Code snippet interpolation / vendoring - Meta

PeterVandivier

imo my answers on [codegolf 948](https://topanswers.xyz/codegolf?q=948) are another nice example of when this could be useful

Jack Douglas replying to PeterVandivier

that would be a feature above what you can get with copy/paste which is the kind of thing you'd need for justification

Jack Douglas replying to PeterVandivier

yes I don't think text storage is going to be cause space issues

PeterVandivier replying to Jack Douglas

as a new reply to your very first question though, i can also picture a background process that detects changes to the referenced source on-edit and prompts the editor with something like "_it looks like this reference may be outdated, would you like to review it and/or update the reference?_"

PeterVandivier

i'm really whipping up my own enthusiasm here now just talking through it though, so i'll take a breather and let others read and upvote or counter-reply (hopefully) :-P

PeterVandivier

and i have to imagine it's not a storage issue in comparison to self-hosted images

PeterVandivier

but if you host the full extracted content locally, that's how you protect against stale links as well - you gain the full citation benefit of a link reference and protect against the lossy nature of a link reference as well

PeterVandivier

certainly `@@@ citation raw_link` (or similar) is a simple enough proposal that i can call it a syntax improvement, but i want to be clear i'm still sort of just "thinking out loud" at the moment

PeterVandivier

there's import/export concerns to think about for any potential codidact/TA common API, which i also have some ideas about, but... clearly even in my thoughts this is an incredibly complex idea with uncertain upside

PeterVandivier

for a raw_link like `https://github.com/petervandivier/hello-world/blob/master/ps/Get-CardType.ps1#L12`, you could use that to call the `?github_url` endpoint and either translate the rest into an html-safe uri string or do some manner of hashing to generate a token (which has usability tradeoffs)

PeterVandivier

you could do an ease-of-input feature with a shortcut like `@@@ citation $raw_link`, and then do the SO/SE image highjacking thing where it re-writes your markdown on post

PeterVandivier

the markdown for a self-hosted image looks like `![alt-text](/image?hash=deadbeef)`, maybe the markdown for a citation could be `![alt-text](/reference?github_uri=$token)` or `?gist_uri=$token`

PeterVandivier replying to Jack Douglas

yea, that's why it feels half-baked, i didn't really have a mental picture for implementation that didn't suck. your question has actually helped me come up with an idea though - treat interpolated references in a way similar to self-hosted images. (gimme a sec to type up an example)

Jack Douglas

so what feature would the markdown bring that doing that would not

Jack Douglas replying to PeterVandivier

the key thing you'd need is that using the markdown must be easier than merely copy-pasting the text inside some backticks here

PeterVandivier

tbh the other thing I was thinking about when writing that Powershell.ta post was “_gosh this source code is gonna double the length of the post. I wish there were collapsible code blocks._” but there already were ! 🥳

PeterVandivier

the nugget of the idea I think is to do citation better - to reduce to desire to add a link-only reference while improving ability to rigorous attribute a reference

PeterVandivier

just to jot down some ideas while I’m thinking about it though - it’d be nice to be able to reference a range of lines in a file (instead of the whole thing). Additionally, you could use the same feature to reference non-code text, like sections of SO/SE posts, or RFCs

PeterVandivier

I hope it’s not too niche but I kind of expect it won’t have a lot of demand

Jack Douglas replying to PeterVandivier

this can be done — we'd need a block level markdown plugin plus oneboxing, but that is doable if there is enough demand

PeterVandivier

tbh, it still feels a bit half-formed, but i wanted to get it out

PeterVandivier replying to Jack Douglas

yup, that's the idea such as it is at the moment

Jack Douglas

so if the page changes it wouldn't change the summary text here on TA

Jack Douglas

::: quote 4 41278 96209a8c04569e7f6099be32bb73ba169e64e1579287f540ec2421c66ba6d9e3 212,223,236 62,103,153
Paul White *— a day ago* *in [stop the merry-go-round](/databases?room=4#c41278)*  
>@@@ wikipedia 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 Nwa "Scientific notation" "Scientific notation is a way of expressing numbers that are too big or too small to be conveniently written in decimal form. It is commonly used by scientists, mathematicians and engineers, in part because it can simplify certain arithmetic operation…"
:::

Jack Douglas

eg this is a snapshot of the Wikipedia page:

Jack Douglas

@PeterVandivier would this mean that the 'at the time' version of the gist gets brought in, or are you suggesting a link that shows the current state of the gist?

0 Answers