Mozilla Thimble

[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

[jordanlev]

The other big difference is that with Thimble, you have a little file system for multiple html/css/js files. (JSBin/JSFiddle/CodePen etc only give you one of each within a workspace).

This makes it a really great way to teach basic web design/developed for an entire site (as opposed to individual components which I think CodePen etc excel at).

[djsumdog]

It looks like it's geared more for a learning or simple content tool, more so than JSFiddle (which feels more like a pastebin)

[inanutshellus]

One feature of JSFiddle I miss instantly is the ability to pull in a web framework via a dropdown. A reasonable counter-argument is that they're available as Google-hosted libraries[1], but you have to go hunt'm up yourself.

  [1]: https://developers.google.com/speed/libraries/

[kibaffo33]

The integrated tutorials / prompts are great. Thanks for the share.

[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

Here's a canvas drawing sample: 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?

[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

(Disclaimer: third party contributor of Brackets)

[lawpoop]

I made a thing:

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...

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.

[wyclif]

I bookmarked it. Please keep adding to it. You could make it the best bash cheat sheet on the web, if you steal from all the other ones out there. It needs a lot more shortcuts.

[TheRealPomax]

That's awesome!

[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/

[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.

[superpope99]

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

[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/

[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.

[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) 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...

[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.

[mook]

It looks like it _did_ live on Webmaker; https://thimble.webmaker.org/ redirects to this one.

It would be nice if somebody could mention what changed on Thimble for this to come up again. (It could be that somebody who didn't know about it before just found it, which is cool too.)

[keithnz]

when you sign up you get an email saying "Welcome to Mozilla Webmaker! Thank you for joining us to discover, create and share the Web. I'm looking forward to seeing what you create."

[rascul]

It does seem to use a webmaker.org login

[_1]

This one lets you do a mobile view.

[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?

[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

[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.

[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

[the_trapper]

http://openlivewriter.org/

[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?

[orliesaurus]

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

[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.

[djstein]

thought this was the codepen beta..

[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.