so excited to share with you all: a new @GitHubNext addition to Copilot Labs...

✨ Code Brushes ✨

We wondered how we could make editing your code feel as tactile and easy as paint with a brush in Photoshop?

writeup: githubnext.com/projects/code-…

and 🧵 we added a toolbox full of "brushes" to VSCode - I'll talk about a few specific ones.

Sometimes, you run across some code and have to stop to scratch your head. What if you could make code "more readable" with a click?

we can _finally_ talk about an experiment @GitHubNext in the works for a long time: GitHub Blocks!

tldr
✨
There's a lot more to your codebase than just.. code. We want to make it easier to create interactive docs, support your team workflows, and bring your repo to life
✨

🧵 you know how we create a complete, separate site for every lib?

I get it! we want so much more than static text & images - we need code examples. We need interactive sandboxes to test out the API! + fuzzy search!

What if creating rich docs was as easy as writing Markdown?

We just released an exploration I've been wanting to do for a while:

✨✨
Can we visualize a codebase?
✨✨

We always look at our code in a file/folder list - what would a bird's-eye-view look like, and how could that enhance our understanding of code?

octo.github.com/projects/repo-… I ended up using a circle packing diagram, with each file visualized as a circle, colored by type and sized by file size.

The implementation was tricky - I ended up doing a recursive force simulation to conform the layout to a rectangle and make room for folder names.

I'm starting a "things I like a lot" thread. Because there are things that.. I like a lot. And I want to share them with you! @project_wren

I spend a lot of time thinking about climate change. I'm definitely not holier-than-thou about it (I personally want to do more) but I do like to offset my carbon footprint with Wren

wren.co/join/ameliawat…
(affiliate link that protects +10 acres of rainforest)

I saw a super inspiring video about kumiko, a Japanese woodcraft creating panels out of repeated shapes.

I created a generator that turns any image into a pattern - you choose the shapes. It's v fun to play with:

kumiko-generator.netlify.app

would love to see anything you make! my favorite part is how individual triangles build up into tiled shapes.

a total work in progress, but I'm curious what you all think of my React Hooks blog post draft:

wattenberger.com/blog/react-hoo…

is it interesting?
does the page flow well?

I want to add...
+ lots of simple but concrete examples
+ custom hooks that I 💖
+ common gotchas (?) I'm trying to stay away from an intro post, and focus on taking people who understand React hooks *conceptually* to really understanding how hooks can be most helpful in action.

eg. common patterns, moving away from lifecycle events, etc

🎉 and we're LIVE! ☀️

I'm so excited that the book is finally available! I've been trying to stuff everything I know about building data visualizations into one book, while also packing in fun projects and tips.

I'd be stoked if you checked it out at
fullstack.io/fullstack-d3
❤ one of the cool things about this book is that you'll have made a timeline from scratch by the end of the first chapter.

but a cool-er thing is that I encourage you to grab your own dataset! For example, here is my chart and a beta reader's chart from Nigeria! ☀️