- CodePen 2.0 Release Thoughts
Online code sandbox site CodePen recently released a major update: CodePen 2.0.
I use CodePen a fairly reasonable amount. I often access CodePen demos embedded in articles, I’ll spin up CodePen for my own experiments, and I’ll use it to share little examples and bits of code. In articles I’ll embed CodePen demos where applicable.
Almost everything I do on CodePen is extremely simple. Anything more complex, and it is just not something I’d go to CodePen for. I’d sooner release it as a Git repository or place it on my tools site. As such, the changes 2.0 have brought aren’t really to my benefit and complicate my existing usage.
However, there might be some rare cases for me where I need to show multiple files or a framework in a demo for an article, though generally in-article demos are best kept extremely simple so the added complexity is of little benefit. Perhaps it could also be useful for demonstrating frameworks or libraries, though that was mostly possible before too – it is just more streamlined now.
It certainly will be brilliant for people just wanting to learn to create websites. Previously I’ve had to coach people through creating a HTML file, opening it in their browser, inputting text formatting files, et cetera, but CodePen 2.0 will provide essentially a pre-configured development environment complete with hosting capabilities.
Overall, it is a solid update that makes CodePen much more versatile. It isn’t an update for me, but it is an update that isn’t hostile against me and is beneficial for many others. The CodePen team are lovely folks, and just to see a product make meaningful improvements rather than hostile regressions is very much welcome.
Thankfully, the old editor can be accessed at https://codepen.io/pen, and the new editor can be configured to function like the old editor using the Classic Block and the Minimal UI option.