Deirdre O'Brien • Tuesday, June 14, 2022
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Deirdre O'Brien, SEO & Marketing
Deirdre is an experienced marketer and SEO expert who is passionate about creating content for everyone except herself! She previously worked as Head of Content & Publishers for a Marketing Tech Startup where she led paid and organic content strategy for a large portfolio of DTC brands.
When it comes to coding, sharing is caring! Reusing blocks of code patterns, known as code snippets, has many benefits for both developers and the companies they work for.
From a company's perspective, sharing code among developers simplifies, speeds up, and oftentimes resolves the challenges associated with developing or updating software products. You can significantly reduce the length of time it takes to get a project completed by encouraging developers to reuse code snippets, and even lower the costs associated with it as sharing code snippets cuts down on coding time drastically.
From a coder's perspective, sharing code with one another can have many positives, too. Developers have many repetitive tasks in their day, so anything that speeds up their work is a welcome solution. Code snippets allow an engineer to use the extra time they save from basic coding to create unique, new features to add value to a product. This can lead to greater innovation and work satisfaction. Lastly, sharing code can actually help developers learn from each other and become even better at what they do.
When sharing code snippets, it’s vital that developers do quality control on their end to ensure that any code they pass along to another engineer is accurate, free of defects, and the most up-to-date. That’s where code-sharing tools can be a game-changer!
Code sharing tools make the process of sharing code snippets a lot more streamlined and can make software development a much more collaborative process. There are a ton of them out there, so let us give you the rundown on our top 5 picks.
Github Gist
Github is a widely- used platform among developers, and within Github, you can find Gist; a code-sharing solution that helps open source developers collaborate, share code snippets, and projects with their team members. Gists are code snippets that can be shared publicly or privately, and each gist is a repository that can be duplicated by other people. Gist allows you to store and share code snippets with others without having to create a fully-fledged repository on GitHub. Outside of sharing and collaboration, it also allows developers to leave each other feedback.
The main difference between the Github and Github Gist products is that you can share just code snippets with Gists, but with GitHub, you can share the entire project as a repository. Additionally, Github allows for collaboration with others, while Gists does not.
Github Gist has many IDE plugins available including VsCode, Jetbains and more.
CodePen
CodePen is an online code editor used by many developers around the world. This tool is only for frontend projects and supports HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. CodePen has broken its products into 2 different categories; Pens and Projects. Pens are ideal for smaller code creations, while Projects are better suited for larger tasks. There is a free signup option that allows you unlimited Pens and 10 Projects. But, if you need to add more Projects, upgrading to a Pro account is required.
CodePen allows you to search their entire platform for specific Pens, people, Projects, or collections. Their CodePen suggestions feature is great because you can see other people's code and learn some tips and tricks, or you can simply navigate to the search bar if you’re looking for something more specific. CodPen's search engine has separated its suite of features into 3 topics; Frameworks, Libraries, and UI patterns.
Each topic has a dedicated page that allows you to narrow down your search and explore Pens, templates, and resources. CodePen allows you to work with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in your browser. In simple terms, with CodePen, basically, you create a Pen which means you have written a smaller pattern of code, or code snippet, that you will share with the rest of the CodePen network.
CodeTogether
CodeTogether allows you to host and join collaborative coding sessions and supports a number of IDEs thanks to their helpful plugins. The main benefit of this tool is that it supports cross-IDE collaboration for VS Code, IntelliJ, and Eclipse and lets everyone stay in their own IDE, or even join from a browser. Team members can join from any supported IDE, which is extremely beneficial as, since it’s your own working environment, key personalizations, layouts, look and feel are exactly what you’re comfortable and familiar using, which makes group projects a lot more streamlined and less complicated to figure out.
CodeTogether is less focused on sharing code snippets among developers, and instead is tailored to “mob programming” which is the practice of a group of developers all working on the same project or piece of code at the same time live via video calls and screen sharing.
CodeTogether is all about live working sessions where everyone has the chance to contribute and make edits to the code. This approach can help cut down on meeting times since the live working sessions act as both a meeting and working time, so you’re killing 2 birds with one stone.
Codeshare
Codeshare is a simple code-sharing website that allows you to share code in real time. With Code Share, there is no sign-up required; all you need to do is write or paste your code snippet and share a link with your team members, which will give them access to the code pattern.
It’s important to note that this tool still requires code to be ported over to its service from your local environment. Codeshare’s main feature is the ability to share code, but it also gives you the ability to talk over video. This can be helpful for tasks such as code reviews and new hire training sessions.
On Codeshare, sharing code is free, but only remains saved for 24 hours unless you log in to create an account.
Code Snippets Manager
The Codiga code snippets manager lets developers organize and copy code snippets directly from their desktop. The application is multi-platforms and works on Windows, Mac OS and Linux.
Users can search code snippets from the growing library of code snippets shared by the Codiga community on the Codiga Hub. Users can also create and visualize private code snippets they want to keep for their own use.
The Codiga Code Snippets Manager is free for all developers and is paid for teams that want to share private snippets. Codiga also integrates in the IDE (see below).
Codiga Coding Assistant with IDE integrations
Codiga was founded to help developers cut their working time in half, and the platform features a number of tools designed to reduce repetitive tasks, most notably, the Coding Assistant tool. It features a more advanced version of regular code snippets, known as Smart Code Snippets, that offer the same benefits of code snippet sharing with a ton of additional ones.
Coding Assistant’s Smart Code Snippets gives users access to a growing library of Smart Code Snippets that have been added and vetted by thousands of other developers who use our platform. The concept of Smart Code Snippets is for it to be a give-and-take environment, meaning all users are encouraged to share their own Smart Code Snippets with all users on the network, as well as utilize the robust library of existing Smart Code Snippets that have been added by our network of trusted and talented engineers
This library of coding patterns, known as Codiga Hub, gives users the chance to find reusable blocks of code to form the base of a project. Smart Code Snippets are extremely time-efficient and can be favored by a user, meaning they will populate directly in a chosen IDE with just a few short commands. This is what really sets Coding Assistant apart; finding, adding, and sharing Smart Code Snippets can be done without having to leave your IDE. This tool is supported by VS Code, IntelliJ, and Chrome plugins.
Users can search based on language, name, or keyword and tag associated with the piece of code. Once you have favored a Smart Code Snippet, it can be populated in a chosen environment by simply typing in the name or keyword associated with the Smart Code Snippet. This means users don’t need to stop what they’re doing to find a code snippet; a simple command will populate it right in their working environment!
Smart Code Snippets can also be added right in your IDE, and users can choose to share them either publicly, privately, or with a specified team. Codiga is free for users!
Wrapping up
Sharing code among fellow developers has many benefits, including time and money saved and increased innovation. There are so many tools out there to choose from, each sharing a lot of similarities and some differences. Codiga’s Smart Code Snippets feature makes sourcing, sharing, storing, and finding code easier than ever before by bringing everything you need directly to your IDE. Sign up for Codiga today to start reaping the benefits, and if you ever have any questions about any of products, don’t hesitate to reach out to our team on Discord!