Unstructured sandbox

An unstructured sandbox provides an open ended, terminal-like model for entering and executing code. These terminals can be embedded inline in the page, opened with a click of a button, or iframed into the structure of the overall documents.

• Strengths

  • Editorial flexibility — allows the author to insert whatever types of content he or she will best describe the topic

• Weaknesses

  • Design inflexibility. These often appear as iframes or something disruptive to the overall experience.

  • Non-integrated. Unless care is taken, the sandbox can feel like an editorial afterthought.

Examples include:

repl.it

repl.it is a tool that uses various compiled languages (Python, Ruby, and Lua, among others). The site offers a code runner, an output pane, a surprisingly wide selection on languages, and a nice selection of samples for each type.

Programr

Programr runs languages in the browser including console (C++, C#, Java, Objective-C), web (PHP, Javascript, JQuery, Java Server Pages, AJAX), rich media (Flex, Processing), desktop (Java Swing), and database (SQL, SQLite). Others on the site include Ruby, Python, VB, AJAX, Flex, Flash, iOS, Android, and more.

Andrew’s analysis: "though it supports a pretty wide selection of languages, performance it pretty terrible. Like, check out these ruby examples:

http://www.programr.com/append-and-concatination http://www.programr.com/using-loop-1

They each take 9-10 seconds to evaluate."

Twilio Pair Programming

http://www.twilio.com/blog/2013/06/pair-programming-in-the-browser-with-twilio.html

The tools for creating real-time applications in the browser are getting better all the time. Running node.js on the server, in conjunction with libraries like socket.io, makes it ridiculously simple to facilitate server push and event-driven communication between clients. Combine this with Twilio Client for voice communication in the browser and you have an incredibly powerful platform for facilitating communication between users of your application.

Pair programming live with a distributed team is very much a possibility with some of the technologies we’ll look at today. Let’s run through a list of ingredients for this hack: * node.js on the server * The official twilio node module, available on npm * The Twilio Client JavaScript SDK (for the browser) * socket.io (both server and browser) * Express for routing HTTP requests and serving up responses * Ace code editor (browser) * AppFog (platform as a service for hosting)

IPython Notebook

IPython Notebook is a tool for viewing python in the browser. The author writes in an integrated environment (the native format is JSON) that allows text, equations, and live code. (The code executes on a remote server.) The output of the code is presented in a terminal style format. One of the other really nice features is that it is simple to embed images, like those generated from numerical or scientific tools like numpy or scipy.

Khan Academy

Khan Academy provides a vast array of learning classes around basic computer science. There are typically a video or animation for each step, after which the student is able to experiment with the code in the sandbox. The coding environment is divided into a pane for listing and a pane for the output, where the student can see the result. (Currently, only Javascript-based languages seem to be supported.) The code environment also supports a "Save as a spin off" button where the user can save the code listing to his or her own private account for modification.

Scratch

Scratch is an interactive learning environment geared towards kids. The user edits code in an IDE-like window. Tips, instructions, and tutorials can be appear in a sidepanel called "Tips" that can be turned on or off. The user can also save their programs (which are often like small animations or movies) so that they can be shared.

JQFundamentals

jqfundamentalsis a site for teaching javascript. It walks through a rich set of concepts that are illustrated with specific code examples. You can click on a small icon on the example to open a live code editor where you can run the example.

Chimera

O’Reilly Chimera is a new beta site for experimenting with how books can become more interactive. At it’s current start of development, the site has embedded JSBins that allow the reader to try out the code. (Javascript only.)

Opal

Opal is a ruby to javascript compiler. It is source-to-source, making it fast as a runtime. Opal includes a compiler (which can be run in any browser), a corelib and runtime implementation. The corelib/runtime is also very small (10.8kb gzipped).

try clojure

Try Clojure is an online sandbox for using Clojure, a dynamic programming language that targets the Java Virtual Machine (and the CLR, and JavaScript). It is designed to be a general-purpose language, combining the approachability and interactive development of a scripting language with an efficient and robust infrastructure for multithreaded programming.

forio julia tutorial

Julia Tutorial is an interactive tutorial for the julia language. It’s sturcuted as a command-line style tutoral, where the user can tye commands like "tutorial" or "next" that prompt you to try specific elements of the language.

Python Tutor

http://www.pythontutor.com/ is a tool for learning Python, Java, JavaScript, TypeScript, and Ruby. So far, over 1.2 million people have used this tool for self-learning, often in conjunction with taking MOOCs and reading online textbooks.