Line Clipper for GitHub

LineClipper is a Firefox add-on which optimizes a software developer's flow between the browser and the IDE while working on GitHub.

A lot of IDEs provide fuzzy find capabilities so you can specify a file path and the IDE would open that file for you. Additionally, you can specify a line number at which you'd like to go to. Example:

api/controllers/base_controller.go:73

This would take us to the base_controller.go file on line 73 in the api/controllers directory.

When working with GitHub (especially during code reviews) it's common for a developer to jump from the browser to the IDE and vice versa. As it is today this flow is very clunky and can break a developer's flow while working.

The LineClipper extension focuses on doing one thing and do it well - copy to your clipboard the file path suffixed with the respective line number when clicking on a specific line number while viewing any type of file with line numbering on GitHub. This way a developer can almost instantly go back and forth between browser and IDE when reviewing files and particular points in code all while keeping a developer's focus where it should be - in the code, not in meaningless operational details.

The plugin includes the copying to clipboard functionality when:

• reviewing pull requests in the Files Changed tab
• reviewing pull requests in the Conversation tab where there are file snippets
• going through a repository's files
• going through files from old commits

Your feedback is valuable so it would be appreciated if you leave a rating or feedback of your experience! Also if you have ideas for improvement you can go ahead and contribute directly to the project: https://github.com/NickyMateev/Line-Clipper

FAQ: Q: Why does the extension state upon installation that it can read and change all my data on the websites I visit?

A: LineClipper will only attempt to work on websites which contain github as part of their domain. You can check out this in source here (https://github.com/NickyMateev/Line-Clipper/blob/3f13ab4063e2f72e9860e974d3ec58ee1dda0306/manifest.json#L8). The reason for deciding to work on all domains containing github is that often developers work with multiple public/private installations of GitHub. Out of convenience for the developer it was decided to simply match these domains automatically instead of having to make the developer whitelist every single GitHub domain he works in.

Q: Does the extension work for all GitHub installations or just the public https://github.com installation?

A: The extension, as stated above, works on all kinds of GitHub installations public/private as long as the domain contains the word github in it.

Q: Does this work only when traversing a GitHub project's file tree and looking at different files?

A: No, it works for every page on GitHub which has a file with lines in it. You can copy lines from the GitHub Pull request diff perspective when you're looking at the file diffs or at the main page of a pull request where sometimes we see some code snippets which have been commented. You can also copy line numbers when you're going through old commits and looking around at the files.

PLEASE NOTE: LineClipper (also known as Line Clipper for GitHub in Mozilla's official site for discovering and installing add-ons for the Firefox browser - AMO) is not endorsed by GitHub. GitHub and Firefox are trademarks of their respective owners.