Code sharing

[joshnuss]

Allow users to share snippets:

• for one liners via query string: i.e. /mruby-web-irb?cmd=puts 22
• longer programs via gist. i.e. /mruby-web-irb?gist=<gist id>

Open to suggestions

/cc @xxuejie

[xxuejie]

Thanks @joshnuss, really great idea!

re server storage: My suggestion is that we should not tie to any 3rd party service, we just provide a hook like /mruby-web-irb?cmd_url=<url>, and we use ajax to read in whatever they have in the URL and evaluate that. This way people can use pastebin, gists or whatever fancy tools they like.

Another concern I have is what if someone wants to dump their inputs in mruby-web-irb to a snippets? Any thought on this one?

[joshnuss]

Love the gist/pastbin idea!
Imagining a "Share" button that provides the option between gist/one liner. (gonna read up on the gist api)

For the snippets, if they are just local snippets we can use window.history

[xxuejie]

@joshnuss Yep, but the problem with "Share" button is that we have to pick one from gist, pastebin, etc.

Oh man, how I wish we'd have Web Intents available now :)

[joshnuss]

I guess it wasnt "intented" to be.. wawa

Maybe we go gist only for now

[xxuejie]

Yep, gist is a good choice :)

[joshnuss]

query string based sharing is now working

http://joshnuss.github.io/mruby-web-irb/?cmd=window.alert('it works')

[xxuejie]

Nice!

BTW: your code raises a question I want to ask: is it necessary to expose window and global to global namespace in mruby-js so we can use window instead of MrubyJs.window? Personally I don't like this but I wonder if there's huge convenience.

[joshnuss]

True it does pollute a bit, figured it would be more approachable for new users.. do you know of a better way to do it?
currently I'm using Kernel.define_method (not very nice, but works).

Had to do that cause including MrubyJs wouldnt work:

include MrubyJs
window.alert() # wont work

[xxuejie]

I could do that using mruby APIs in C, basically just like what this looks like. But I still think it would be nice if we can add a config for this... Thoughts?

[xxuejie]

For the Ruby code, I think you are doing the right way.

[joshnuss]

what do you think about having a module that exposes the constants

module MrubyJs::Constants
   def window
     MrubyJs.window
   end

   # etc ...

end

and when we want to use it, we just
include MrubyJs::Constants

and the irb will include by default in kernel

[joshnuss]

Also gist is working :D
http://joshnuss.github.io/mruby-web-irb/?gist=7365749

[xxuejie]

@joshnuss Heh, actually I prefer a function like this:

module MrubyJs
   def setup_global
      # define window at global namespace, etc...
   end
end

And we can use:

MrubyJs.setup_global

Because providing a setup function makes more sense to me than including a module, true we can use self.included hook to do setups in a module. But a setup function is more clear to me :)

re gist: Great work! Thanks a lot!

[joshnuss]

Welcome!
and yeah the method approach looks perfect
(any chance u gonna be at rubyconf?)

[xxuejie]

Great, I will add the method this weekend.

re RubyConf: no, I won't be at RubyConf this year, sorry. I've been at RubyKaigi and RubyConf China, maybe I will plan for RubyConf next year.