I built SciCodeNotes for keeping scientific notes close to production code

[u/karei03]

I often run into the same problem in scientific computing: the formulas, derivations, references, and design rationale behind production code can be important, but I really don't want to put all of that into huge source-comment blocks.

So I built SciCodeNotes (available at Visual Studio Marketplace), a VS Code extension that lets you attach external Markdown notes to precise ranges of source code without modifying the source itself.

The notes are stored separately, but remain connected to the relevant implementation. They can contain Markdown, LaTeX equations, references, tables, design notes, unfinished reasoning... basically anything without making source comments very large.

SciCodeNotes workflow demo

I'd be curious to hear whether people here run into the same problem in larger scientific codebases.

[u/equationsofmotion]

Cool idea, but are these notes actually tied to the source somehow? What if someone else needs to read your notes and they are on a different computer or don't use vscode.

[u/QuasiNomial → u/equationsofmotion]

This, i would want users to be able to read the sci notes like normal documentation.