After V first release, Playground was located at vlang.io/play (archive.org link, August, 25, 2019), it was simple, with several examples.
The next version of playground was already located at play.vlang.io (archive.org link, September, 22, 2021). In this version, user can change the theme, make the code smaller or larger.
This playground returned to online October, 21 2022.
It had problems, from a slow and inconvenient editor to a look I did not like. In two days I updated appearance, improved editor, and on October 25, 2022, the new playground was launched.
Since then, playground has not changed much, and its version on play.vlang.io remained almost the same as it was after my redesign.
At some moment, playground was built under WASM, allowing the code to run directly in the browser without having to send it to the server. It’s still opening, but it’s not working for me. It can be found at v-wasm.vercel.app.
Embeddable playground
Back in early 2023, I had the idea to make an embedded playground that could easily be integrated into any site, such as documentation or blog.
This is a separate project that can be found on GitHub: vlang-association/playground-component
You could already see it in action in the documentation or blog:
fn main() {
println('Hello, playground!')
println('Try to change the code and run it again!')
}Thanks to it, we made our blog and documentation interactive!
New Playground
In parallel with the creation of VOSCA, we started the process of transferring playground to our site.
We have rewritten all backend, improved language support in the editor, added the ability to view generated C code, as well as the ability to pass the parameters of compilation and program launch. Playground can now work with base64 encoded code and GitHub Gists code. The new playground also now can check the output of the program to match the output that was passed as the expected output. This is a useful feature for creating interactive lessons.
We also changed the look to better match the VOSCA style.
The new playground also updates the V version every 6 hours to always use the latest version of the language.
The new version is also better optimized for mobile devices, allowing you to use playground on your phone.
Playground now has documentation where we collected all the information about it.
Show generated C code
The main feature of the new playground is the ability to view generated C code. In this mode, the editor window opens to the right where you can view the generated C code.
By clicking on the lines in the V code editor, the corresponding line will be highlighted in the C code editor. You can learn more about this feature in documentation.
Afterword
We hope that the new playground will be useful for anyone who wants to try V or just practice it. The ability to see generated C code will make finding some bugs in code generation much easier!
If you have any suggestions for improving playground, we will be glad to hear about them here in the comments, in issues on GitHub or in Discord.