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A few years ago I built an MVP to host code playbacks, 'Our Code Stories' (http://ourcodestories.com/), but I abandoned it because of some changes that I made in the code playback format. Since then I have been hosting on GitHub Pages.
This summer I plan on building a new hosting site from scratch. I will publish and sell curated 'books' from authors (myself and others) and let sw devs create portfolios and blog posts using code playbacks for free. These should let devs build their brand by showing their code and explanations of it.
I am looking for people who believe in the value of code playbacks. I'd love some advice on modern stacks that I should use to build it and/or people who are willing to work together on the new site (co-founders).
If you have any advice or are curious about partnering, reach out to me.
https://ourcodestories.com
My feeling is that code is typically written by a single person on a single computer and that others really only get to see the final product. Other devs don't get to learn much from the development process since they aren't around to see it all happen. Pair programming solves this problem but it doesn't scale well. In other words, there are a lot of interesting things to learn during the development process but much of it is left on the cutting room floor.
I have created a new medium that allows sw devs to guide viewers through non-trivial code examples. There is a VS Code extension for authors.
I am using it primarily as a replacement for traditional programming books, online tutorials, and youtube videos of code demos for the classes that I teach. Viewers can see code evolve and get a narrative commentary from the author while it happens. These are code focused resources which is what I think many learners want.
Here is an example of one: https://ourcodestories.com/markm208/Playlist/4/Playback/89
These work best on a big screen. Use the >> button to quickly move through the code.
Here is all of the content I have created so far: https://ourcodestories.com/markm208/Playlist/All
I want OCS to be a marketplace where authors go to write 'books' (alternative to O'Reilly or Pragmatic Programmers) or smaller tutorials (alternative to Medium) and where learners can go to get content (alternative to Khan Academy or YouTube). The site allows content creators to charge for their work or make it freely available to all.
I'd like to point out a few others that seem to be doing similar things: https://codelines.dev/ https://storytime.dev/ https://scrimba.com/
These are all interesting in their own ways and are worth checking out.
These can be used to create code-oriented tutorials and programming books. Here is a 'book' I wrote about Clojure:
https://ourcodestories.com/markm208/Playlist/4
The site can also be used to create professional programming portfolios. These animated playbacks are a great way to communicate how one thinks about problem solving and code to potential employers. A dev can add text, images, screenshots, and video comments to their code. Finally, the guided walk-throughs can be used to help dev teams prepare for a code review or get a new team member up to speed on a code base.
Users can create an unlimited number of free public and private playbacks. They can also charge a fee to access a group of playbacks. For example, if someone wants to write a book about a programming topic they can use Our Code Stories instead of going through a traditional publisher. I am hoping to disrupt traditional programming book publishing with playbacks. Authors receive 75% of each sale.
Playbacks are made by using the open-source software that I created called 'Storyteller' (https://markm208.github.io/storyteller/index.html). Storyteller is a plugin to the Visual Studio Code editor. Our Code Stories is a site that holds groups of Storyteller playbacks kind of like how GitHub holds Git repos. Follow us @ourcodestories.
I am curious whether professional sw devs will find this medium useful. I welcome any feedback. I am also looking for brave people to use the tools to create and publish their own playbacks. I am willing to help early adopters with any issues they have (email me @ my profile email).