
CodeSandbox - tosh
https://codesandbox.io/
======
tosh
Ives van Hoorne (of CodeSandbox) got Visual Studio code to run in the browser

[https://twitter.com/CompuIves/status/1031930891122049024](https://twitter.com/CompuIves/status/1031930891122049024)

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fulyscentedking
VSCode IS running inside a browser.

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mchahn
> VSCode IS running inside a browser.

I used to be a major contributor and follower of Atom. People commonly asked
why Atom couldn't run in the browser. The answer was simple, node and a
browser are _totally_ different things. Imagine a browser opening files,
starting processes, running arbitrary C-code, etc.

No, VSCode does _not_ normally run in a browser.

~~~
joelhooks
Ives said it was relatively easy to swap out the node bits.

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Vinnl
He also said that the reason for that was the way the VSCode team structured
the code, not because it's "running in a browser already":
[https://twitter.com/CompuIves/status/1031932607326371843](https://twitter.com/CompuIves/status/1031932607326371843)

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keithwhor
If you like CodeSandbox you should check out Code.xyz [1] — not the same
target (Code.xyz is for building and shipping backend APIs to the Standard
Library [2] platform) but we were definitely inspired by CodeSandbox and
others! We built our rendering engine from scratch (as in, scratch, ‘nilla JS)
to meet our needs at a low browser payload.

[1] [https://code.xyz/](https://code.xyz/)

[2] [https://stdlib.com/](https://stdlib.com/)

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philliphaydon
I have to register to do anything?

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keithwhor
To run code, certainly! We automatically provision an auto-scaling mutable
development API environment associated with your account when you do so. :)
Happens in seconds.

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ghusbands
You say that as though it's obvious that one has to create an account, even
though many similar services, including CodeSandbox, don't require one for
playing around.

~~~
keithwhor
Backend vs Frontend.

While it is true that Runkit (backend) offers the ability to play around
without being logged in, Francisco and team are also focused on providing an
amazing Node prototyping, learning and debugging environment, so that’s a
necessity. We’re super impressed with their work. (Note to Runkit team: feel
free to jump in.)

Our value prop, however, is that we’re an API platform (Standard Library), and
Code.xyz is a product that enables less technical people (those uncomfortable
with command line tools) the ability to jump in and build within our ecosystem
right away.

APIs are namespaced to your user account as an intentional design decision of
the system. Code.xyz is a product that’s intended to be used in a professional
setting to stand up business APIs (Slack bots, Stripe webhooks) and we’re okay
with that trade off — at least for now!

I’d say if you just wanna play around with an embeddable REPL environment
stick to Runkit. If you want an API you can stand up and run in production
(for whatever purpose) but also want to develop it and collaborate on it in
the browser, then we’re for you! Think of us like Google Docs for API
development, at least that’s our North Star.

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CompuIves
I am so happy that we're on Hacker News!

If you have any questions about how things work in CodeSandbox don't hesitate
to ask me! I'll watch this thread to answer any questions.

~~~
tomduncalf
CodeSandbox is awesome, but I've stopped using it because I am not a fan of
what Prettier does to my code. Any way to completely disable it by default?

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wyze
If you are signed in, click on your name, then Preferences. Under Editor, you
can disable Prettify On Save.

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kovek
This is awesome! I do not see anyone mentioning another product in the same
space: [https://repl.it/](https://repl.it/)

I'm not a user nor related in any way. I just think they have an interesting
story!

~~~
amasad
Thanks for the mention -- we're big fans of Ives and co!

VS Code has really done an incredible job and we're all benefiting from their
work. One thing that we've done recently is add Language Servers on our
containers. So when you boot up a language on Repl.it, say python/java/c++,
we'll start a language server and that gives you kick-ass code intelligence:
autocomplete, click-to-symbol, and some refactoring features:
[https://repl.it/blog/intel](https://repl.it/blog/intel)

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eugeniub
Boy that landing page sure is a battery sucker. I left it open for a couple
minutes and came back to my laptop whirring like crazy.

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donut
Yeah same. What's it doing?

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andrepd
Upon opening the page, my CPU temperature jumped 25 degrees. Also, I can't
figure how anyone can type with an input delay of >150ms without quitting in
frustration in less than 5 minutes.

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arusahni
How does this stack up against StackBlitz [1]?

[1] [http://stackblitz.com/](http://stackblitz.com/)

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coding123
It looks extremely similar, is StackBlitz perhaps copied?

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CompuIves
Hello! Creator of CodeSandbox here!

I don't want to give a comparison of StackBlitz and CodeSandbox, because my
view as one of the creators would be skewed. I want to note though that
CodeSandbox existed before StackBlitz released, I published CodeSandbox in
April ([1] [2]) and StackBlitz released in August [3].

[1] [https://hackernoon.com/codesandbox-an-online-react-
editor-b8...](https://hackernoon.com/codesandbox-an-online-react-
editor-b8945ce095d2)

[2]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14022860](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14022860)

[3] [https://medium.com/@ericsimons/stackblitz-online-vs-code-
ide...](https://medium.com/@ericsimons/stackblitz-online-vs-code-ide-for-
angular-react-7d09348497f4)

~~~
ericmsimons
StackBlitz creator here! We actually had been working on SB for over 6 months
before codesandbox launched. Not sure why Ives omitted that detail considering
he was in this previous thread:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14929228](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14929228)

Great to see CSB making improvements!

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adpirz
Lots of online frontend REPLs, but this one is my new fave, and I've used it
for a few code interviews as well as exploring new ideas quickly. As a React
dev, it's very easy to drop in a new dependency and try it out, and now they
have collaborative code editing as well. All for free, which is amazing. Also
introduced me to prettier which is a fantastic, set-and-forget formatter. [1]

[1]
[https://github.com/prettier/prettier](https://github.com/prettier/prettier)

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reacweb
It is incredible. Thank you very much for it. I have only one problem: I do
not understand the business model. How can you provide such a fantastic tool
for free ?

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ryanashcraft
I absolutely <3 CodeSandbox. I’ve been using CodeSandbox for the past six
months or so and it’s been a game changer for two things: (1) onsite frontend
interviews - no more waiting for npm installs or worrying about node
compatibility and (2) quick create-react-app prototypes - and if I get far
enough, I simply download the source and continue to work locally.

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gitgud
Wow, it's amazing how fast it loaded a full featured editor, compared to
something like Plunkr.

Send my compliments to the Chef!

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dabernathy89
I've really enjoyed using Code Sandbox. I even embed it in the docs for my
open source Vue JS component b/c it shows how to set up the component in a
very real-world environment.

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jjcm
Looks really good - only request I'd have is to allow for .pug in vanilla.
Seems like they have support for it, but it isn't enabled in the vanilla box.

~~~
CompuIves
That's a really good point! I deployed a new update with .pug support in
vanilla, here's a sandbox to play with it:
[https://codesandbox.io/s/mjln1846k8](https://codesandbox.io/s/mjln1846k8).

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syntaxing
Whoa cool. There's a couple of webdev languages I never heard before on it.
This seems like a great site to play with it and learn.

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mattbgates
Definitely a useful tool. Easy on the eyes, thanks for sharing! It'll be nice
to use this tool to learn some React :)

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sajithdilshan
This is one of the best online IDE to quickly set up a React App. Thanks for
the awesome work Ives van Hoorne.

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emilfihlman
The animation has race condition issues btw.

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thisbool32
"almost fully" open source....

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slifin
Looking forward to ReasonML support

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the_arun
Super awesome!

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singularity2001
crashed FF 61

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Dinux
Yet another variant of Visual Studio Code

