So I was reading an article called 30+ Incredibly Useful Mac Apps for Web Design and while I found most of the apps useful, I stumbled over a link to an Application called Code Collector Pro.
Huh?
In recent weeks, I’ve stumbled over so many Tools for managing code snippets, it’s not funny any more. Viusual Studio plugins, TextMate plugins, apps for Windows, apps for OSX, apps for the web… what’s the matter? Why is everybody suddenly horny for little snippets of code?
I’ve thought about trying out a code snippet application, but… I wouldn’t really know what to do with one. I have no fucking clue, really! Yes, of course, you’re supposed to enter little snippets of code that you think could be useful in the future, but I somehow have never come accross these.
I don’t really need snippets, do I?
Of course, I have code on my hard drive that I will definitely reuse. For example, I have a folder called CSS with CSS files to reset font and spacing settings and set grid systems. I also have a folder with an almost-finished CMS that will most certainly be included in more than one web-app of mine.
But that doesn’t really merit a whole App. So I don’t use one. And this is okay by me, or at least I think so.
But what if I’m missing out on something really cool?
What if there are indeed cool things to be said about Schnippets, and I just haven’t realized them? That would suck. Are you using a code snippet app? If so, what for? I’m looking forward to your ideas.
Some editors have a code snippets manager built in (TextMate, Vim via addon, etc.)
The snippets that are most useful to me are those that represent a fixed syntax, like a for loop. Instead of having to type out the whole structure you just type ‘for’ and press tab and it’s automatically created.
Ah, so I don’t have to copy and paste the snippets each time?