SnapCode - a real Java IDE for the Web

Overview

SnapCode is a full-featured Java IDE that runs in the browser. It is free, modern, powerful, tailored for education and is the fastest and easiest way to start writing and sharing Java code.

SnapCode offers modern coding features, support for Java REPL (Read-Eval-Print-Loop), support for working with projects in the cloud and full-featured library support for UI, graphics, charting, 3D and more. The full list of compelling advantages includes:

• Runs in any modern browser (click to run)
• Runs on all major desktops (click to download)
• REPL coding - just start coding (no class/main-method boilerplate needed)
• REPL style output (shows stacked output as rich interactive views)
• Support for working in the cloud and with GitHub
• Support for sharing running apps/code and embedding in HTML
• Block coding support
• Integrated UI builder
• Integrated help system
• Project level search (strings or symbols, references and declarations)
• Integrated developer tools

Modern IDE Features

SnapCode has everything you expect from a modern IDE to make writing code fast and easy:

• Syntax highlighting
• Code completion (receiving class/type aware)
• Matching symbol highlighting
• Balanced character pair handling for parens/brackets
• Inline as-you-type warnings and errors
• One click jump to symbol declaration, super declarations, JavaDocs and source
• Editor shows the AST hierarchy of selected symbol

Java REPL (Read-Eval-Print-Loop)

SnapCode allows you to avoid boilerplate code and evaluates code snippets as you type for instant feedback.

• Implicit Class and main method declarations - just start typing code
• Variable type 'var' for implicit variable type declaration
• Statement terminators (semi-colons) are optional
• Direct access to common System methods without preamble (print(), println(), etc.)

Java REPL support is optional - full Java is supported, and can be auto-generated, for when code needs to be portable and compliant.

Full Featured Library Support

SnapCode is built using the SnapKit and SnapCharts libraries giving access to advanced application features.

• Complete UI programming with SnapKit
  • Label, Button, Slider, TextField
  • ListView, TableView, TreeView, TabView, Browser
  • SplitView, ScrollView, DrawerView
  • Vector graphics shapes, arbitrary transforms, image effects, gradients, textures
  • 3D library support with OpenGL/WebGL (CameraView, VertexArray, Scene, Shape3D, Texture)
  • UI Animation to make things sizzle, slide, jiggle and bounce
• Complete charting support with SnapCharts
  • Bar, Pie
  • Scatter, Area, Line
  • Contour, Polar Contour, Contour 3D
  • Log Axes, Multi-Y axes
  • Pan, Zoom, Mouse-Over labels

Integrated UI Builder

Because the best line of code is the one you don't have to write, UI is almost always created using the with the integrated UI builder and stored in simple XML files ('.snp' files). Simply create/save a .snp file with the same name as your custom controller class, and the default controller.createUI() method will load it.

Block Coding

Learn the basic concepts of coding in a visual way, by drag and drop. (This feature is still in preview).

Interactive Help System

SnapCode also has an integrated help system to quickly find templates for almost any kind of code.

Coming Soon

Many features are on the immediate roadmap:

• Visual debugger in browser version
• Support for Java 11 and beyond
• Puzzle block coding
• Github support

Technology

This project is built with the following tools:

• SnapCode - Source for SnapCode (Github)
• SnapKit - Java UI Kit (Github)
• SnapCharts - Java charting library (Github)
• CheerpJ - A Java JVM in the browser