The ever-increasing sophistication of coding tools coupled with more powerful hardware makes “live editing” a reality in scenarios that weren’t possible ten, or even five years ago. Web development is about as live as it gets and we still have yet to reach the limits of software for this stuff. Take the newly released “Quokka”, which provides JavaScript coders with another option for fast experimentation… and it doesn’t hurt that it’s named after the Australia’s most adorable marsupial.
As developer Artem Govorov explains, Quokka, a free, “live scratchpad” add-in for Visual Studio Code, is aimed at coders who want to quickly try things out without leaving the comfort of their IDE:
Sometimes, you just need some isolated space for a small prototype that may end up being a foundation for a great invention. Sometimes you keep forgetting how a certain library function works, so just want to call it and inspect the output. Sometimes you want a playground to experiment with a new language feature or framework, to learn it or to teach it to others.
The animated GIF below does a good job of illustrating Quokka’s benefits.
Although VS Code is the only supported environment, Govorov says that extensions for other IDEs are planned. You can check it out on GitHub or hit up the Visual Studio Marketplace to grab the add-on.
Introducing Quokka – The Live Scratchpad for JavaScript [Medium]
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