CodeCodex — Community Portal
ARCHIVE SNAPSHOT · RESTORED FROM 2007

Community Portal

The wiki only grows as fast as the people writing it. This is where the work gets coordinated — open requests, house style, and the categories that need the most hands.

WELCOME

Where to start

Every entry in the library started as someone’s spare half hour. There’s no editorial board deciding what gets written next — the queue moves on whoever shows up, and the page only improves because the next contributor was willing to rewrite what the last one left behind.

If you’re new here, the fastest way in isn’t to write something from scratch. It’s to fix one thing — a missing tag, a slow sort, a title that doesn’t say what the code does — and let that be your first edit.

30+
languages covered
∞
revisions per entry
1
rule that matters: improve it
PROCESS

How an entry actually grows

1
A request goes upSomeone needs code they can’t find — they leave a short, specific ask in the queue below.
2
A first draft landsAnyone can answer it. It doesn’t need to be perfect, just working and clearly titled.
3
The next person improves itFaster, shorter, better commented — or rewritten in a language the first draft didn’t cover.
4
It gets tagged and filedCorrect category, correct language tag, so the entry actually surfaces when someone searches for it.
CONTRIBUTE

Ways to help

1Fill a request

Pick an open item from the queue and supply working code for it. Any language is welcome — the same request often gets answered twice, once per language, and that’s fine.

2Improve an entry

Faster, clearer, or just better-commented. Existing entries are never finished, only current. If you can explain why your version is better, say so on the discussion page.

3Add something new

Found a useful function while building something else? Bring it back, give it a clear, descriptive title, and tag it so the next person can find it.

4Tidy the library

Fix categories, merge duplicate entries across languages, and keep the tag cloud honest. This kind of editing rarely gets noticed, but it’s what keeps the wiki searchable.

STYLE

House rules

  • Titles describe what the code does — not what it’s called in your own project.
  • One clear example beats three half-finished ones.
  • Comment the tricky part, not every line — readers can already read code, they need the reasoning.
  • Tag every entry by language and topic so it surfaces in the right cloud and category page.
  • Leave the previous version improvable — rewrite it, don’t just delete it.
  • Sign and date any note you leave on a discussion page, the way every change in the log is timestamped.
avoidTitle: “My function”
preferTitle: “Calculate an integer square root”
CATEGORIES

Where the gaps are

These topic categories see steady traffic but stay thin. If you’re not sure where to start, start here.

Category:Math
Number theory, statistics, geometry — anything that does arithmetic for a living.
Category:Sort algorithms
Classic and obscure sorts, side by side, in as many languages as possible.
Category:I/O
Reading, writing, and streaming — the unglamorous code everyone still needs.
Category:Time
Dates, durations, and the inevitable timezone edge case.
Category:String
Parsing, trimming, formatting — the most-requested category by a wide margin.
QUEUE

Currently requested

  • Convert HTML to textany language
  • Parse a CSV file into a tableC / Python
  • Binary search on a sorted arrayPascal
  • Merge two sorted listsScheme
  • Validate an email address with a single expressionPerl / PHP
  • Convert temperature between Celsius and FahrenheitBASIC
community portal · archive snapshot · content carried under the GNU Free Documentation License