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Drakso
Drakso

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Your experience with embedded JS code snippets

I am building a simple website with small but useful code examples of how javascript works for people that are new to the language. It is nothing fancy but I ran into the problem of showing lots and lots of code snippets on my page. Since there were many I needed to find the right service that would load a lot of code snippets FAST. I tried JSFiddle, GitHubGist and CodePen. These are my findings:

JSFiddle:

  • Simple and elegant design
  • Nice code color theme
  • takes two-three seconds for loading 10 snippets
  • The link changes depending on the number of times you changed the snippet
  • Nice and spacious UI for creating html, js and css at the same time

GitHubGist:

  • A bit bulky in design but can be edited with a gist-embed library
  • Takes 1 second or less to load 10 snippets
  • Does not have "Result" tab that shows compiled result of the code snippet
  • Multiple files such as JS, CSS, HTML show as multiple snippets
  • A very good and fast updating and tracking of changes system

CodePen:

  • The slowest of the bunch ( for me at least ) 3+ seconds loading
  • Nice way to toggle on or off code and see result
  • Has a nice option of saving the code snippet as a gist
  • Editable without extra effort ( external libraries )
  • Lot of help while typing even if its not vanilla JS

GitHubGist is not the prettiest and I really miss the "Result" button and the multiple screens for multiple documents, but I think I will use it for my project because it is the fastest and I can track and change my snippets easily. People can also contribute by directly sending changes or fixing some mistakes in the code.

I would love to hear your experiences and thoughts on this. Also if you have any idea of a better service that is not mentioned above or a suggestion on how to use the above mentioned services better feel free to share it.

Top comments (5)

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orkon profile image
Alex Rudenko

Have you considered using highlightjs.org/ for your website? It worked quite well for me (and it's easy to combine with Markdown). But I didn't need to execute code snippets and display the results. If you need that, I guess something like JsFiddle or CodePen is the way to go.

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drakso profile image
Drakso

This is a great alternative Alex. Executing code snippets really saves me time by showing an interactive version of the utility I am trying to present, instead of me coding an interactive example. Even tho this library does not support that feature, I really like that it would make the site load almost instantly. I could probably code some of the examples by hand if I really want users to interact with the example. Thanks :)

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artlantis profile image
Oğuz Çelikdemir

Try to Klipse which is available code execution feature.

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drakso profile image
Drakso

It will be hard to showcase manipulation of DOM with this, but I will definitely have this in mind. Unlike all other alternatives, this actually lets the user type in his own code in the example ( CodePen has the option, but you have to pay ). I am impressed!

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callistom profile image
callistorr90

Have you tried stackblitz.com/? Here is a embed example: stackblitz.com/edit/sdk-create-pro...