

Ask HN: Does this exist or would it appeal? - davidfm

For ages now I've been looking for this tool, with no success. So I reckon it might be something others would want. Maybe I'll build it. Maybe someone else would like to?<p>I want to be able to see the bigger picture of the systems I develop. How files connect to each other, the variables they pass, the database tables they update, the functions and classes they use etc. A bit like a database schema but not.<p>I'd love to be able to zoom in to a line of code or out to show how the api connects externally.<p>I can picture myself using it on an enormous hi-res touch screen, but guess it should also function on a tablet.<p>Is there anything like this already or is it something others might use?
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huhtenberg
It's a solution in a search of the problem, I think.

If it's a poorly designed system, then the view will be a muddy web of
connections. On the other hand, if it's a well designed system, it will be
highly modular, with each module being small enough to be readily
comprehensible in one go and with very few connections between the modules. So
I basically don't see a use for the system that you are describing.

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xauronx
Well, I think the muddy pool of connections is what this is a solution for.
While I see it as practically impossible to implement, it would be great for
huge legacy systems that grew rather than were designed. For instance, all of
a sudden my patient certification table is getting weird records appearing in
it. I would be able to find that table in this cloud, filter to connections to
objects that have changed recently and individually inspect each one to see if
it was the source of the problem.

The big problem is automating this to a degree that it's not a full time job
to maintain.

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ig1
Rational (IBM) have tools that can do it for C/C++ - what language are you
looking for ?

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icey
What you're describing sounds a little bit like LightTable to me
(<http://kodowa.com>)

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nnoitra
What does kodowa do? I really don't understand.

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icey
Here's a demo <http://www.chris-granger.com/lighttable/> (2 clicks from the
linked page)

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toutouastro
I always wanted something like that !

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davidfm
I think I might try a light version as a weekend project sometime soon,
cheers.

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michaell2
don't know of any such tools, so instead I perform the task manually. If I
want to better understand how some feature works, I write down in a text file
what methods are involved, what method calls which etc. That way at any given
time I have to answer fairly simple questions, but the accumulated info in the
notes can then be used for more sophisticated reasoning. In other words,
_analysis_ :)

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davidfm
That's exactly what I find myself doing, but: I don't like paper As things
change I find myself rewriting the same stuff over and over It feels like it
should be easier/more effective if automated

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michaell2
yep, that's why my comment mentioned using a text file for notes, not paper. I
usually edit it using IDE rather than text editor to take advantage of the
convenient cut-paste a line of text with CTRL-X / CTRL-V without highlighting
by mouse.

Then again, my nestgrid project <http://www.nestgrid.org> (the desktop
version) is IMHO, among other things. the future of this sort of notes taking
but I have not yet gotten around to using it "in production".

