6 ms·

Show HN: Watson – inline issue manager with GitHub support

156 points by nhmood 13y ago

crowell 13y ago
I helped to test this and have been using it since. it is much less disruptive to work flow to just add comments in one place rather than add comments and have to go through github's ui for work items, bugs, etc.
Queue29 13y ago
IBM would like to have a word with you.
- zekenie 13y ago
  I don't understand
  - codegeek 13y ago
    Apparently, IBM has a project named "Watson". So he is referring to the name conflict [0] [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6734100 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6734100
  - WesleyJohnson 13y ago
    IBM's super computer that challenged the ultimate Jeopardy participant, Ken Jennings, is named Watson.
  - zekenie 13y ago
    Got it. Thanks
- asveikau 13y ago
  It's also the name of the internal Microsoft tool that collects crash dumps. Much less public of a name though.
ozh 13y ago
Screenshots make this thing really interesting. Need to support more languages than just Ruby and Perl!
- nhmood 13y ago
  Thanks! The app is written in both Ruby and Perl but it currently has support for parsing C / C++, Java, C#, Bash, Ruby, Perl, and Python files
  - girvo 13y ago
    Should be pretty simple to get it working with PHP right? Also, any plans for GitLab issues support? If not, that might be fun to hack on this weekend...
    - w0rd-driven 13y ago
      Yeah PHP supports // or # as comments so the C language support gets you most of the way there if not all.
  - scotth 13y ago
    Just sent a pull request for CoffeeScript. Thanks for the tool!
- jbaiter 13y ago
  I think it's language-independent, there's just two implementations available, one in Perl and one in Ruby.
- samirahmed 13y ago
  Yea i wonder how he made those gifs. It would be interested in a js gif gallery library like that
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
codegeek 13y ago
This is awesome. We the developers love to put those little comments in code for issues/to-dos and syncing it with Github is solid. looks like someone needs to fork it for Python ? One question though. When an issue is resolved, would that actually go back to the source file and delete that inline comment OR would it add the text "resolved" etc. In both cases though, would we not need a new commit to that source file ? Or does it leave the inline comment in its original state ?
- nhmood 13y ago
  It currently leaves the inline comment in its original state. It didn't seem like a good idea to have an automated tool touch the code itself, watson leaves it up to the developer to remove the comment. The "resolved" tag only appears in the report when the issue is resolved on GitHub or Bitbucket to notify a user that they can either remove it or ignore working on that issue.
5vforest 13y ago
Agree with the general preface of not interrupting your flow with issue tracking. I've been using ghi (command line GitHub Issues)[1] and couldn't be happier. [1] https://github.com/stephencelis/ghi https://github.com/stephencelis/ghi
chrisdevereux 13y ago
Great idea! I've wanted something like this for a while, but never quite realised it. What languages does it support? From the look of the front pages, C-based languages (C/C++/Obj-C) are ok. Have you thought about offering this as a service? You could probably hook into Github and sync issues on commit using the same API that Jenkins uses.
- nhmood 13y ago
  As mentioned below, it currently has support for parsing C / C++, Java, C#, Bash, Ruby, Perl, and Python files It is pretty trivial to add support for any other language or comment type however, take a look at #get_comment_type in lib/watson/parser.rb Never, thought about offering this as a service, having this as a commit hook is a very interesting idea though, thanks!
  - finnn 13y ago
    What about encouraging use/automated installation of local git hooks, ie. run watson locally after a successful push. I've just begun looking at git hooks but this seems like exactly the sort of thing they were intended for
zekenie 13y ago
Nice concept! Love it. The two examples are perl and ruby. Does that mean it wouldn't work in, say, javascript?
- nspragmatic 13y ago
  The example in the gif is actually C++, but JS should be fine according to the link. Ruby and Perl just happen to be the implementation languages. > "Avaliable (sic) in Ruby and Perl, but supports all languages!"
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
w0rd-driven 13y ago
Super nice. Combining this with most support for updating issues via commit messages this makes it stupid easy to almost never leave the code. The only thing you likely can't easily do is deal with issue comments but that would be killer too. Never having to use the githib UI would be the ultimate workflow boon. I'm never a fan of needing to access websites and remember their UI as it feels disjointed from my typical working experience.
podviaznikov 13y ago
Sounds similar to guys who won ClojueCup: http://clojurecup.com/app.html?app=codenotes http://clojurecup.com/app.html?app=codenotes
NikolaTesla 13y ago
What did you use to create your gif screencasts?
- nhmood 13y ago
  I used LICEcap (http://www.cockos.com/licecap/ http://www.cockos.com/licecap/) from Cockos to generate the GIFs I wrote the rotating gallery myself, it auto-figures out the duration of the GIF and does cycling for you. I'll probably release it sometime soon...
  - Procrastes 13y ago
    What a clean, concise approach to both the tool and the demo. Watson also reminds me of Gina Trapani's todo.txt[1], which I love. 1. http://todotxt.com/ http://todotxt.com/
habosa 13y ago
The sync with Github is awesome, looks like it would be great. I have always had "todolist" on my machine aliased to grep -r "TODO*:" . This basically just searches for all the places where I have TODO comments. This looks like a better way to do this for teams.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
hellopat 13y ago
This is cool. I built something similar to this in Node. You start the tool and it monitors all files in your project folder for changes. Every time you save, it outputs a JSON object of all your tokened comments. The idea was to be able to plug it into another service, like a custom todo list app, or something like this. I haven't quite finished it, but maybe I'll clean it up a bit and push it to github this weekend.
Ideabile 13y ago
I start one month ago a project with less or more the same concept! But this seems more powerful, and already done! :) Btw if you are interested checkout: http://www.ideabile.com/tirebouchon/doc/?file=index.php http://www.ideabile.com/tirebouchon/doc/?file=index.php ( Is just a small preview)
wubbfindel 13y ago
Looks really promising! Would like to see this work for Gitlab also.
vocino 13y ago
This. Is. Awesome.
blt 13y ago
I love it. Good example of enriching the development environment without any kind of special files, databases, etc. Would be great to port it other issue trackers.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
joshschreuder 13y ago
Looks awesome! If you remove the comment tag as part of a commit, does it / could it in future close the issue?
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
softworks 13y ago
Great work. Cloning the repo now. :)

156 points by nhmood 13y ago

I helped to test this and have been using it since. it is much less disruptive to work flow to just add comments in one place rather than add comments and have to go through github's ui for work items, bugs, etc.

Queue29 13y ago

IBM would like to have a word with you.

zekenie 13y ago
I don't understand
- codegeek 13y ago
  Apparently, IBM has a project named "Watson". So he is referring to the name conflict [0] [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6734100 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6734100
- WesleyJohnson 13y ago
  IBM's super computer that challenged the ultimate Jeopardy participant, Ken Jennings, is named Watson.
- zekenie 13y ago
  Got it. Thanks
asveikau 13y ago
It's also the name of the internal Microsoft tool that collects crash dumps. Much less public of a name though.

ozh 13y ago

Screenshots make this thing really interesting. Need to support more languages than just Ruby and Perl!

nhmood 13y ago
Thanks! The app is written in both Ruby and Perl but it currently has support for parsing C / C++, Java, C#, Bash, Ruby, Perl, and Python files
- girvo 13y ago
  Should be pretty simple to get it working with PHP right? Also, any plans for GitLab issues support? If not, that might be fun to hack on this weekend...
  - w0rd-driven 13y ago
    Yeah PHP supports // or # as comments so the C language support gets you most of the way there if not all.
- scotth 13y ago
  Just sent a pull request for CoffeeScript. Thanks for the tool!
jbaiter 13y ago
I think it's language-independent, there's just two implementations available, one in Perl and one in Ruby.
samirahmed 13y ago
Yea i wonder how he made those gifs. It would be interested in a js gif gallery library like that
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]

codegeek 13y ago

This is awesome. We the developers love to put those little comments in code for issues/to-dos and syncing it with Github is solid. looks like someone needs to fork it for Python ? One question though. When an issue is resolved, would that actually go back to the source file and delete that inline comment OR would it add the text "resolved" etc. In both cases though, would we not need a new commit to that source file ? Or does it leave the inline comment in its original state ?

nhmood 13y ago
It currently leaves the inline comment in its original state. It didn't seem like a good idea to have an automated tool touch the code itself, watson leaves it up to the developer to remove the comment. The "resolved" tag only appears in the report when the issue is resolved on GitHub or Bitbucket to notify a user that they can either remove it or ignore working on that issue.

5vforest 13y ago

Agree with the general preface of not interrupting your flow with issue tracking. I've been using ghi (command line GitHub Issues)[1] and couldn't be happier. [1] https://github.com/stephencelis/ghi https://github.com/stephencelis/ghi

chrisdevereux 13y ago

Great idea! I've wanted something like this for a while, but never quite realised it. What languages does it support? From the look of the front pages, C-based languages (C/C++/Obj-C) are ok. Have you thought about offering this as a service? You could probably hook into Github and sync issues on commit using the same API that Jenkins uses.

nhmood 13y ago
As mentioned below, it currently has support for parsing C / C++, Java, C#, Bash, Ruby, Perl, and Python files It is pretty trivial to add support for any other language or comment type however, take a look at #get_comment_type in lib/watson/parser.rb Never, thought about offering this as a service, having this as a commit hook is a very interesting idea though, thanks!
- finnn 13y ago
  What about encouraging use/automated installation of local git hooks, ie. run watson locally after a successful push. I've just begun looking at git hooks but this seems like exactly the sort of thing they were intended for

zekenie 13y ago

Nice concept! Love it. The two examples are perl and ruby. Does that mean it wouldn't work in, say, javascript?

nspragmatic 13y ago
The example in the gif is actually C++, but JS should be fine according to the link. Ruby and Perl just happen to be the implementation languages. > "Avaliable (sic) in Ruby and Perl, but supports all languages!"

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

w0rd-driven 13y ago

Super nice. Combining this with most support for updating issues via commit messages this makes it stupid easy to almost never leave the code. The only thing you likely can't easily do is deal with issue comments but that would be killer too. Never having to use the githib UI would be the ultimate workflow boon. I'm never a fan of needing to access websites and remember their UI as it feels disjointed from my typical working experience.

podviaznikov 13y ago

Sounds similar to guys who won ClojueCup: http://clojurecup.com/app.html?app=codenotes http://clojurecup.com/app.html?app=codenotes

NikolaTesla 13y ago

What did you use to create your gif screencasts?

nhmood 13y ago
I used LICEcap (http://www.cockos.com/licecap/ http://www.cockos.com/licecap/) from Cockos to generate the GIFs I wrote the rotating gallery myself, it auto-figures out the duration of the GIF and does cycling for you. I'll probably release it sometime soon...
- Procrastes 13y ago
  What a clean, concise approach to both the tool and the demo. Watson also reminds me of Gina Trapani's todo.txt[1], which I love. 1. http://todotxt.com/ http://todotxt.com/

habosa 13y ago

The sync with Github is awesome, looks like it would be great. I have always had "todolist" on my machine aliased to grep -r "TODO*:" . This basically just searches for all the places where I have TODO comments. This looks like a better way to do this for teams.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

hellopat 13y ago

This is cool. I built something similar to this in Node. You start the tool and it monitors all files in your project folder for changes. Every time you save, it outputs a JSON object of all your tokened comments. The idea was to be able to plug it into another service, like a custom todo list app, or something like this. I haven't quite finished it, but maybe I'll clean it up a bit and push it to github this weekend.

Ideabile 13y ago

I start one month ago a project with less or more the same concept! But this seems more powerful, and already done! :) Btw if you are interested checkout: http://www.ideabile.com/tirebouchon/doc/?file=index.php http://www.ideabile.com/tirebouchon/doc/?file=index.php ( Is just a small preview)

wubbfindel 13y ago

Looks really promising! Would like to see this work for Gitlab also.

vocino 13y ago

This. Is. Awesome.

blt 13y ago

I love it. Good example of enriching the development environment without any kind of special files, databases, etc. Would be great to port it other issue trackers.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

joshschreuder 13y ago

Looks awesome! If you remove the comment tag as part of a commit, does it / could it in future close the issue?

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

softworks 13y ago

Great work. Cloning the repo now. :)