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  1. Stackups
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  4. Code Review
  5. Infer vs Prettier

Infer vs Prettier

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Infer
Infer
Stacks18
Followers69
Votes0
GitHub Stars15.4K
Forks2.1K
Prettier
Prettier
Stacks13.2K
Followers1.3K
Votes7
GitHub Stars51.1K
Forks4.6K

Infer vs Prettier: What are the differences?

Introduction:

When it comes to code formatting and analyzing tools, Infer and Prettier are two commonly used options among developers. Despite having overlapping functionalities, there are key differences that set them apart in terms of their usage and features.

  1. Purpose and Functionality: Infer is a static analysis tool primarily used for detecting bugs and potential issues in code, focusing on improving code quality and security. On the other hand, Prettier is a code formatter that automatically formats code to ensure consistency in coding styles, making the code more readable without changing its functionality.

  2. Language Support: Infer is specifically designed for languages like C, C++, and Java, providing deep analysis and bug detection features for these languages. In contrast, Prettier supports a wide range of languages including JavaScript, TypeScript, CSS, HTML, and more, making it versatile in terms of code formatting across different languages.

  3. Customization Options: Prettier offers more customization options when it comes to formatting rules, allowing users to configure specific settings based on their preferences. On the other hand, Infer focuses more on predefined analysis rules and does not provide as much flexibility for customization in terms of bug detection rules.

  4. Integration with IDEs: Prettier is often integrated seamlessly with popular IDEs like Visual Studio Code, Atom, and Sublime Text, providing real-time formatting and feedback as developers write code. Infer, on the other hand, may require additional setup and configuration to integrate with IDEs, depending on the specific development environment.

  5. Output and Feedback: Infer provides detailed reports and analysis results highlighting potential bugs and issues in the codebase, helping developers identify and fix problems efficiently. In contrast, Prettier focuses more on the visual aspect of code formatting, providing instant feedback on formatting changes but not in-depth analysis on code quality or security.

In Summary, Infer and Prettier differ in their primary functions, language support, customization options, integration with IDEs, and the type of feedback they provide to developers. Each tool serves a unique purpose in the development workflow, catering to different aspects of code quality and formatting.

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Advice on Infer, Prettier

Alex
Alex

Software Engineer

Aug 7, 2020

Review

you don't actually have to choose between these tools as they have vastly different purposes. i think its more a matter of understanding how to use them.

while eslint and stylelint are used to notify you about code quality issues, to guide you to write better code, prettier automatically handles code formatting (without notifying me). nothing else.

prettier and eslint both officially discourage using the eslint-plugin-prettier way, as these tools actually do very different things. autofixing with linters on watch isnt a great idea either. auto-fixing should only be done intentionally. you're not alone though, as a lot of devs set this up wrong.

i encourage you to think about what problem you're trying to solve and configure accordingly.

for my teams i set it up like this:

  • eslint, stylelint, prettier locally installed for cli use and ide support
  • eslint config prettier (code formatting rules are not eslints business, so dont warn me about it)
  • vscode workspace config: format on save
  • separate npm scripts for linting, and formatting
  • precommit hooks (husky)

so you can easily integrate with gulp. its just js after all ;)

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Comments

Detailed Comparison

Infer
Infer
Prettier
Prettier

Facebook Infer is a static analysis tool - if you give Infer some Objective-C, Java, or C code, it produces a list of potential bugs. Anyone can use Infer to intercept critical bugs before they have shipped to people's phones, and help prevent crashes or poor performance.

Prettier is an opinionated code formatter. It enforces a consistent style by parsing your code and re-printing it with its own rules that take the maximum line length into account, wrapping code when necessary.

Android and Java - Infer reports null pointer exceptions and resource leaks in Android and Java code.;iOS - In addition to this, it reports memory leak problems in iOS and C code.
An opinionated code formatter; Supports many languages; Integrates with most editors; Has few options; You press save and code is formatted; No need to discuss style in code review; Saves you time and energy
Statistics
GitHub Stars
15.4K
GitHub Stars
51.1K
GitHub Forks
2.1K
GitHub Forks
4.6K
Stacks
18
Stacks
13.2K
Followers
69
Followers
1.3K
Votes
0
Votes
7
Pros & Cons
No community feedback yet
Pros
  • 2
    Customizable
  • 1
    Open Source
  • 1
    Completely free
  • 1
    Runs offline
  • 1
    Follows the Ruby Style Guide by default
Integrations
Cocoa Touch (iOS)
Cocoa Touch (iOS)
Android SDK
Android SDK
Java
Java
Objective-C
Objective-C
GraphQL
GraphQL
JavaScript
JavaScript
TypeScript
TypeScript
Flow
Flow
Vue.js
Vue.js
AngularJS
AngularJS
markdown
markdown
YAML
YAML
Less
Less

What are some alternatives to Infer, Prettier?

Code Climate

Code Climate

After each Git push, Code Climate analyzes your code for complexity, duplication, and common smells to determine changes in quality and surface technical debt hotspots.

Codacy

Codacy

Codacy automates code reviews and monitors code quality on every commit and pull request on more than 40 programming languages reporting back the impact of every commit or PR, issues concerning code style, best practices and security.

Phabricator

Phabricator

Phabricator is a collection of open source web applications that help software companies build better software.

PullReview

PullReview

PullReview helps Ruby and Rails developers to develop new features cleanly, on-time, and with confidence by automatically reviewing their code.

Gerrit Code Review

Gerrit Code Review

Gerrit is a self-hosted pre-commit code review tool. It serves as a Git hosting server with option to comment incoming changes. It is highly configurable and extensible with default guarding policies, webhooks, project access control and more.

SonarQube

SonarQube

SonarQube provides an overview of the overall health of your source code and even more importantly, it highlights issues found on new code. With a Quality Gate set on your project, you will simply fix the Leak and start mechanically improving.

RuboCop

RuboCop

RuboCop is a Ruby static code analyzer. Out of the box it will enforce many of the guidelines outlined in the community Ruby Style Guide.

CodeFactor.io

CodeFactor.io

CodeFactor.io automatically and continuously tracks code quality with every GitHub or BitBucket commit and pull request, helping software developers save time in code reviews and efficiently tackle technical debt.

ESLint

ESLint

A pluggable and configurable linter tool for identifying and reporting on patterns in JavaScript. Maintain your code quality with ease.

Amazon CodeGuru

Amazon CodeGuru

It is a machine learning service for automated code reviews and application performance recommendations. It helps you find the most expensive lines of code that hurt application performance and keep you up all night troubleshooting, then gives you specific recommendations to fix or improve your code.

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