
Mozilla Thimble - MaxLeiter
https://thimble.mozilla.org/en-US/
======
tedmiston
From the video this looks like Mozilla's version of JSFiddle or JS Bin, but
with four major differences:

1\. Mozilla's awesome docs built-in

2\. Integrated tutorials while you code

3\. Mobile screen size preview

4\. Completely free and no ads

These are some nice differentiators IMO. I'll definitely give it a try.

~~~
eriknstr
Also, like most (all?) Mozilla projects, it's open source. Neat!

[https://github.com/mozilla/thimble.mozilla.org](https://github.com/mozilla/thimble.mozilla.org)

~~~
rhizome
Some crazy dependencies. It would be cool if there was something like this
completely local, an SPA for the UI and LocalStorage & IndexedDB for
persistence and docs.

~~~
dmlittle
Pretty sure some of those dependencies are dev-dependencies

~~~
rhizome
Ah. Not apparent to the uninitiated!

~~~
mullsork
Not a very nice thing to do anyhow. Guess it doesn't matter too much for this
project but not marking development dependencies as such is horrible for any
consumers of the module.

~~~
TheRealPomax
Thimble itself is an end-product, not a module. The only way to work with it
outside of our deployment infrastructure is to run it with all the
dependencies installed and brackets installed on the side. We're thinking of
just dockerizing it, but there is no "casual install" for Thimble right now.

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techbubble
I have been using Thimble to teach kids web development for several years via
CoderDojo Silicon Valley. Kids just love it...it's simple and doesn't get in
the way. I have tried Cloud9, CodePen and other cloud-based IDE's, but always
keep coming back to Thimble.

Here's a sample parent+child class on building a holiday greeting card:
[https://thimbleprojects.org/nik/20062](https://thimbleprojects.org/nik/20062)

Here's a canvas drawing sample:
[https://thimbleprojects.org/nik/102205](https://thimbleprojects.org/nik/102205)

The published Thimble project URL used to be hackable to remove the Remix
button so kids could have free Github-like hosting, but alas it was removed.

[Edit: Fixed links]

~~~
flukeout
Heads up, your links are broken. They'll only work for you since they take you
to the editor - can you use the links from the Publish dialog?

~~~
techbubble
Thank you. Links are fixed.

~~~
flukeout
No problem! I had a big hand the design of this current version of Thimble,
and if you're willing to share, I'd love to hear about your experiences using
it to Teach. Shoot me a message on Twitter @flukeout or you can email me at
luke@mozillafoundation.org if you're interested. Cheers.

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petetnt
Like some mentioned, Thimble uses Brackets in it's core. After some hiatus,
Brackets has seen more commits to the past month than in the past year
combined.

There's tons of starter issues (and more advanced ones) that can be tackled in
the core right now too. If you want to get into OSS contributing or maybe you
already are and want to contribute in general, check out the issues on GitHub!

[https://github.com/adobe/brackets](https://github.com/adobe/brackets)

(Disclaimer: third party contributor of Brackets)

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lawpoop
I made a thing:

[https://thimbleprojects.org/smlefevre/102167/](https://thimbleprojects.org/smlefevre/102167/)

Bash cheat sheet-- keyboard shortcuts for jumping and deleting words

~~~
wyldfire
I liked it so I pitched in. Too lazy to make an account, though, so I put it
in a gist [1].

[1]
[https://gist.github.com/anonymous/a22380f8c37b22dba03606e368...](https://gist.github.com/anonymous/a22380f8c37b22dba03606e3684d6fd1)

EDIT: now that I think of it, Ctrl-R is really the killer app of bash/readline
and it's saved me many more keystrokes than the word/line delete or cursor
motion keys.

~~~
mohsinr
Making account was very smooth and quick. Just username/password/email and
Click.. auto login... and you are back to work.

~~~
lexicality
Passwords are inconvenient. There's no real reason not to offer SSO/OAuth in
this day and age.

~~~
flukus
Unless the SSO provider decides to turn off your account.

~~~
Aldo_MX
Or decides to turn off themselves[1]

[1]
[https://wiki.mozilla.org/Identity/Persona_Shutdown_Guideline...](https://wiki.mozilla.org/Identity/Persona_Shutdown_Guidelines_for_Reliers)

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JD557
It would be pretty neat if this was collaborative (like google docs). That
would be a nice way to teach HTML+CSS+JS remotely.

I was actually expecting that feature when I saw that it was developed by
Mozilla, as they made Together.js[1].

[1] [https://togetherjs.com/](https://togetherjs.com/)

~~~
pbhjpbhj
The together.js page says:

>Log into Thimble, then click the 'Collaborate' button to start collaborating
with a friend! //

... so it sounds like it's collaborative.

~~~
holmb
It appears that the collaborate functionality is a feature of the old version
of Thimble. I cannot find any collaboration functionality in the new one.

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superpope99
They've clearly made an effort to appeal to a young audience and that should
be commended

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skybrian
I don't know how up to date it is, but it looks like there is more about the
technology at [1].

[1] [http://blog.humphd.org/thimble-and-
bramble/](http://blog.humphd.org/thimble-and-bramble/)

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andrewvijay
This has been around for a while. The product is great for beginners but yet
doesn't get the attention it deserves. May be Mozilla should market more.

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wepple
It would be most excellent to describe roughly what this is in the title,
expand upon <company> <random word>

~~~
TheRealPomax
The HN guidelines
([https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html))
ask us not to, instead saying to use the original title.

------
okfuture
Thimble is also extensively localized for users and learners who speak other
languages.
[https://github.com/mozilla/thimble.mozilla.org/tree/master/l...](https://github.com/mozilla/thimble.mozilla.org/tree/master/locales)

------
JulienRbrt
Isn't it exactly what was Mozilla Webmaker some years ago ?

~~~
TheRealPomax
This is the spiritual successor of that. "Webmaker" changed from a single
product to "a suite of products" at the time, with this tool getting renamed
to "Thimble". That thimble used Code Mirror for its editor, and only allowed
you to write a single file. Since webpages aren't single files anymore, and
haven't been for a while, we made a choice to try to integrate quite a few
technologies (Adobe's Brackets as editor with tons of features, Filer for
faking a POSIX filesystem in the browser, etc) into something that is both the
same, but also a lot better, and the old Thimble got turned off (after about a
year of having both up at the same time) last June.

~~~
Achshar
Did you guys look into VS Code as an option for possible in-browser editors?

~~~
TheRealPomax
We didn't, mostly because VS Code didn't exist yet when we added in Brackets.
It got released when we were already beta testing, and was still in extreme
beta by the time we officially launched the updated tool in August 2015. It
would be interesting to see how many other now-existing solutions might work
for the code editor part, but at this point it would disturb quite a few
people who now use Thimble in the classroom or at learn-to-code events, so
while as a contributor PR it would be fantastic, we don't have the man hours
to investigate a completely new code editor component (with its own UI that
needs tailoring, filesystem requirements, plugin infrastructure, etc).

------
baby
This thing is getting old now. It's the best way to learn HTML + CSS imo. Not
Bracket or not any other coding school-like page.

Now would you use that as a jsfiddle or a IDE? No. This is to learn only. And
it is awesome.

~~~
TheRealPomax
The new version (with file/folder support and brackets as editor) has only
been out for a year, I wouldn't call it brand new for obvious reasons, but
it's not really "old" either?

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nedsma
It doesn't work in FF's private mode: "There was an error loading your
Project. Please refresh your browser.

NOTE: if you are using Private Browsing mode, please reload in normal mode."

Any reason why?

~~~
swhipple
If you're using private browsing mode or "Never remember history" in Firefox
settings, IndexedDB is also disabled.

[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=781982](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=781982)

~~~
nedsma
Thank you, sir.

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rosstex
This reminds me, I've been using Brackets for a while and have been mostly
satisfied. Should I make a switch?

~~~
ksml
I'm confused. Why would you make a switch if you have been satisfied? Also,
this doesn't seem like it's in the same category as Brackets; this seems more
in the educational space.

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sergiotapia
Thought this was going to be a Windows Live Writer competitor. Man, I miss
that software.

~~~
vtbassmatt
Miss it no more:
[https://github.com/OpenLiveWriter](https://github.com/OpenLiveWriter)

------
chipz
Should keep in mind that this just for learning purpose, can't really compare
Thimble to an IDE or full pledged editor like Sublime or Atom

~~~
thekevan
With other conversations here about people being worried that Mozilla may up
and abandon this one day, was the fact that you called Sublime and Atom "full
pledged" a freudian slip?

~~~
chipz
Haha, indeed.

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orliesaurus
I really love JSbin (thank you Remy), I'll need to give this one a try! :D

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vocatus_gate
"Keep calm and...."

Ugh, when will this trend die

~~~
TheRealPomax
It died quite a while ago, which is why you see it almost nowhere anymore.
But: it's open source, file an issue if you have a better starter idea.
Everyone'll win.

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djstein
thought this was the codepen beta..

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rgtk
Considering this as JSFiddle or Codepen alternative, I would find difficulties
in using it, having in mind all of these projects that Mozilla killed lately.

I hope that Mozilla will finally figure out exactly what are their goals. They
won't gain trust by releasing something promising and dropping it while after
because it didn't match their expectations.

~~~
foxylad
I may be missing something, but I really don't understand this "Organisation X
killed product Y so you should never use their products again" meme.
Particularly when Y is open source.

In this case, you are going to ignore what sounds like a very promising and
useful product because the organisation that provides it once dropped support
for something else. Despite it being open source - so if they did kill support
you could continue to use all their hard work.

My suggestion is to take each product on it's merits. If it's useful to you,
use it - which adds to it's popularity and makes it less likely to be killed.

~~~
TheRealPomax
And the fact that it's completely different teams of people working in
completely different parts of Mozilla. It may not be a massively huge company,
but at 1000+ employees don't for a moment believe that one team knows exactly
what another team is up to and everyone is responsible for all the things.

