WebProNews » Koders

Koders Unafraid Of Google Code Search

WebProNews Staff — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 14:07:41 +0000

Google stepping into the playground of other technology areas has caused trembling for companies as powerful as Microsoft. Koders.com views Google’s entry into code search as a cue for a smile, a roll of quarters in the fist, and a “bring it on” gesture straight out of The Rock’s playbook.

“What, me worry?” has been the long-time motto of Mad Magazine’s iconic Alfred E. Neuman. Koders CEO and co-founder Darren Rush and his co-workers aren’t worrying much about Google Code Search.

Google debuted its Code Search on Thursday, reportedly with the largest repository of source code available to be queried. Engineering intern Russ Cox posted about the genesis of the new tool on the Google Code blog:

Google Code Search is now live — it gives programmers a single place to search publicly accessible source code. It includes:

• Support for precise searches using regular expressions

• Restricts by language, license, or filename with advanced operators

• A search index that includes billions of lines of code

The inspiration for Code Search came from a tool we built to quickly search the internal Google code base. This internal search service was used so much that it became clear we should build something for other programmers to use as well…

And build it they did, competing with existing efforts from sites like Koders and Krugle. But Koders had some thoughts on Google Code Search and their own work, indicating that Koders is ready to move beyond where Google has arrived now (emphasis added):

We are very positive on this news. For a leader like Google to recognize that code discovery is a killer app for search truly validates the Koders vision and innovation.

Since we launched our first beta site in 2004, Koders has received enthusiastic feedback and support from developers worldwide. We have continued to refine our algorithms and expand the scope and quality of our index to deliver state-of-the-art code search for the open source community.

Like Google, Koders started by indexing open source code, but that is a first-phase requirement. There is also a lot of quality code inside private repositories, which is important to professional developers.

Koders is now transitioning beyond the code found easily on the web, into more closed environments, to serve the needs of all developers from open source and enterprise. Koders aims to empower developers with immediate access to quality code. Advances toward that goal include our IDE plugins, our extensible search API and the Enterprise Edition of our core technology.

Back in July we noted how Google’s full-text search and version control for Project Hosting would draw upon Google’s existing technologies for search and storage. Code Search will be a logical extension of their services to developers.

Koders thinks its forthcoming features like an OpenSearch API for open source code and support for ActionScript will make it a logical choice for developers too. They plan to double their index to more than 425 million lines of code, and employ new filters to help people find classes, methods, and interfaces more quickly.

Bring it on Google. Rush and Koders are smiling.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

Source Code Needs A Place To Stay

WebProNews Staff — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 22:02:11 +0000

This isn’t a chapter in the CVS versus Subversion debate, but a look at places online to view useful pieces of code.

Useful is probably the operative word in the article by Miss Coding Answers, Esther Schindler. Her report on resources for locating source code online could point a programmer toward just what one needs to spur a solution to a problem.

The new source code search engine Krugle received a mention in Schindler’s group of online references. Krugle still operates in a limited beta, but promises that it will make programmers more productive with its approach to source code search.

Krugle’s interface for code search allows the visitor to select from several languages, with C, C++, and C# among them. The query can look for code in any area, or be restricted to sifting through source code only, or functions or classes.

Koders provides a couple of ways to find source code. Its publicly available search engine can be implemented via plugins with the Eclipse 3.0 and above or Visual Studio.NET 2003 or 2005 IDEs.

C Source Search offers a utilitarian front end that makes Google’s look like Yahoo in comparison. But the search engine works fast, and allows users to define their queries through a dropdown box of options like functions called, function arguments, and more.

On the Code Project web site, a variety of content including code snippets and articles related to C++, C#, and .NET may be accessed after completing a free membership.

Those joining may also select from a variety of email newsletters and participate in code-related forums hosted by the Code Project, which was organized as a community of Visual Studio .NET developers and is part of Microsoft’s Code Wise Community too.

Tools and resources like the ones listed demonstrate a significant change from the old days of programming, where email and bulletin boards served as the only methods of collaboration.

Code search engines may have to prove themselves with a new generation of coders, but those engines may become to programming what web search has become to the utility of the broader Internet to users.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

Koders.com: Search Engine For Code Geeks

Chris Richardson — Fri, 13 May 2005 16:47:05 +0000

In one of the more unique moves in the vertical search world, koders.com, an engine designed around the search of open source code is prepared to officially launch on Monday (5-16-05).

Currently, a beta version of koders is available, complete with the promise of 198,319,894 lines of code in their search index. Actually, koders.com has been in existence since December 2003, but they are now ready to officially introduce themselves.

This particular vertical certainly does have promising potential, especially to the open source community. From my admittedly (very) few dealings with open source programming, it appears as if koders does have a relevant index and delivers what would be deemed as accurate results.

koders.com also offers an advertising outlet, with ads appearing on their search results, as well as result landing pages. To supplement their finances, they also feature Google AdSense ads.

Their search engine presence is certainly solid, with koders.com securing the first position for code search engine on Google (24 million results).

Apparently, Google’s adverts are not the only thing koders has gained from Google. They are also preparing to offer an Enterprise edition of their search technology. This will allow sysadmins to delve into their own internal codebase.

For more information about koders.com, please read their white paper.

Thanks to Battelle for the heads-up.

Chris Richardson is a search engine writer and editor for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest search news.