GitHub re-writes Gist code sharing service, adds history tracking, improved editing and search

Gist, GitHub’s tool for saving snippets of code, has been rewritten from scratch using “better libraries” and GitHub’s styleguide, with the goal of making it easier than ever to share and discover code.

Of the new features, GitHub has highlighted browsing and search functionality, an updated editor, revision history tracking and the ability to view forks by activity.

More specifically, you can now browse new code on Gist Discover and search by code language with Gist Search. You’ll also notice that Gist is now powered by the Ace editor, which already powers GitHub’s editor — expect highlighted syntax and indentation aware editing.

Lastly, you can now view the history of every Gist, and track Gist forks by activity, which makes it “easier to find interesting changes from coworkers or complete strangers.” Here’s an example of a Gist, in case it’s foreign to you:

➤ Gist

Recently, GitHub has experienced a number of service outages, and two months ago, the company released its new Mac app and a training site, with the goal of teaching others about collaborative coding.

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