and so I'm very focused on making them maintainable, since I believe that's the "big rock" needed to make them a worthy investment for more teams.

This is so awesome to hear! Thanks for sharing that feedback :D

Great idea! I've been thinking about creating a repo that could store tours for other repos. That way, the community could contribute them, without needing to check them into the target repo itself. Similar-ish to the definitelytyped ecosystem that TypeScript built up

Yep! It originally started as a personal "hack" project, but it's now being officially supported.

Hey! Thanks for posting this :) I'm the author/maintainer of CodeTour, and so I'd love to help answer any questions or thoughts about it!

If folks are interested in browsing (and editing) GitHub repos in VS Code without cloning, the GistPad extension might be worth checking out: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=vsls-con....

It’s not necessarily as convenient as a web client, but it lets you work from your existing/customized editor setup (e.g. theme, keybindings), and it supports editing, branches, commenting, etc.

Very cool! I maintain a VS Code extension that allows creating, editing and commenting on gists, directly within the editor: https://aka.ms/gistpad. I’d be interested to explore an integration here, since it would be cool to author gists in your existing dev tool, and then share/publish them to gist.cafe.

I also maintain a VS Code extension for building CodePen-like playgrounds, which can either be stored locally, or in gists: https://aka.codeswing. So it feels like there’s some pretty cool opportunities to work together :)

I was asking a similar question for numerous use cases (e.g. code snippets, book reviews, notes). Gists are so broadly useful, but relatively few developers actually use them. Personally, I found that incorporating gists into my daily workflow just wasn’t very convenient, and so I ended up creating a VS Code extension that allowed me to create, edit, and comment on gists within the editor: https://aka.ms/gistpad.

I’m not sure if ease-of-use is a reason for others to not use gists more frequently, but I’ve definitely become a bit of a gists “advocate”, after appreciating just how useful/flexible it is as a “developer cloud storage” solution.

If folks are interested in this workflow, but want to auto-sync their changes to a GitHub repo, I’ve been maintaining a VS Code extension for managing code snippets, and notes/Roam-like wikis, and it includes full Foam interop: https://aka.ms/GistPad.

https://twitter.com/lostintangent/status/1282047676377231360...

https://twitter.com/lostintangent/status/1334225746751983618...

https://twitter.com/lostintangent/status/1282850227695652865...

I built this so that I could manage my knowledge in GitHub, but edit my notes like I would with Notion/OneNote (i.e. commit/push on save). It also supports managing code snippets via gists, since I’ve found that my personal knowledge is composed of notes and code snippets, and I wanted a single, editor-integrated solution for managing them both.

Foam + GistPad recipe: https://foambubble.github.io/foam/recipes/write-your-notes-i...

I built my own PKM tool to solve this exact problem. I spend a ton of my time in VS Code and GitHub, and I wanted a really simple way to store/access my code snippets and notes, without having to leave the editor, and in a way that I could manage them as GitHub gists and repos: https://aka.ms/GistPad.

I’m building a VS Code extension, that provides a CodePen-like playground experience, but integrated into the editor. I wanted a way to easily create and share runnable code snippets/samples (like a “visual repl”), but using local files, and leveraging my existing IDE color theme, keybindings, and extensions.

It’s called CodeSwing: https://aka.ms./codeswing

CodeSwing is entirely local, and your code is stored in a directory, that you can choose to version/backup however you’d like (e.g. a git repo).

Hey! Yeah currently, the swing simply generates a static HTML file, composed of the various files in the swing, and then renders that in the preview window. As you type in the editor, it tries to “intelligently” update that specific file, and re-render the preview window.

Starting a server that serves the static HTML wouldn’t be too difficult, so I might think that through a bit. As you said, that would enable validation with Firefox, which would be really cool.

Yeah that’s a great use case! Out of curiosity: what kind of screencasts/demos did you have in mind (e.g. web app development)? I just ask, since I’d love to think through if there are opportunities to improve the experience.

Also, just as an FYI: even though the core of CodeSwing is local, you can also store your swings in GitHub repos or Gists, via an integration with another VS Code extension that I maintain called GistPad (https://aka.ms/gistpad). That way, if you want to create samples or share swings with others, you can simply use GitHub + VS Code to do it.