CodeCows is an Xcode extension which allows you to add hundreds of ASCII cows to your source code. The CowsyEditor extension is context-aware and detects whether you want to use a cow as a string, within a comment or elsewhere. It can insert a randow cow, a personalized cow-of-the-day, or one from the list of your favorite cows.

The Xcode extension requires Xcode 8.1 running on macOS 10.12. After installation you may need to enable the Xcode extension in the macOS “System Preferences” (“Extensions” widget). Restart Xcode and it should show up in the “Editor” menu of Xcode.

We recommend to assign nice keyboard shortcuts to the extension commands. To do that, go to the “Key Bindings” preferences of Xcode, and search for “cow” in the Filter field. You can then assign great shortcuts to your cow commands - e.g. we recommend Cmd-c for Vaca.

Don't be sad if you can't use Xcode 8.1 + Sierra just yet: CodeCows also works as a regular macOS service in pretty much any application handling text (just use the Services menu, optionally with some text selected).

Other extras include a “Cow of the Day” widget for the macOS Notification Center, and broad copy&paste and drag&drop support (drag cows to the Finder, or into Preview, etc). Plus a beautiful “Radiactive” mode which makes the cows glow in the dark.

Looking for the iPhone app? Over here: ASCII Cows.

Disclaimer

No cow has been harmed for the development of this application. I guess. Maybe not. We prefer chicken, ostrich and duck confit.

Support

Looking for help with CodeCows? Check out the: Support page. Xcode extension not showing? Cow-of-the-day missing? You'll find help there.

Technology

CodeCows is a native macOS Cocoa application written in Swift 3...5. Pretty much all the UI setup is done in code for various reasons.
~90% of the code of the macOS application is shared with our iOS based cow solutions. Yet CodeCows is making extensive use of macOS features, like drag&drop, copy&paste, services, etc.

Credit where credit is due!

This is just an application build around the excellent cows and vaca modules of Sindre Sorhus. He did all the herding and cowboy’ing.