JS Bin is a tiny little webapp that lets people share bits of code for mutual debugging. The sweet spot is for swapping code on support forums. I found a bug in Prototype, for example, and JS Bin let me include a link to running code, quickly:

I’ve put up a test page that shows how this bug will throw errors when using Position.clone():

http://jsbin.com/ulebe/

Use http://jsbin.com/ulebe/edit to modify the code, yourself. The two divs are superimposed in FF, but IE throws the error “’style’ is null or not an object.”

The edit button link anyone play with the code themselves, right away. Major libraries can be included automatically, as I did in that example. The major downside is that code is kept around for only three months, if it’s not visited. It makes me a little nervous about placing it on support threads, where someone might come across a link a year or more after I’ve posted it. In any case, the HTML output that’s generated can be copied to your own server, so the tool is still useful if you need create something more permanent.

Related Posts:

• “Learning Advanced Javascript” (September, 2008)
• Web 2.0 Notes: Brian Dillard on Hacking the Browser (April, 2008)
• Prototype 1.6.0 Release Candidate (August, 2007)
• FIle Upload Madness (June, 2007)
• Web 2.0 Notes: Optimizing the Frontend (April, 2008)

This entry was posted on Friday, October 10th, 2008 at 2:10 pm and is filed under coding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.