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The end of text documentation! 👨‍💻👩‍💻

magen.smith on November 23, 2021

You've been working on your task for two weeks, fixing bugs, adding features, writing hundreds and maybe even thousands of lines of code 👨‍💻👩‍💻, ha...
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grahamthedev profile image
GrahamTheDev • Edited

Sounds like a good idea, except I think there are some flaws here.

The first is that the company has a pricing page (nothing wrong with that, developers have to eat). But this immediately makes me think the video files will be hosted on their server.

Now as the company seems brand new what happens if it folds in 2 years (highly likely as video hosting is costly unless they use some hacky solution on YT)?

The whole point of documentation is when you come back to a stale piece of code the comment is to remind yourself what the hell you were thinking at the time. If the videos are not there then there is a big problem.

The second flaw is that a video is not always ideal, do the videos support SRT files (or are they generated automatically) so that deaf users can access the same information via captions?

The last point I think is the biggest point, it won't be any quicker if people are having to add captions / edit captions manually.

Oh and what happens if I am working on closed-source software? Will the videos be behind an authentication wall as they could expose key information if they are public?

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liadshviro profile image
liadshviro

Hi,
Nice to e-meet you, my name is Liad I'm a co-founder of Speacode. Thank you for your feedback, I would love to address your concerns.

  1. Right now our product is completely free of charge, in the future we will start charging for storage but we are doing a terrific job by compressing the videos so it won't be much)
  2. Our product will be always free for open-source projects *
  3. We offer a SAAS solution and On-premise for companies who want to store the videos at their host.
  4. The captions issue is a great point and we are working on it. In the next realse, we will have automatic captions. (We are developers we won't let you spend your time, we will do it for you! 😉)
  5. In case you want to store videos on a dedicated server for your company, you can use speacode plugin for organization (plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/18040...). Only you and your team members will have access to the videos. I hope you will give it a try, if you have more questions or concerns we are here to help!🙏
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grahamthedev profile image
GrahamTheDev • Edited

Super, great responses and information you should get out to people as many will have the same concerns.

Knowing I can self host the videos takes away most of the risk!

When you solve the captions part I will be a customer!

Good luck with the project, with responses like that I am sure you will do great!

Look forward to hearing more as the product progresses! ❤

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liadshviro profile image
liadshviro • Edited

Thank you very much for the warm wishes. I'm happy that I can assist you with your concerns. I will differently keep you and others updated on our progress! 🙏

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guy_argaman_8bbca009793ba profile image
Guy Argaman

Sounds like the best way to code in 2022! Good luck guys👏

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joelbonetr profile image
JoelBonetR 🥇

Sincere opinion: Unless I can do Ctrl+F into a video, that's not gonna happen...
I record informative tach sessions with Q&A for the Juniors and newcommers on my team, tha rest is defined in the project itself and they can set up a meeting to clarify whatever is needed.

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Paola González Montoya

My only concern, I don't think that most of the people will watch every single video you've uploaded from every modification you've done to the code, kinda easier to go to the spot you really need and read it. Don't misunderstand me, it's a good approach but not suitable for everyone.

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phlash profile image
Phil Ashby

I can see how this might work (for those who like to consume video content, and for recording decisions about internal code structure), but for the bigger picture, I find there is nothing quite so useful as ..... a picture 😄

Often it's the design process, the drivers and decisions taken to reach a conclusion (the hopefully working code) that really matter. Over several years of communicating this stuff to others, I found there was nothing more effective than drawing on a whiteboard, taking pictures as things changed and writing up the thinking process (ie: explaining the series of pictures), usually in written word, and sometimes presented to teams, so they can interact, ask questions, clarify understanding and subsequently improve the words and pictures.

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sefieini profile image
Sefi Eini

Brilliant.
There is so much in the verbal and live explanation that no text can pass.
The fact that it is so easy to trigger, and yet provide value from the first integration day makes me realize that is here the next unicorn.
Good luck!

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moran_benghiat_226adf4bc profile image
Moran Ben Ghiat

Wow! Sounds great!🤩
Good luck 👍🏼

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tzionben profile image
Tzion

Great invention!! Good luck

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mos profile image
mos

Sounds like a useful tool, will definitely try that one with my team!

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jeromesch profile image
jeromesch

I prefer to use a tool called "smeagol" it connects to your git repos and turns your comments into a Wiki-Site.
It also pulls the differences in your Git Code and Updates it into your Wiki.

It's hosted in a Docker Container, so it's also for private use or can be hosted in a cloud enviorment.

If you're interested, check it out:
cloudogu.com/en/glossary/smeagol/

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hagay3 profile image
Hagai Hillel

Finally, thank god !

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coralbg profile image
coralbg

Cool!
I’ll definitely give it a chance.