Beautify-with-words
Dev tools
javascript unminifier
SHOW HN2014
67points
34comments
#472of 2,272 in 2014
Top 21%of 2014 by points
How HN took it
DebatedReal support and real criticism
6 positive, 9 neutral or asking, 0 mixed, 6 critical, out of 21 comments about the project. Thread score +0.09.
Idea: 4 for, 2 againstDesign: 1 for, 4 againstExecution: 1 for, 0 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Search-and-replace and grep make unique names easier to work with
From 2 comments
It is a lot easier once you've figured out what a particular variable stands for to do a global search and replace for "vublu" than "a".
lanna on HNThat actually makes sense, it is more "grepable" even if it is less easy to reason about. I find it a lot easier to reason about "a" because my brain doesn't try to reason by…
thatthatis on HN
Useful for debugging code without original sources, such as Google Analytics
From 2 comments
Neat. More useful for projects without unminified sources, like Google Analytics. Here's the output for ga.js: https://gist.github.com/yahelc/00299f2e4a3c07cafa1a
yahelc on HNOften with AngularJS, after minification, you find you've not properly injected a service or something and looking for a missing 'a' is near impossible. This would be really…
marquis on HN
Objections
Made-up words are hard to remember and mean nothing, unlike a, b, c
From 2 comments
While it's a good idea, I feel like it should rename with real words, or not rename at all. From the example: ``` function(bedad, latay, vublu) { if (!adag(this, "on", bedad, […
shawabawa3 on HNThat actually makes sense, it is more "grepable" even if it is less easy to reason about. I find it a lot easier to reason about "a" because my brain doesn't try to reason by…
thatthatis on HN
Random words may be foreign or offensive; a dictionary of real words is suggested
From 2 comments
>> I didn't want the tool to be language specific or run into unsavory words Good thoughts. However, "beedip" is foreign to everyone, whereas if you pick a language, it's at…
nathan_long on HNYou could use first names as your dictionary. The US Census Bureau has lists† (in the form of frequency tables) of male and female given names.…
cynwoody on HN
Requests
Use real words or prefixed names based on usage
From 3 comments
While it's a good idea, I feel like it should rename with real words, or not rename at all. From the example: ``` function(bedad, latay, vublu) { if (!adag(this, "on", bedad, […
shawabawa3 on HNWhy don't you prefix variables based on their usage in the code? function(a,b,c) -> function(arg1_cat, arg2_tree, arg3_carrot) for(i=0; i< 10; i++) -> for(counter1=0; counter1 <…
billyhoffman on HNOr perhaps a consistent "namespace", e.g. with a standard prefix prepended to a simple noun.
joshklein on HN
Standalone website or browser extension
From 2 comments
Very cool. Nice work. I think it would be even cooler as a Firefox extension -- open up a .min.js file in one tab, hit your button, and get a new tab with the beautified js. I…
crazygringo on HNI think the way to go would be to create a standalone site and then have a bookmarklet that opens the existing page on that site. Edit: If you want to use your own bookmarklet,…
jaredsohn on HN
Option to pass a partial mapping or custom word list
From 2 comments
Feature suggestion: An optional variable prefix/suffix to make them stand out, making it easier to replace variable names as you read through the code and see what you've chosen…
ajanuary on HNWow, this is amazing. Wanted something like this for so long. Forked to support passing in a list of pre-canned words to use: https://github.com/rpetrich/beautify-with-words
ryanpetrich on HN
Questions
Are longer made-up names better than short names?
From 1 comment
I really like the idea behind this. Anyone have any experience using something similar? My specific question would be whether using longer gibberish variable names is any more…
slg on HN
Alternatives named
Source maps
From 1 comment
source maps seem more suitable for the job
catshirt on HN
ngmin
From 1 comment
You might find ngmin[1] helpful for that. Then you can use the shorter injection syntax and have it expanded via a compilation step. Since you mentioned Grunt, you'd probably…
joshuacc on HN
jsbeautifier.org
From 1 comment
I think the way to go would be to create a standalone site and then have a bookmarklet that opens the existing page on that site. Edit: If you want to use your own bookmarklet,…
jaredsohn on HN