StackOverflow Importer – Import code from Stack Overflow as Python modules (opens in new tab)

Relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/1185/

"StackSort connects to StackOverflow, searches for 'sort a list', and downloads and runs code snippets until the list is sorted."

This might be a joke but everybody does it manually for real. Whenever I copy-paste some tricky function from SO I like to add a code comment with the url pointing to the stackoverflow.com answer. This allows future maintainers to refer back to SO and see if a better answer has surfaced or read comments about any issues.

Reminds me of stacksort[1]

[1] https://gkoberger.github.io/stacksort/

Awesome. Now we just need to integrate upwork with our IDE so I can just write the method signature and a bid price and my method will be magically implemented.

It's interesting to imagine adding something like this to an editors auto complete or as some kind of search function to automate functions you've coded a million times.

I.e. maybe you type: "repeat a function over a list python" in a special format and your editor pastes in the accepted answer from stackoverflow for you to choose whether that's acceptable / whether you want to use it as a template. Then maybe you could get into a better flow without ever having to stop what you're doing to Google something ... It would all just show up magically in your editor.

You could even have libraries of common answers written in such a way that you could write expected input and output formats and then get a code fragment that would fit that description. Something like a more organized test driven development. Though that would really only work for very specific things. Improve these ideas enough and make them more general - and maybe you could improve programmer productivity by quite a large margin.

Disclaimer: I know the OP was a joke but I see no problem with reusing code if you understand what its doing and the costs / trade-offs for doing so.

It brings new meaning to the term "full-stackoverflow developer."

I like the description: "Import arbitrary code from Stack Overflow as Python modules."

(Emphasis mine.)

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Now Stack Overflow should be even more concerned about the availability of their service.

Way ahead of you: https://twitter.com/ckolderup/status/789002880246177792

It's hard to imagine a better argument for vendoring your dependencies in case they change.

because executing arbitrary unknown code is always a good idea

Based on some of the comments here, a sarcasm disclaimer might be necessary on the repo!

I often find that the accepted answer with the most votes is the oldest and often outdated and that there's a newer answer with also a lot of votes which is more up to date and better many times.

Stackoverflow-driven development (SDD):

https://goo.gl/images/xXCZrx

Can I be all code review mode, and ask you to lower case the first f. It's sticking out like a sore thumb

And the relevant book for people who prefer reading material. https://tra38.gitbooks.io/essential-copying-and-pasting-from...

I did something similar with a project that allowed you to import code from anywhere[0]. StackOverflow would be a nice addition.

[0] https://github.com/libeclipse/import-from

Cool joke. Post leftpad it needs a disclaimer lest someone actually do this for real.

Its amazing how little code it takes to implement this (aside from dependencies).

And then: http://code.visualstudio.com/blogs/2016/11/3/rollback

If I have editing powers could I hijack the answer that gets its code imported?

This is a really stupid idea, even as a joke to play with. Someone can just edit the top answer to make it malicious and steal your personal or work data from your workstation.

This is a pretty cool idea! Concerns for running unknown code aside, it seems like the results of this type of thing would be prone to potentially frequent change.

I wonder if there'd be a way to maintain consistency, something like a requirements.txt file that got spit out to describe what the results of the search terms mapped to when the code was run.

It could just contain the search term and link to the chosen question. Although you'd still run the risk of the answer itself being edited. The code itself would have to be cached in whatever this file was.

What a fascinating concept! I think that with some kind of review built in, this kind of dynamic loading would be really useful.

I think if you do this, you'd want external tests, or some way to pull the code in and "freeze" it so that you wouldn't be at risk of external compromises. (For example, a high ranked SO user might be able to change a highly ranked answer . They might not do it, but someone suborning their account might.)

But really, this is an optimization of a lot of code that is currently written.

Anyone else tinkering with / armchair philosophizing about ways of making stuff like this practical for regular use?

This is a license hell, whatever you do, don't use it if you care about your code not being owned by other people.

Importing and running code from an external site without verification or code review. What could possibly go wrong?

What a time to be alive. Edit: this is officially the best thing to happen to me this week, heck, month.

This is so funny. Kudos to the author!

I look forward to using this in a future job interview and seeing what happens.

This is awesome. But how is `time_delay` used?

Makes me think of Kite[1]. Kite is a "real" thing that one can use though.

[1] https://kite.com

Somewhat related https://github.com/gleitz/howdoi with the vim frontend https://github.com/laurentgoudet/vim-howdoi