Suggested MOD for this forum

[code reader]

i have a request for the people operating area51:

in the expectation that we'll start seeing code posted to this forum sometime soon, i'd like to ask the operators of area51 to add "expand/collapse" to code boxes.
not sure if such a mod already exists, but it shouldn't take a competent programmer more than 30 minutes to implement it, and for a forum that plans on code-related discussion it's an important req.
(if you want me to publish an implementation please let me know).

viewing code through a 10-line window is somewhat restrictive.

i understand that the desire is to have area51 operate as-vanilla-as-possible version of phpbb (possibly some bleeding-edge version), but this is a very small deviation and is pretty important to the operation of a forum meant to discuss code.

peace.

[Dog Cow]

There's always the Wiki with <pre> tags.

[code reader]

it's the same old question (same issue was raised wrt RFCs):
which is the medium more appropriate to present and discuss code and code snippets?
if i post something on the wiki and you want to ask a question, make a comment, express critique, where will you do it?
it is my sense that a forum is the appropriate medium for discussion, and that the wiki is where we want to present things which have achieved at least modest "consensus" status.

in any event, if wiki is the better place to discuss things then why are we bothering with phpbb at all? let's just use wikis and we're done...


peace.

[EXreaction]

Put it in a zip and upload it. Code boxes destroy formatting.

[code reader]

Put it in a zip and upload it. Code boxes destroy formatting.

huh?

would you mind expanding a little on this?
how do they destroy formatting exactly?

as to "put it in a zip": how will this support discussion?
i can always upload it somewhere else and provide a link. if this is the best way it practically means forums are useless for discussing code.
i do not hold this view.

peace.

[EXreaction]

Tabs are all lost in code boxes

[code reader]

Tabs are all lost in code boxes

you are right. i never noticed it, but this is correct.

while testing it, i noticed something i was not aware of:
if you select subsilver2 as your style, code boxes are not collapsed.
maybe this is good enough. personally, i prefer prosilver, but if we are going to discuss code, not collapsing the code boxes is more important (to me) than using my preferred style.

if anyone can come up with a solution to the tab problem please speak. i will try to look at it later.

also, if anyone knows of any other problem with codeboxes in addition to the tabs issue, please speak also.

peace.

[naderman]

I'm a little unsure about whether we really want to do this in the forum or rather introduce some kind of tracker for patches/rfcs. I'd prefer an off-the-shelf solution myself. As for tabs, we could just go spaces entirely anyway We would no longer need to require people to set their tab width to something specific for the code to look right, in particular with whitespace in the middle of the line that is supposed to align stuff.

[code reader]

I'm a little unsure about whether we really want to do this in the forum or rather introduce some kind of tracker for patches/rfcs. I'd prefer an off-the-shelf solution myself. As for tabs, we could just go spaces entirely anyway We would no longer need to require people to set their tab width to something specific for the code to look right, in particular with whitespace in the middle of the line that is supposed to align stuff.

-- as to tabs/spaces: please update the coding guide. until it says spaces, i think it's reasonable to expect everyone to use tabs.
(and for the record: IMO the right thing is mix: use tabs for ident and spaces for everything else, such as lining the '=' or '=>' signs in consecutive assignments, or when breaking a long line)
-- once this new code-discussion medium is up and running we can switch, but until then....

in any event, i switched my profile to subsilver2 which does not collapse code segments, so i don't care all that much.

peace.