Code Cogs Feedback

G'Day,

I've been regularly visiting the Code Cogs site now for about a month or so and firstly I would like to congratulate you for one of the most impressive sites I've seen in the development community.

The thing that I think is lacking the most is forum support. There are very few posts on these forums, quite likely due to this site being very new and forums are setup in so many different places to assist C++ programmers, code guru, Cprogramming.com and so forth.

Anyway, I just thought I'd pop in and say I like your site. If there is anything that I can do to assist codecogs in it's evolution then just let me know.

Odd

EDIT: Just thought of something, the thing I think I would like to see most on Code Cogs is support for other languages. I mean I am a C++ programmer, but I will have to move into Java a little more at some stage. It would be great to see support for such things here also.

<p>Hey Odd,</p> <p>Thank you very much for your post and your kind comments. We might just turn your post into a testimonial ;)</p> <p>I think you've more less hit the nail on the head in terms of this site. Technologically we hope CodeCogs is one of the more advanced systems out there and we've certainly invested a lot of effort to get it right. The issue we face at the moment is have we designed something that solve our issues with code organisation (see About), or is this something that interests the wider community. Currently CodeCogs has over fourteen hundred authenticated users. We almost exactly double is size both in terms of daily traffic, signups, downloads and user-base every 6 weeks. So we are moderately confident we're doing something right. However we need people to tell us what else we should do..</p> <p>Over the next month we'll be ramping up our marketing effort by submitting articles about CodeCogs to a range of technical journals and computer presses (see for example http://www.codecogs.com/pages/excel/example1.html , which was published by Lloyds of London).Ultimately though we are prepared for the long haul battle to get CodeCogs right and get our users involved in its creation.</p> <p>What can you do?</p> <p>  a) Publish your best C/C++ module.<br />   b) Send us your feedback on using the system (publishing, downloading etc).<br />   c) Publish more of your best code. <br />   d) Publish corrections to existing modules. <br />   e) Publish more of your code :) (remember you can publish it for free or for commercial use and you can even keep it in a private folder..) <br />   f) When we turn on the Wiki style editing of reference pages (in about 2-3 weeks), then help us edit these (mainly to incorporate working Example). <br />   g) Post this site on your personal web-pages, tell your friends about us, write about us in other forums, get your company to link to us, etc... <br />   h) Publish more comments to the forum. <br />   i) Search for bugs in the system (they are out there somewhere...).<br />   j) Keep sending up positive vibes - they really will help us keep going now that winter is setting in :)</p> <p>Supporting Other languages...</p> <p>As for your suggestion about allowing other languages. We're on the case. Its been one of the most common statements we've received. The trouble is you have to start somewhere, so C/C++ it was. In the new year we do plan to port our engine to Java, C#, Pascal and even Fortran. However we need to prove the concept works first with C/C++ before we get too carried away. We are also thinking very hard about how we package all these language, i.e</p> <p>  - A new web site for each language, i.e. CodeCogs/java; CodeCogs/pascal etc <br />   - or Keep with once central site, beef up the search engine and have a language option on each page which lists all the languages that one particular module is distributed under. <br />   - some bastardisation of the two.</p> <p>The second option is much harder and potentially much more confusing for the users, but potentially smoother. What do you think? But fundamentally, we don't have the time to rewrite all this software in a dozen languages, so until we feel confident that other users are prepared to help us grow all these systems, then we'll be focussing our own efforts on C/C++..</p> <p>Keep in touch, Will.</p>

Great to get a reply even though the forums might be a little quiet.

I would post code but I'm not really in a position to do so as I don't have a module that I could post and don't have the time out of work and uni to create one. I am however working on my capstone for University out of which something might bloom that could be useful, but I'm not yet sure.

As for other languages, I think it could become confusing to have them all hidden within the same cogs site. It would be nice to have the same format/layout/basic structure for each site with perhaps the option to switch between languages. For example up the top right hand corner you have an apple, window and linux icon. If these were C++, Java and Pascal you could use them to swap the site between C++/Java and Pascal.

Where modules are common to both C++ and Java, IE say a math module has been written in both languages, then an option to swap the site when viewing that module's code from C++ to JAva or back would be great.

I love C++, by far my favorite language and certainly my most proficient, but I'm a big believer that a developer should be proficient in as many languages as possible and each language is best suited to a different situation. For example you owuldn't use java for high intensity graphics functions, but C++ would be very appropriate. But you wouldn't use C++ for a web interface (though perhaps you would for a web service) but PHP or JSP would work well.

Anyway, just some thoughts for you.

Cheers Odd

Hey,

Time is a common problem, for all of us. Thats partly why we've tried to get the submission system as quick as possible. Once you've got the code, its takes about 5-10 minutes to submit something new, depending on how detailed you want your documentation to be.

Remember a C++ module can be any function, big or small (some of our functions are 3 lines long !!), which merely does something you needed. If you need it they there is a good change that one of the million other C/C++ developers out there probably needs something similar. We're merely trying to facilitate an exchange and cut out the constant re-invention of the wheel effect.

Currently the library is dominated with Maths and Statistics functions - but we only started with these because they're the core of all technical sciences and engineering. I plan to submit my own material on fluid mechanics / structural engineering etc...

Anyhow do what you can and best of luck with your studies.

Will.

You asked a while back if you could help in any way (your contributions to the forum have be superb btw).

I don't know if your particularly good at writing articles, but it would be great if we could get CodeCogs mentioned by slashdot.org, since I believe many of those readers would also be interested in what we do.

Further more it would be great to have one of our users write a piece, which I believe would be considerably more balance that anything we could do. Perhaps in relation to how CodeCogs has helped in your own work..

Perhaps I should offer this up as a price?

Cheers Will.

I've never submitted anything to slashdot before, dunno if I can write an article. But I'll do a little search today into how articles are submitted and post itup at least.

Sounds like fun Cheers Odd

Well I didnt' just fall off the face of the earth, Christmas is a busy time.

I did check out the slashdot site and found the place to submit things. I've never done so before, but I'll try to give it a go. I'll submit something here about yoru site as an independant review and you can let me know what you think about it. Not sure how long it'll take me to write.

Odd

Thanks for your help in promoting CodeCogs. Its very much appreciated.

Incidentally, but we've introduced a new page to the MyCogs section called MyPage, which allows people to create and format their own personal blog. We'll be integrating this with the rest of the site soon, will the aim of allow individual programmers to promote their code, life, or otherwise just rant and rave about some wrong in this world of ours..

Cheers

Yeah I've had a look. Looks interesting, though I do have a comment I'll put it in the right place.

Turns out I'm not a great writer and it's difficult to get started so it may take me longer to write something than I had thought, but I'll get there eventually.