CodeWalker Reviews

Dead

Please advise why i cant launch?

having issues trying to launch, it just wont.

Has several issues: * Linux version is mispackaged on steam. Had to use the windows version (which I also tried on native windows, no improvements) * No keyboard shortcuts, nor any customization for them. Using the mouse only is way slower than just going and reading the code in my emacs. * Using buttons to manage the state of features is unintuitive, sometimes the different filters leave disconnected-looking lines, and the current filter state info isn't displayed anywhere. The UI is a total mess. * In the "microscope" view, the tree nodes for method declarations often overflow to the point of uselessness. Specially when the method is decorated with multiple longer annotations (such as in C#, the compiler services aggressive inlining annotation with another documentation annotation, the labels showin in UI look identical). There is no way to strip annotations from the names, and there is no way to view the full label without resorting to code * Comments could use their own nodes. Currently I have to look at the code if I want to see comments, but they could be made as a simple filter. * No extensibility. I have made my own programming language with my own syntax, there is no way to integrate into this. Also could use javascript/typescript support - the messiest most tangled up code I encounter is on the web. Reading straight-forward C code is most of the time more convenient to do in your emacs. I'm not after react support or something like that, just JS/TS would be a great start, but 1up from that would be user provided extensions. * Scrolling using the arrow keys is weird, when I stop holding the key, it continues scrolling for a bit. I can see this isn't a technical limitation, as when I use the mouse, I can stop exactly where I need. * Lack of configuration. There are several things that need configuration, such as accessibility options to compensate for people's color blindness, adhd or ocd. People are different, and the way we use software varies from person to person. The arrow key scrolling behavior wouldn't annoy me if it was the default, but I could go ahead and turn it off. Also some of the navigation is incredibly slow, since zooming out in a large project takes forever and a half, and the arrow keys scroll incredibly slowly, I'd like to be able to customize those variables as well. TLDR: it could become something, but desperately needs some usability improvements. In its current state, for someone who has over 10 years of experience under their belt, it's a toy, doesn't do anything useful. There's potential though, if the bugs get fixed, and the UX flow be made more efficient.

Update May 2024: After the updates, the id Software git repositories for Doom, Doom 3: BFG Edition, and Quake III: Arena worked. Still some UX wonkiness (needs scroll wheel speed adjustment, for example), but it's improving from where it was at launch. Note that the software only appears to construct the tree when in the foreground, so don't background the app while it does its initial work. Otherwise, you'll be waiting a long time for nothing.

Devs actually fixed the issues with Linux build after I've described them. Cool. Tried it on a couple of my Python projects related to machine learning and algorithmic trading. I think it can help to understand the modules written by other people which aren't very well documented: library modules, or when trying to get something useful from someone else's project (like part of the trading strategy). Looking at the visual representation of code branches won't do most of the job, but it helps.