Better Memo for VSCode

Automatic Comment Curation for Developers

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Features

• Automated tracking of workspace Memos;
• Centralized curation in accessible Memo Explorer;
• Streamlined Memo authoring and completion;
• Simple navigation between Memos;
• Syntax highlighting to differentiate Memos;
• And various other convenient functionalities;

Usage Guide

Syntax of Memos

Comments are only curated by Better Memo if they start with MO (case-insensitive).

For example, the following (line 2) is a valid Memo in JS:

• MO tells Better Memo to manage this comment;
• FIX is a tag for comment organization (case-insensitive);
• breaks if *a === b* is the comment content;

Better Memo supports comments in all languages.
e.g. // will be replaced by # in Python;
e.g. <!-- MO TAG ... --> is used in HTML;

A Memo doesn't necessarily need to have content.
e.g. If some code is left to be cleaned up, you could simply add //MO CLEAN without any additional text;

The format of Memos doesn't matter as long as it's valid, Better Memo will format Memos for you automatically.
e.g. // mO tAg hi > //MO TAG hi;

New Memo Command

Typing a Memo by hand can be tedious and inefficient. Instead, you can follow these simple steps:

1. Place your cursor on a line.
2. Press Alt+M.
3. Select/Enter the desired Memo tag in the Quick Pick menu.
   (you can type in a tag that doesn't exist in the menu, and it will be automatically inserted into the Quick Pick)
4. And... voilà! The Memo is instantly inserted, and you can now type in the content.

Insertion behavior could be configured in the better-memo.actions settings section.

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Additional Syntax: Memo Priority

To assign priority to more urgent code actions, you can add an exclamation mark ! before the content.

For example, //MO FIX !breaks POST would have a higher priority than //MO FIX no logs.

As a result, the first one would be listed higher than the second in the Memo Explorer. (introduced in the next section)

The more exclamation marks you add, the higher the priority of the Memo. For instance, //MO FIX !!critical failure would have an even higher priority than //MO FIX !breaks POST.

The Memo Explorer

Memos in the workspace are carefully organized and displayed in an explorer panel, available conveniently in the sidebar, known as the Memo Explorer.

Within Memo Explorer, two distinct view types are offered, each determining how the Memos are grouped.

The Tag View

The File View

• Tag View: Organizes Memos primarily by Memo tags;
• File View: Organizes Memos primarily by containing files;

In each view, the other grouping method is used as the secondary organization layer.

Each tag is assigned a hashed color that will be inherited by all Memos associated with that tag. The color will also serve as the highlighting color for Memos within documents.

Users can set custom colors for specific tags in the better-memo.general.customTags setting.
e.g. The preset tags FIX, TODO, and REFACTOR are assigned the colors red, green, and blue, respectively.

The final colors used may differ from the expected colors, this is intended to maintain a higher level of color contrast.

Available Actions

Actions/Title Bar

The title bar provides the following actions, from left to right:

1. Switch to Tag/File View (Ctrl+Shift+V);
2. Refresh Explorer (Ctrl+R);
3. Mark All Memos as Completed;
4. Expand Explorer;
5. Collapse Explorer;

Actions/Context

File Item:

• Navigate to File;
• Mark All Memos in File as Completed;

Tag Item:

• Mark All Memos Under Tag as Completed;

Memo Item:

• Click - Navigate to Memo;
• Mark Memo as Completed;

The behavior of Better Memo when you try to mark Memo(s) as completed could be configured in the better-memo.actions settings section.

Mark Memo(s) as Completed from the right-click context-menu will always ignore the Ask For Confirmation ... settings.

Editor Commands

Better Memo provides several commands to help users work more efficiently in editors.

• (Alt+M) New Memo on Line (details);

• (Alt+Shift+M) Complete Memo(s) Next to Selection(s);

• (Ctrl+Alt+M Ctrl+Alt+<) Navigate to Last Memo;

• (Ctrl+Alt+M Ctrl+Alt+>) Navigate to Next Memo;

Action behaviors could be configured in the better-memo.actions settings section.

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 The palest ink is better than the most retentive memory.