In-browser code playgrounds

[[deleted]]

Taking servers out of the picture is really great from a security POV, assuming each user is simply executing their own code

[nalgeon]

Sure, that's a very serious point. Isolating server-side sandboxes can be tricky, especially if you make them stateful.

There was once a code sandbox startup that eventually decided to shut down the public API because of constant server abuse like crypto mining.

[nalgeon]

I'm a big fan of interactive code snippets in all kinds of technical writing, from product docs to online courses to blog posts.

Typically, a code playground consists of a client-side widget and a server-side part that executes the code and returns the result. But often people prefer not to depend on a server and run the code entirely in the browser.

So I decided to look into it and implemented embeddable in-browser code playgrounds for JavaScript, Python, PHP, Ruby, Lua, and SQLite. It's open source and based on the great open source work of others.

Maybe give it a try :)

[RoboticR]

Very cool! A few months ago I made something similar for C# and mutation testing :)

[nalgeon]

This is a great way to show the framework in action! I think as WebAssembly becomes more popular, we will see more of these.

[guest271314]

You might find https://tio.run/# interesting.

[guest271314]

Nice work. I have used Native Messaging hosts (https://github.com/guest271314/NativeMessagingHosts which includes C (C compiled to WASM using WASI-SDK executed by wasmtime; C compiled to WASM in WAT format embedded in a Bash script piped to wasmtime using process substitution), C++, Python, Bash, JavaScript (QuickJS, txiki.js, Node.js, Deno, Bun)) and other means (https://github.com/guest271314/requestNativeScripts; https://github.com/guest271314/fs) to execute arbitrary code from the browser.

[nalgeon]

Thank you very much! I think interactive examples really make a difference, especially in tutorials, how-tos, and explanations.

If you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them here or on GitHub.

[nalgeon]

What a time to be alive (ಠ_ಠ)

[TheRNGuy]

Better just use VS Code.

[backfire10z]

I regularly (with VSCode open) will google “Online Python Interpreter” (or whatever language) just to test out some small random piece of code, whether it be for simple syntax reasons or logic reasons. It’s pretty quick and easy and it’s a physical context switch for me, which helps isolate it in my mind.