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\$\begingroup\$

See a list of feature requests here (On hold)

Basically, I was wondering if anyone could develop a mobile app which would serve as a browser for PPCG. Maybe something along the lines of the pre-existing SE for mobile app. However, this would be specific to PPCG with special features as found in the graduation design userscript (sort by byte count, automatic TIO links, sandbox viewer, etc.).

Note: Something to keep in mind is that, on current SE for mobile app, the sandbox is basically unusable due to huge number of answers.

As I have absolutely no Android/iOS programming experience, so if someone is willing to take the time to develop this, I'd love to use it.

Bounty

As a reward for your hard effort, I will be willing to award a minimum of 1300 rep bounty to the best app (if multiple apps are posted). If an Android app and an iOS app is added, I will award two bounties. Since this is PPCG, let's make this a competition :D


Tuskiomi is willing to offer half their rep (at the time when the app is released) as a bounty to be awarded to the best app.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Also in favor. This would be great. \$\endgroup\$
    – MD XF
    Commented May 28, 2017 at 3:06
  • 12
    \$\begingroup\$ Yes, please have it by tomorrow. \$\endgroup\$
    – feersum
    Commented May 28, 2017 at 7:00
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    \$\begingroup\$ @feersum I might be able to do Android, but expect 6-8 weeks delay \$\endgroup\$ Commented May 29, 2017 at 3:13
  • \$\begingroup\$ I think this would be great. \$\endgroup\$
    – user63187
    Commented May 31, 2017 at 16:40
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Christopher I think I might up the bounty when I get enough rep \$\endgroup\$
    – Beta Decay
    Commented May 31, 2017 at 18:29
  • \$\begingroup\$ @BetaDecay tempting, I would not be good enough :( \$\endgroup\$
    – user63187
    Commented May 31, 2017 at 18:31
  • \$\begingroup\$ I'm offering to do this, but a full specsheet (requirements, suggested functionality) would be necessary. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jun 1, 2017 at 9:34
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    \$\begingroup\$ @NoOneIsHere Estimated completion date is November 1st. \$\endgroup\$
    – mbomb007
    Commented Jun 1, 2017 at 15:05
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    \$\begingroup\$ I am totally open to making an iOS app for PPCG, but I have one question: does source code need to be golfed? :P \$\endgroup\$
    – Evil Sheep
    Commented Jun 2, 2017 at 18:03
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    \$\begingroup\$ @numbermaniac Specifying this would be a nightmare though :P Maybe a pop-con \$\endgroup\$
    – Beta Decay
    Commented Jun 7, 2017 at 9:50
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    \$\begingroup\$ @feersum Wait... are... are you and my boss the same person? \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jun 8, 2017 at 15:57
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    \$\begingroup\$ Suggestion: Post each different feature proposal as an individual answer so people can vote on them. This would allow whoever's building it to prioritise the features we want the most. \$\endgroup\$
    – Shaggy
    Commented Jun 14, 2017 at 19:48
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Shaggy See here \$\endgroup\$
    – Beta Decay
    Commented Jun 15, 2017 at 10:43
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    \$\begingroup\$ @BetaDecay I've thought about doing this before, since I've done some Android work and would like to have one. One day I decided to put it off until November, but still haven't decided which year. \$\endgroup\$
    – Geobits
    Commented Jun 29, 2017 at 19:19
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ Personally, I believe the app should be open-sourced, whether it be Android or iOS. \$\endgroup\$
    – user41805
    Commented Jul 16, 2017 at 17:32

2 Answers 2

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\$\begingroup\$

This answer is intended as community submission describing the target functionality. This will likely change over time, but it will allow devs to have a end goal with their program.


Obviously, this includes the standards (doing anything you would normally be able to do on the site), but also the below:

Better Sandbox

The Sandbox should load smoothly, be easy to use, and should NOT show deleted answers.

TIO Integration

Allowing users to test their code on the run would be infinitely helpful, since normally you'd have to wait until you had computer access. This would also make editing answers easier to do, since the answer can then be modified with the modified TIO-generated permalink.

Automatic Leaderboards

This is not only much more convenient than a Stack Snippet but also will be on every code-golf post, not just the ones with the Stack Snippet.

Improve Answer Sorting

There are two parts to this:

  • Firstly, adding sort by byte count (for code golf)

  • The default sort option should by changed for specific tags. For example, when the challenge is tagged with , the default sort should be by byte count

While possibly slightly more difficult, it might be worth adding a sort by score option for

Stack Snippet Support

This is probably impossible on a mobile device due to the requirement of JavaScript, HTML and CSS, but basically, it would be useful for when people post submissions in JS, to be able to run any stack snippets that they include in their answer.

Monospaced Font

It would be very useful for the app to use a monospaced font when writing answers and questions. This will allow code breakdowns and ASCII art to be designed in-situ.

Similarly, code blocks should use monospaced font.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ The only problem I see with "Improve Answer Sorting" is that we don't have a formalized regex for bytecount. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jun 1, 2017 at 16:18
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    \$\begingroup\$ Yes, I thought that. Maybe take the size of the first code block a la codegolf.stackexchange.com/questions/91989/count-the-bytes \$\endgroup\$
    – Beta Decay
    Commented Jun 1, 2017 at 21:28
  • \$\begingroup\$ @BetaDecay Actually that makes sense. :P \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jun 1, 2017 at 21:28
  • \$\begingroup\$ Maybe we can use another highlighting scheme instead of SO's default (we can make our own)? \$\endgroup\$
    – clismique
    Commented Jun 5, 2017 at 9:48
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Qwerp-Derp Like this does? \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jun 5, 2017 at 12:56
  • \$\begingroup\$ @BetaDecay that might not work if the programming language uses a custom code page/encoding. Example: ç is 2 bytes in utf-8, but only one in ISO-8859-1. \$\endgroup\$
    – Luke
    Commented Jun 7, 2017 at 17:03
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Luke That's what I thought... It might be worth just counting characters instead as an estimation \$\endgroup\$
    – Beta Decay
    Commented Jun 7, 2017 at 19:14
  • \$\begingroup\$ A couple of suggestions that I don't quite have time to flesh out right now: 1) Include an option to find a random challenge you haven't answered yet, similar to (but more efficient than!) this. \$\endgroup\$
    – Shaggy
    Commented Jun 10, 2017 at 14:07
  • \$\begingroup\$ 2) If possible, use Material Design. If not, at least use floating action buttons to add an answer when viewing a question and to post a challenge when viewing anything else. (Sidenote: an extensive collection of MD style icons can be found here) \$\endgroup\$
    – Shaggy
    Commented Jun 10, 2017 at 14:16
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Shaggy It might help to put these in the answer \$\endgroup\$
    – Beta Decay
    Commented Jun 12, 2017 at 15:43
  • \$\begingroup\$ @BetaDecay, I'll try to find a few minutes to write them up properly tomorrow, along with a couple of other ideas I had. \$\endgroup\$
    – Shaggy
    Commented Jun 14, 2017 at 19:45
  • \$\begingroup\$ Anyone want to start on an iOS version? github.com/juniorRubyist/PPCG \$\endgroup\$
    – Joseph
    Commented Jan 7, 2019 at 0:03
-2
\$\begingroup\$

I'm sure we need chat integration (Because you know, the current mobile chat is quite buggy), but I do not know how. Maybe take a deep look into the source codes?

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  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ The current mobile chat is quite buggy - Are you sure? The mobile chat is on the same level as the main site chat IMO. Put it this way, it's much better than it used to be. \$\endgroup\$
    – Beta Decay
    Commented Jul 7, 2017 at 9:13

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