CodexBanana

The Internet is extremely resourceful, and information is, nowadays, one click away. Same goes with code snippets: ready-to-use examples can be easily found online.

The creators of CodexBanana created an application that allows you to save code snippets you find online or which you create on your own. This way, not only that you save the time needed to search for examples on the Internet, but you can also build a centralized and organized code knowledge base.

CodexBanana has a predefined structure at its core: the database is the equivalent of what is named a “bank”, which, in turn, can have multiple domains and as many categories as you need. Articles are stored in categories, making it easier for you to browse the snippet database.

You start by creating one or more domains and populate each domain with multiple categories. For example, you can create a “Programming” domain and add categories for all the programming languages that you are using.

While the tree-like structure can help you keep information organized and find code snippets or notes easier, CodexBanana does not excel when it comes to looks and usage. Moreover, if you are not aware of its structure: “domain - category – article", it is likely you might need a bit of time to understand what to do.

Focusing on functionality rather than looks, CodexBanana comes with a basic interface that looks rather outdated. While having a tree-like explorer embedded in to browse categories would be a good idea, you only get to switch from one domain to another via the main menu.

Categories are all listed once you select the corresponding domain and articles inside them. The integrated search form allows you to find articles much easier, especially since it supports regular expressions.

Although the application was supposed to be easy to use, in fact I found it rather difficult to create a new article, since everything was grayed out. Only after consulting the online documentation did I manage to succeed and have my custom article added to the selected category.

While the idea behind CodexBanana is promising, the way it is implemented is a bit dissatisfying. Letting aside the rudimentary looks, not being able to create an article intuitively, without having to consult the documentation, was a bit frustrating, especially since all the fields seemed grayed out.   Nevertheless, once you get the hang of it, the application could come in handy, especially if you are a programmer.