Checking out StackBlitz Web Containers

StackBlitz.md

StackBlitz - Introducing WebContainers: Run Node.js natively in your browser

Good Things

• Really easy to start up a new project and play around with it locally (like in CodeSandbox, but supports Node.js as well).
  • Turns out CodeSandbox have an experimental support for Node.js projects as well 😳 I don't know if they run it locally or remotely, and you can't clone and existing Node repo and run it.
• Can connect to any repo on GitHub and play around with the code (if the Node.js version matches):
  • If it's my repo, I can directly commit to it. That's actually nice, cause it could be a very fast workflow for quick changes.
• Can run on a Tablet or Chromebook.

Issues

• The IDE is not a full blown VS Code, even after installing as PWA:
  • Settings are just a JSON file, no access to the keymap, can't install extensions, can't search in the terminal), but maybe they'll add those later.
  • In CodeSandbox it much better, btw.
• Didn't manage to get the shareable link of a Next.js project output to work (only the code window).
• Not easy to start a new project from a GitHub repo (have to create a project from a starter and only then connect to a repo).
• Couldn't find how to change the Node.js version and can't install global packages, so connecting an existing project with an older version of Node doesn't work.
• The Terminal is not a full Linux terminal, only a few commands are supported (see cd /bin and cd /usr/bin/).
  • In CodeSandbox it's a full instance.

Conclusion

• Has a long way to go, compared to CodeSandbox.
• Ideally CodeSandbox would add something like this in the future and it'll be groovy.