Hi HN!
Thanks for your attention to my post.<p>It was a big challenge to run most of Node.js packages in browser, fast moreover. Virtual File system, resolve import/export. I got cold many times, depressions, burned out, yet still alive and finished it.<p>Many guys helped me with an advice. Many users give a lot of positive feedback.
There are 200,000 monthly unique users.<p>I work full time now because of the freemium business model. To be honest - I am happy after many years of hard work.
Great job!<p>I can sort of relate. I worked on an infrastructure system, almost entirely alone, for ten years, before it was finally taken over by a capable team, and I was able to step away, and it took on a life of its own. It is now a worldwide standard, used daily, by thousands.<p>I say “sort of,” because it was never something I planned to make money on. It filled a need. Also, and it’s a long story, I had to weather a fairly hefty level of abuse during that time. The demographics of the target user base were … <i>challenging</i>.<p>It’s all good, now.<p>One thing all that time brought me, was a <i>really</i> high-Quality product. Lots of time to squash bugs, and iterate the UX.
Nice project. I can relate in that I have my own personal hobby project that I have been working on for years and I would like to get many more users trying it out.<p>Mine is a new kind of data management system that can manage unstructured, structured, and semi-structured data. Think of it as a file system, database, and NoSql system all rolled into one. It is currently in open beta at <a href="https://didgets.com/" rel="nofollow">https://didgets.com/</a><p>You say you have 'finished it'. Software is never finished, but if you have checked off all the feature items from your design, then close enough for now. With my project, the TODO list is still extremely long. It can do many things already, but I seem to put two more items on the list every time I cross one off.<p>It seems that every solo, multi-year project goes through the phases you describe (burn out, depression, questioning your sanity, etc.) and mine is no exception. It still feels very self-fulfilling every time I get a major piece working or I blow away the alternative in a speed test.
OP, I've been working on a very similar thing for some years now, too. I could write a book about this at this point, but I will avoid gushing here.<p>Please let me share some pain.<p>Many developers/companies make this thing and none of them really know how to (or can) share. I'm happy to share my list.<p>The end result, as I see it, is a fragmented mess of either partially completed or fully completed and walled (and/or poorly modularized) software.<p>Take for example VS Code's tree view. Can a developer with a need for an explorer view just use VS Code's tree module? Not hardly. Go reinvent.<p>Contrast that with CodeMirror. If you look, you will see CodeMirror everywhere. This software truly empowers devs and it has resulted in pure awesomeness.<p>There's no shame in not open sourcing what you've created, I'm assuming you haven't. And I can't say anything about how you have modularized your components.<p>But it pains me that the next dev who gets an idea like yours will either give up or spend 6 years struggling to create the same thing (except the CodeMirror part).<p>Worse, Microsoft can afford to struggle and or throw people/money at this. They can pay people to work full time. They can give away their editor(and more) for free. That's a win from user's POV.<p>Are you aware that VS Code runs on GitHub and does the majority of this kind of thing? I think they could completely shut down all sandboxes or similar kinds of software from a financial perspective.<p>I said I wouldn't write a book.<p>Anyways, I strongly appreciate what you have done. It looks great.<p>I wish we lived in a world where we could work on the same team building this kind of thing.<p>My best wishes to you on getting paid to do it full time.
Great project! Love the focus on speed as well compared to other web IDE competitors out there.<p>However, that carefree plan 8 lines of code thing seems ridiculous, no? Most of the templates are already longer than 8 lines.. I think if you just removed many of the other "nice-to-have" features like publishing, npm packages, etc. but made it unlimited lines of code / time per day, the free plan would be much more compelling!<p>Also i agree with the other commentors that the logos on the homepage are a bit off-putting. I'd prefix it with "Used by engineers at...", as others have suggested as well.<p>All in all great job though!
This is actually incredible! The live view updates so fast. There more I look at this the more amazed I am. There's even a feature to publish the page with a custom domain? And there's versioning included. Great job!
Impressive work!<p>> I work full time now because of the freemium business model.<p>Not sure, if i understand correctly. You're working fulltime on this project, because the freemium model earns enough to make you a living?
Nice work! I wish I would have come across this sooner or I might not have started building <a href="https://webden.dev" rel="nofollow">https://webden.dev</a> for the past year haha. PLAYCODE is definitely more robust as far as features (courses, virtual file system, pro version, users, node.js, transpiled projects, etc) but it's cool to see your big focus on speed. The rest of the ecosystem felt so heavy and bloated when I originally started looking.<p>Also, thanks for sharing your story! Very inspiring!
Does anyone have experience with the courses?<p>I'm trying to recommend material for learning to a friend and this looks like a great way to learn and see if there is interest without bogging someone down with environment configuration.<p>I'd love to hear people's experiences.
I’m amazed that you were single-handedly able to build such a complex utility working solo in your free-time. I’m impressed with all the features you’ve added and that the pro version only costs $4.99/mo. I hope you took notes about the progression of the project, as it would be an interesting story to tell one day on a blog or as a presentation.
This is very impressive! I also admire that you stayed working on it for 6 years!<p>Here's a quote I stumbled upon just earlier today: "Genius is eternal patience". I think it applies here too.<p>Would be great to read a blog post about your journey with ups and downs. Do you plan to write something like that at some point?
I wish you had a blog detailing your journey! Perhaps I missed it - but would love to learn more about what got you into the project and how you kept going!
@ianberdin, there's a link to "Sign up." But it doesn't give a good indication of what signing up does. Does it give me access to additional features? Does it sign me up for marketing emails? Normally at the sign-up stage, users are presented with a Terms of Service link or something else that gives further details, but it looks like you only present this information after the user has entered their info. Would you consider adding something like this up-front so I know what I'm actually signing up for BEFORE I enter my info?
If I were to offer some feedback, the English on the homepage needs some tightening up. There's some bad grammar in there. That would definitely make it look a bit more professional :-)
wow this is bult by a single man? I am an avid user of this site. I thought it is a VC backed product or something. Neat work. Thanks for building this.<p>It used to be free without any time limitation. But now it only allows 30 minutes of free usage per day. Is this model actually working?
One reason for the love part of my love-hate relationship with JS is its low barrier to get from 0 to productive thanks to tools like this(and the console in the browser dev tools).<p>JS actually has a lot of buffer until you hit the bloat.
I can't tell from the landing page, what are the limitations of the free version / what do you get for subscribing? I always want to know this before I invest my time in anything.
If I can offer one minor criticism when i see every major tech company listed as your users, I instantly get a sense of a distrust as people do this to inflate the legitimacy and popularity of their service. Why should we trust the statement that all these companies are using your product? I think it’s disingenuous to suggest that a lone employee uses it or even a collection without an actual commitment from those companies. Imagine if every company that ever had traffic from a Google IP put this on their homepage. I could add it to my blog.
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