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Ask HN: Who to follow (Twitter) for good code?

20 points by whackedspinach ↗ HN
Now that the new Twitter supports embedded Gists, I think it would be a great way to share daily code snippets. The kind of tips and tricks to make you a better coder. Does anyone follow people who do this already? Who?

14 comments

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Tichy
Embedded gists? How do they work?
whackedspinach
If you post a tweet with a link to a Gist on the new Twitter interface, you can just click the tweet to see the Gist in the right pane. I imagine it would be nice to see a person's stream with the tweets on the left and a gist in the right. Especially if it was a daily code tip account.
gojomo
I believe it's using 'oEmbed' to advertise the excerpt to Twitter -- so other websites can easily export excerpts to NewTwitter's second pane, as well.
Osiris
Twitter isn't a really good place for code tips and tricks with the messages being so short.

That being said, I follow @codinghorror, @migueldeicaza, @jonskeet, and a few others.

whalesalad
http://forrst.com/ might be slightly more valuable, then again, I never use it.
twymer
There is also http://codesnipp.it. It is similar to Forrst but strictly for code.

I just joined today (asking for an invite almost instantly got me one, by the way) so don't know how quality it is.

kunley
This may be unpopular, but anyway, my recipe:

1. Don't use twitter. Remain offline as long as possible.

2. During the time you're offline do this: think / code / think / remove code / think / code tests / code (order may vary)

I esp. like removing code. "Every line of code not written is a correct one" !! I recently did a very successful project for a demanding customer by cutting the code by 60%.

3. Make your time window for learning, comparing code, check others' code. Resist coding during that time. Use the right source of information - the best would be analyzing the whole programs to have a better context. Avoid CPDD (Copy/Paste Driven Development) like a plague. Read paper books on programming - the brain works in a different way when reading a dead tree text.

Sorry for not answering your question directly. This was a polite - I hope - way to say that gists on twitter won't win the game.

travisjeffery
I like following programmers on Twitter as a way of knowing them more personally and to get away from the code and all the things in our professional and developer lives (as much as us programmers can at least.)

Just follow more people on Github or something, it's easier to find programmers on there for your interests, and you just get all things programming-centric on there.

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Roridge
Even so, 140 Characters is still only enough to give you the chapter titles of the Joshua Bloch book Effective Java Programming.

My advice, buy the book, read the titles, then read the chapters (translates beyond Java imo).

phaylon
Sounds like you want to find an IRC channel that's close to your areas of interest. Perl has irc.perl.org with lots of channels. I'm sure there's something akin to that for most large programming communities. Searching the channel list on Freenet might be a good start.
jacobroufa
@abraham. Dude's way up there in terms of Twitter knowledge. Found a replay bug 3-4 days ago they still haven't fixed... I'm surprised he hasn't gotten job offers. If anyone knows him, they should hire him.

That being said, I'm with travisjeffery and Osiris on this. Twitter may be a good way to start a conversation related to coding and such, but is by no stretch of the imagination a good place to hold that conversation.