
Show HN: CodeHalf – Write Code Everyday, new design and new features - efexen
http://codehalf.com
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khalilravanna
(Not commenting on the site/feature directly just the idea.)

As a person who wrote code for a year every day working on a game in my free
time, you'd be surprised how much progress you make even if only putting in a
bit of time every day. Or maybe you wouldn't be surprised. After all, 365 days
* 0.5 hours / (40 hour/week work week) = 4.5 work weeks. So about a month of
"full time work" that you would never have if you didn't invest in that half
hour daily. Pretty neat. Good way to master a skill in your free time even if
you're one of those people that says "I don't have time."

After completing the 365 day streak I even did a little informal "AMA" on
reddit where me and some other people suggested their tips on staying
productive when coding every day:
([https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/37i77h/ive_been_wr...](https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/37i77h/ive_been_writing_mostly_game_code_for_365_days/))

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bostonpete
Due to context switching costs, I'd think the progress made working 30 minutes
a day would be nowhere close to what you would achieve if you did it all at
once. For me, I think my output would be closer to 2 weeks worth of work than
4.5...

~~~
adrusi
OTOH full work days involve fatigue, which you won't run into only working for
30 minutes. And there's a good amount of context switching that goes on at the
workplace as well.

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nosefrog
Nice work! It would be cool if you pulled my commits for the day and showed
them in the log. I experimented with a similar idea
([https://github.com/samertm/githubstreaks](https://github.com/samertm/githubstreaks)),
and it's a lot of fun to see a detailed breakdown of your commits and the
commits your friends make.

~~~
efexen
Thanks for the comment! I've got a plan of integrating with Github, just
trying to decide how it should work as I wouldn't want my commits from work
showing up which are on the same github account.

Do you think it'd work well if I implemented something to allow picking a
commit for a daily entry or would you prefer more automatic tracking?

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dschoppe
Perhaps automatic tracking could have the option to exclude certain repos?

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efexen
Sounds like a good idea, need to figure out how the management of that would
work though without being a PITA ;) Thanks for the idea, much appreciated!

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iamtew
Or how about the user explicitly adds the repositories they want to have
shown, or provides a pattern they want tracked?

For example: "Track all my GitHub repositories matching /^codehalf-*/

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n3on_net
Awesome work. But I would prefer log-in/registration with own email/password
combo. I hate 3rd party logins.

One alternative would be, and what worked for me, is a simple old school
pomodoro tracker:

1: get pomodoro app/timer like [http://tomato-timer.com/](http://tomato-
timer.com/) 2: aim for 3 or so pomodoro sessions/day for your project or new
thing you want to do or to learn 3: profit

Nice thing about pomodoro technique is that the distraction is already
included. You focus 25 minutes and then have 5 minutes distraction time. It
adds up for motivation if you know that you can have a break after a short
perdiod of time.

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efexen
Hey, thanks for the feedback it's much appreciated!

Already planning to add the email/password login option as it's been requested
quite a few times.

I've thought about app/widget/thing for doing time tracking and pomodoro style
but decided against it right at the beginning, I'll keep thinking about it and
see what feedback I get from others regarding it.

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toupeira
Also consider using passwordless authentication instead, see
[http://passwordless.org/](http://passwordless.org/)

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amake
"Everyday" is an adjective meaning "commonplace, ordinary, common", etc. I
think you mean "Write Code Every Day".

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efexen
Oh my I think you're right, silly me, I'll put this on top of my todo list!
Thanks!!

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bikamonki
There isn't too many features/bug fixes that I can do in less than one hour
(even w/out distractions), so in my case it should be a 60 to 90 minutes
session. Also, what I do to get me 'in the zone' is a ritual: close
email/social apps. Silence phones. Close my eyes for a few seconds planning
what I have to do. Start coding. Maybe you should find a way to implement
guided rituals before the session starts? Just a thought.

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efexen
Hey thanks for your feedback, you can of course do longer than half an hour,
just I think half an hour is a short enough time to squeeze in and it keeps up
a good habit :)

Thanks for the details about getting in the zone, might well include some tips
on the site later to help people get in the zone quickly to get the most out
of their session

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kevindeasis
It would be cool if there was a complementary app that goes like this:

It teaches you using a hands-on approach about coding/algorithms/sys admin
from beginner to expert level. Then it offers you a bunch of roadmaps on what
exercise you should do next to build on the current skills you have.

Even more it would be cool that it would find the weak spots on your current
skills and allow you to go back to previous exercises to improve that skill.

Wouldn't that be helpful?

~~~
efexen
Hey, that's a cool idea but probably a little ambitious one for now.

I've got a plan of adding themes as a more social element where bunch of users
can sign up to a themed week during which they would all work on improving a
particular skill whilst sharing helpful resources and being able to help/ask
questions from each other.

Do you think you'd find that helpful?

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saiprashanth93
That sounds interesting. You might want to consider increasing the time frame
to a month to 3 months. IMHO,a week is too short to go deep into any topic.

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efexen
Thanks that's a good point, might add different lengths so for themes that are
more of an overview of a topic or a shallow topic it could be a week or two
and for more in-depth topics several months

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sergiotapia
Signed up because the idea is interesting but the UI was really confusing.

I would spend a bit more time polishing how you direct users through the flow.

Ask yourself: "What are people going to be doing with this web application
daily?" and focus efforts on making that as simple as possible.

~~~
efexen
Hey thanks for the feedback! I was wondering actually whether it was intuitive
or not, I guess not then ;) Would you have any recommendations on how to make
it easier to use?

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sergiotapia
Unfortunately no, I still don't know what the app even does. Time to polish
the UX! :)

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mshmsh
Easy to understand UI, imho. It'd be nice to be able to add notes for days in
the past, in case you forgot to fill in one day. Also, is it possible to edit
a topic once it's created?

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efexen
Hey, You'll be able to add notes for previous days but not for days prior to
when you signed up, sorry I don't think this is particularly clear at the
moment and maybe I should remove this restriction from the UI.

Currently it's not possible to edit topics, high up on the todo list though!
:D Thanks for your feedback, muchly appreciated!

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_____________-
On an iPad 2 (iOS 7), the sign up button seems to be missing - I can't find it
anywhere on the page.

Also, it would be helpful to have some screenshots or a video demonstrating
the product on the homepage.

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efexen
Hey thanks for the feedback, there's quite a bit left to do for mobile and
tablet layouts, will make sure to address this.

I've thought about adding screenshots or a short video on the homepage some
time, good to hear you agree, might have to bump it up on my todo list ;)

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kbart
Hm, no email/password login? Is there any technical reason behind that? I
might be an oldschooler, but I find websites, that require 3rd party
credentials off-putting.

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efexen
Sorry no technical reason just haven't got around to it yet, didn't know what
the general preference was now, will add it shortly. Thanks for the feedback

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bovermyer
Just to give an alternative point of view - I prefer third-party login
whenever it's available, so the current flow works for me. I'm not saying you
shouldn't add first-party login, just don't get rid of third-party login in
the process.

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kbart
I don't say that 3rd party logins are bad and should be removed, I just hate
when website _assumes_ that "everyone has Facebook, Google, GitHub, <insert
some other trendy site here> etc." We fought long and hard to get rid of
vendor locks as much as possible, why go back to these dark times?

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Fogest
My problem is that I can easily create account and store it in my Keepass,
however when there are only 3rd party logins I have no idea _which_ third
party login I chose to use for a specific site. This sometimes means trying to
authenticate with multiple third party vendors and sometimes accidentally
creating a new account as I logged in with a wrong one.

~~~
efexen
Good points there and having done that myself as well I can definitely
sympathise with you. Working on the email/password auth as we speak ;)

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wirddin
Couldn't find many features to try out.

If I need to see how much I have coded in a day/week/month, I use Wakatime. It
silently keeps track of all the programming I do.

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s4chin
The idea is good but the UI is kinda confusing. Adding a tutorial page to
guide new users through this will be helpful.

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efexen
Thanks I'll see what I can do, maybe one of those overlays on first visit?

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sucrose
Reminds me of [https://wakatime.com/](https://wakatime.com/)

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kybernetyk
That's cool. Will you send out nagging emails/messages if I miss out one day?

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efexen
No I won't, will be adding opt in reminders later. Thanks for the feedback

~~~
kybernetyk
Oh, I didn't mean that in a negative way. In this case nagging emails would be
a feature :)

