How can I try a new language or framework without installing it?

Question

With so many languages and frameworks that exist, and with new ones appearing all the time, I don't have the time to download, install, and configure each one to evaluate it. In the past I've run across webapps that allow one to write or paste code into a window, and see the results in realtime in the browser, usually in a tutorial setting.

What are your favorite sandbox sites for a given technology?

Edit: @fretj provided the link to the excellent Google Code Playground (+1 upvote), but I thought that it was just for experimenting with Google's own apps (Search, Maps, Earth, Language, etc). But it turns out that it contains a few hidden gems: In addition to their apps, you can try out the many Javascript libraries that they host including jQuery, jQuery UI, MooTools, Dojo, and Prototype Scriptaculous.

They're all hidden under the Libraries category in the "Pick an API" box. I overlooked the category because I thought it was for an app called Google Libraries. There's also a Javascript category for Javascript itself.

Answer 1

W3Schools.com includes mini-sandboxes (examples) in many lessons of their tutorials. Each example is used to illustrate that particular lesson, but you can add to or change the code to use it as a sandbox. There are examples for Javascript, DOM scripting, Ajax, SQL, ADO, ASP and ASP.NET.

JS Bin is a sandbox for Javascript and CSS testing, with built in support for many scripting libraries, including jQuery, script.aculo.us, YUI, MooTools and dojo. So you can try out example code without downloading and installing each of the libraries. In addition it allows you to save your code snippets with a unique URL (like a pastebin), and allows collaborative editing of each snippet.

Try Ruby is an very basic interactive tutorial that introduces Ruby to the complete novice. It's done in a serial fashion, so you have to go from start to finish in one go, but it doesn't take long. [Try Ruby was taken down on Aug 19 by its owner _why. Many people hope that his content will return. Why's (poignant) Guide to Ruby has HTML and PDF mirrors.]

OpenSourceCMS houses dozens of open source software packages and allows you to try out both the front end and the administrative backend functions of the most popular portals, blogs, image galleries, and forums. You have full admin rights and can change any of the content on each of the packages, and then see the results of those changes from the user's perspective.

JSONLint is an online JSON validator with syntax checking that isn't overly complicated, but works as advertised.

For regular expressions try Rubular built with Ruby, RegExPal built in Javascript, or RegExr, which is very helpful for regex beginners because it has code sense built in.

Codepad is a pastebin with a twist: it has a interpreter/compiler built in for 13 languages, including C, C++, Haskell, Scheme, Python, and PHP. So you can not only use it to share code, but also to run or test code when you're away from your programming environment (think boring but mandatory meeting or long commute on mass transit, etc.)

Answer 2

eXist-db has a sandbox that is very helpful for playing with XQuery/XPath.

Answer 3

You can also try Heroku for Ruby on Rails, and AppJet for server-side JavaScript.

Slightly off-topic, but I highly recommend the "Why's Poignant Guide to Ruby" from the same guy who developed the "Try Ruby" site - you won't believe how fast and easy it's to learn Ruby, aided by cartoons!

Answer 4

Lua has a Live demo on its site. Also show sandbox techniques...

Answer 5

Not sure if it totally fits this question, but this is a nice playground I've found recently:

Google AJAX APIs Playground