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Code Snippet Storage/Library/Catalog/Organizer/GinzuSwissArmyKnife

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tinjaw:
What do you use to keep your code snippets organized so you can easily find and reuse them? I realized, that in the over 15 years I have been in the software business, I have never seen or heard anybody mention a tool the used specifically used for this purpose.

I haven't really thought about it much, but as far as my wants go, it would need to be independent of any particular IDE, so I could use it with any IDE. It would be easily searchable in all the ways you would expect it to be. Preferably portable, so I could carry it on a USB stick, but need not be cross-platform. Windows-only would be fine, but cross-platform would be a plus.

I will start the usual Google search, and will report what I find, but I am curious to know if any of you already have something in mind that you use or has been recommended to you by someone.

Target:
dunno if this is of use, but I ran across this one in the last week or so

http://www.garybeene.com/gbware/gbcodelib.htm

free for personal use, $30 for commercial use

portable version available

snippets can be downloaded as well

sadly, I've never been disciplined enough to make myself use anything like this  :(

app103:
My huge quest for such a tool was how I found DC. I ended up following a link from Google to the famous note taking discussion.

I never did find exactly what I wanted, but Developer's Tips & Tricks is about as close as I have come.

I believe it is portable and can be run from a usb thumbdrive. He has both an installer version and a .zip version available.

What I like about DTT is that it doesn't store the snippets in an actual database, and it creates files within its folders with the same directory structure as in the application, with the proper file extension for the particular language of each snippet.

This makes it easy to manage your collection either manually or through the application's GUI, and I can even share the files with others quite easily from my web server. I also don't have to worry about a corrupted database destroying my entire collection. And I can copy a code file easily and drop it into a project's folder for use.

It is donationware, the author is FSL, he is a DC member, and donating does have its perks. He gives you access to the privileged users area of his site where you can download versions of any of his applications with some extra features added. (his way of thanking you) You also get to beta test new stuff before he releases it to the rest of the world.

The big bonuses you get with DTT when you become a privileged user is the ability to search, code folding for some of the languages it supports, some export options (like HTML, rtf), and an extra hotkey to restore the application from the tray.

This application has evolved quite a bit in the last year and keeps getting better & better. I have a feeling I may never find exactly what I am looking for (whatever that is) but if I wait a little longer FSL may surprise me and turn DTT into it and I can finally stop looking.

mitzevo:
Hey tinjaw, very good topic and I hope a good discussion follows (I'm sure :P).

Well for me, I use AceText, I wrote a review of it just over a year ago now.. It's basically a program that stores plain text in collections, which you can further organize into folders.

AceText is not completely aimed at code storage/snippets/templates/etc. - that is, it's not made specifically for development. But it is more than capable of being used for that purpose.

For your other questions.. AceText uses xml files for data storage, which makes parsing them easy (as Allen pointed out) if needed and AceText also has a portable version (which comes with the regular version) which installs nicely to removable media.

AceText has a lot of really cool features, such as AceType. Let's say your typing in a document and want to insert a snippet, just press your AceType hotkey, AceType will then pop up with a search box which you type your label/tag/abbreviation, when typing AceType filters out the closet match to your typed text.. then just press enter and the snippet gets inserted into the previous application.

Like I said, AceText has some really nice features, I urge you to take a look at it and decide for yourself.

Mind you, there are tons of tools for snippet/code/etc. storage, each with their own pros and cons...


You can search your collections easily, using regular expressions if need, and AceText also doubles as a good clipboard manager/extender.

iphigenie:
I used to have a tool called webgal which was for storing snippets of web code, way back when...

It doesnt work anymore and they stopped doing it, but I wouldnt mind finding another.

I used clipcache for the same kind of usage for a while, and that worked well for a few months, but then the clipcache database got corrupted (that's a bug it had back then, quite a show stopper!) and i lost it all.

Have put some clips in my editors's collection, and in winorganizer and firefox add ons and opera notes and recenlty evernote, and online examples in local website archive... but never stuck with any long enough to reap benefits :(

Really ought to find one and stick with one...

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