I like it. Clean layout, easy to find what I was looking for (even searched for Clojure).
But is this merely an aggregation of cheat-sheets off of the web? Is there any review process involved before a cheat-sheet shows up on your list? I guess what I am getting at is how is this different from me just searching google for "emacs cheatsheets"?
Yes, this is a cheatsheet aggregator/directory from cheatsheets around the web. Each cheatsheet is manually reviewed to make sure that it is useful and relevant. I think it is important to maintain a high quality level in the directory or else it defeats the purpose. In the future, I hope to add sorting by popularity to make it even easier to find the top results.
So why is this different than a google search? Well, in my experience, Google does not return the best results for cheatsheets. This may be partially due to the fact that many are downloads in PDF or other formats, so the relevant content may not help with SEO ranking. Another advantage is that devcheatsheet.com provides a preview before you click through and download. Finally, it is also easier to navigate between related topics such as Javascript and JQuery.
No, right now I am the only one who approves new content, even in languages that I am not familiar with. Reviewing every command in every cheatsheet would be a very difficult and time-consuming process.
In general, I have not noticed many inaccuracies in the cheatsheets other than typos or small errors. If there are errors, then hopefully users will contact the author and he will update it or issue a new version.
As I've mentioned in other comments, I also hope to add either community voting or popularity indicators to help identifiy the best (and presumably most accurate) cheatsheets for each language/tag.
Great! Thanks for the response. I really like the site, and I agree with you that Google does not always lead to a good answer each time.
I wonder if a "Was this useful for you?" feature might be a good idea. I say this in response to your "sorting by popularity" comment. I guess you could use a voting system too.
Like it. There's a lot of content and it's well organized.
It would be nice if there was more information on each cheat sheet before I clicked it. Maybe a list of things that are in it (Class Functions, String Functions, Regex Expressions for example). Or add more tags to each cheatsheet.
Thanks for the input, Vindexus. I have considered adding a short description to each cheatsheet, and I intend on adding additional tags as well. However, I am trying to be cautious and maintain the clean look without overwhelming the user with information. It is always a balancing act.
Of course, that makes sense. How about a "Preview" link that uses Lightbox or Fancybox to bring up a cropped screenshot of the cheatsheet? Just so I can get a look at some possible things they'll cover and the format of it. Not a huge deal, and probably a bit of work just to get the sceenshots.
This is an excellent resource and done very professionally. I like the clean site look and nothing is more than two clicks away. Surely it will be a winner with developers.
Let us know when your new year's resolution traffic is on target! Nice blog too:)
I've debated adding community features like voting or comments on the cheatsheets, but I haven't decided yet. I may experiment with some of these features in the future.
There is currently the option for anyone to suggest a cheatsheet that is not currently in the directory. (So if anyone sees a missing cheatsheet, let me know!)
You have a couple of cheat sheets of mine in your directory, which I appreciate. However, you directly link to the PDFs. It would be nice if you included a link to my site that lists the sheets I've made. Maybe on the source page for my name?
No problem. There is currently a link to your blog from the source page. Would you like me to change this link to your cheat sheet list? Or are you talking about a separate link?
In general, I try to avoid direct links to PDFs except when it is unavoidable or confusing for the user. If there were separate landing pages for each cheat sheet, I could remove the direct PDF link and link to those instead.
I agree. My next big task is figuring out the best way to rank the most relevant results for each tag. I am looking into several options including voting and an aggregation of other popularity factors (# clicks, # bookmarks on delicious, # links, etc).
What I'd like is being able to type in a big search textbox sth like:
"java try catch syntax"
and it would automatically (without me hitting enter) fetch the sample code and display it in a nice syntax-highlighted manner. It should also offer auto-completion like Google (eg. after I typed "java try"...).
Or:
"php class syntax"
"svn ignore files"
"diff show side by side"
"c++ template function"
etc.
It'd be a lot of work but it seems doable and it'd be a killer destination site for programmers.
It looks like this is a well-named niche bookmark browsing site. I looked for more detailed About, but could only find the rather terse text mentioned at the bottom of each page. Do you personally do the maintenance and curation?
I don't mind at all if you (Tim Church) do it, its just important to know whos opinion forms the content and how well any broken links or tech advances will be catered for.
Good work BTW, no matter who has the keys to Djangos Admin Interface!
If you are looking to evolve the site here are some suggestions: Create an online editor in javascript or flash that lets your users create and edit cheat sheets online. Leverage a CC license so your users can print and spread the created cheat sheets (free advertising). Sell prints (photos), mousepads, booklets etc. While offering free products or a monetary reward to the authors (threadless style). Also let the author give their reward to a related organization (like the python software foundation for a python cheat sheet). Keep user participation high and the site organized with tagging and ranking features.
Very useful, but the :: separators are distracting. I think that most first-time visitors are looking to scan your collection for a particular technology (that's what I did).
This view [http://devcheatsheet.com/?view=tag] is more readable. How about using the 'tag' view layout, but add categories to make browsing easier.
Another suggestion: add 3 or 4 'similar cheat sheets' to each cheat sheet to facilitate browsing and reduce bounce rates.
Seems that you are currently hotlinking the cheatsheets from other sites. imho it would be nicer to host the files yourself, to prevent link rot and to not "steal" other peoples bandwidth.
Whenever possible I try to link to a download page instead of directly to a PDF or image file. However, in some cases I do hotlink directly to a file download. One advantage of this is that if the author updates the file (to fix an error) the user downloads the newest version.
What do other HN'ers think? Should I host the PDF files directly? What is the proper netiquette in this case?
Maybe you could do it Google-style, where you feature the hotlink but also offer a cached version of it. Or, alternatively, you can hotlink to Google's cache of it (since they almost certainly have one!).
This is really convenient, very well done. Is there any way we could network a text editor such as TextMate, to pull context help depending on the file/language you're currently using? So you press F1 and it would send you to the appropriate PDF...?
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[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 121 ms ] threadIt seems really well polished - I like the look, and I was able to find everything I wanted to find. Well done!
But is this merely an aggregation of cheat-sheets off of the web? Is there any review process involved before a cheat-sheet shows up on your list? I guess what I am getting at is how is this different from me just searching google for "emacs cheatsheets"?
So why is this different than a google search? Well, in my experience, Google does not return the best results for cheatsheets. This may be partially due to the fact that many are downloads in PDF or other formats, so the relevant content may not help with SEO ranking. Another advantage is that devcheatsheet.com provides a preview before you click through and download. Finally, it is also easier to navigate between related topics such as Javascript and JQuery.
And accurate? Do you have people experienced in all those languages?
In general, I have not noticed many inaccuracies in the cheatsheets other than typos or small errors. If there are errors, then hopefully users will contact the author and he will update it or issue a new version.
As I've mentioned in other comments, I also hope to add either community voting or popularity indicators to help identifiy the best (and presumably most accurate) cheatsheets for each language/tag.
I wonder if a "Was this useful for you?" feature might be a good idea. I say this in response to your "sorting by popularity" comment. I guess you could use a voting system too.
Great job though. Bookmarked.
Please add this cheat sheet for Xcode: http://cocoasamurai.blogspot.com/2009/08/xcode-shortcuts-upd...
It's not mine but I have found it useful.
It would be nice if there was more information on each cheat sheet before I clicked it. Maybe a list of things that are in it (Class Functions, String Functions, Regex Expressions for example). Or add more tags to each cheatsheet.
Keep up the good work.
Let us know when your new year's resolution traffic is on target! Nice blog too:)
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1052937
There is currently the option for anyone to suggest a cheatsheet that is not currently in the directory. (So if anyone sees a missing cheatsheet, let me know!)
In general, I try to avoid direct links to PDFs except when it is unavoidable or confusing for the user. If there were separate landing pages for each cheat sheet, I could remove the direct PDF link and link to those instead.
For instance, here http://devcheatsheet.com/tag/ruby/ the first cheat sheet isn't even ruby specific, and I think this is a lose.
Otherwise, a great site I'll likely be using it in the future.
Glad to hear that it is on your radar!
"java try catch syntax"
and it would automatically (without me hitting enter) fetch the sample code and display it in a nice syntax-highlighted manner. It should also offer auto-completion like Google (eg. after I typed "java try"...).
Or:
"php class syntax" "svn ignore files" "diff show side by side" "c++ template function" etc.
It'd be a lot of work but it seems doable and it'd be a killer destination site for programmers.
Some of the links to stanford seems to be broken..
Already bookmarked!
It looks like this is a well-named niche bookmark browsing site. I looked for more detailed About, but could only find the rather terse text mentioned at the bottom of each page. Do you personally do the maintenance and curation?
I don't mind at all if you (Tim Church) do it, its just important to know whos opinion forms the content and how well any broken links or tech advances will be catered for.
Good work BTW, no matter who has the keys to Djangos Admin Interface!
Next step would be for something like a cheat sheet wiki where the information has a clear time stamp and has the possibility of being kept accurate.
This is a problem with these pdf cheat sheets.
Any chance you could get an XNA section?
This view [http://devcheatsheet.com/?view=tag] is more readable. How about using the 'tag' view layout, but add categories to make browsing easier.
Another suggestion: add 3 or 4 'similar cheat sheets' to each cheat sheet to facilitate browsing and reduce bounce rates.
What do other HN'ers think? Should I host the PDF files directly? What is the proper netiquette in this case?
(Why are so many cheat sheets needed for SQL injection?)