Snippets for Mathematica Stack Exchange

Question

Please see Jon Ericson's answer and reply to his concerns and questions. Thank you.

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I am requesting implementation of Snippets functionality for Mathematica Stack Exchange.

Similar functionality for other sites is discussed in:

• https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/269753/feedback-requested-runnable-code-snippets-in-questions-and-answers

• https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/270944/feedback-requested-stack-snippets-2-0

Unlike that implementation we could presumably not have a Run Code button, unless Stack Exchange wishes to pay for a webMathematica or Mathematica Online service, but instead:

• Show Code
• Copy to clipboard
• Save as file

Additionally I would like a button for uploading a text-based file such as a Notebook (.nb) or Package (.m) into a Snippet. The Save as file function should remember the file extension if possible.

Answer 1

I support this feature request, because I feel especially a copy to clipboard button would be very nice. However, I have some concerns with respect to request "Additionally I would like a button for uploading a text-based file such as a Notebook".

My concerns

I am against sharing "raw" (unconverted, including a lot of Box expressions) notebook files on the site without warning, as they can contain malicious code in many unexpected ways.

For me, the main difference between sharing notebook files directly and using the SETools is in what a user can reasonably expect. I feel that the security measures for notebook files often not match reasonable expectations, in the case of Import, the handling of dynamic content and the possibility of invisible code.

For example, it is safe to get a Notebook expression using the SETools, but using Import on a notebook file is not, even though the result is similar. If you deliver somebody a Notebook expression wrapped in HoldComplete, at least they have to know what they are doing before they can use it as a notebook in the Front End. When using the SETools, it is clear that an image can contain any expression. When you see the head is Notebook, it is easy to imagine that somebody simply used the head Notebook and put malicious code inside, so that you at least expect the danger.

Conclusion

I would be in favor of editing the request by Mr.Wizard in either one of the following ways.

1. Removing the request for notebook file handling.

2. Adding an explicit request for a warning dialogue when downloading notebooks. Possibly the dialogue could contain a link that we supply to information on how to safely handle untrusted notebooks.

Answer 2

I'm trying to get my head around the root of the problem. According to the SE-Tools README:

The possibility to insert images is pretty nice, but what if you need to share a large expression, that is too large to include it as code-block in an answer? Or you want to share a cell with fancy formatting? Or you want to share a whole Notebook with titles, sections, text, code, etc? You could post a screenshot of this, but then no one can edit your code.

So the three needs are:

1. collapsable code,
2. sharing formatting code not intended for human consumption, and
3. the ability to save complete examples.

Currently, snippets support just the first requirement. (As an aside there is an argument against code folding features.) I think something like Gists would fill the third requirement. I'm not sure what the formatting requirement would entail, but Jacob's answer suggests that we'd need to do some sort of sanitation and error checking. If it isn't possible for a human to figure out what the code does by examination, it would be difficult to moderate posts with such code.

So here's the difficulty I have pitching this feature to our developers: snippets only do a third of what the feature requires and there's already a third-party tool that does all of the things you need. Now I know the tool is a hack (a lovely hack, actually) and that an ideal tool would be built into the site itself. It's just difficult to justify the resources needed to implement it.

On the other hand, we brainstorming several more general features that might satisfy some of the need expressed here. Being able to share detailed examples helps make programming sites like Stack Overflow and Mathematica Stack Exchange more useful for people to learn from each other. Code snippets for JavaScript were just the low-hanging fruit. We need to do better for coders who happen to use other languages.