As web developers, we get to interact with new tools almost every day. It can be a really bothersome process to start using a new js library or framework, you are never sure how much it would take you to fully understand what is going on.
Every person has his own way dealing with this kind of situation. After I had my own share of trying new things and learned a lot on the way, I came to a conclusion am sure many came to it as well, when you want to study something new it’s always good to isolate it. This way you can focus on your primary objective and that is getting to know the features and abilities of this library you want to integrate into your website or app.
That’s when Codepen get’s into the picture. It provides you with everything you need to start working on almost any js library out there. Some of what Codepen has to offer:
- It Provides you with an easy way to insert a good deal of styling with CSS and CSS Preprocessors like LESS and SASS.
- In Codepen you can import libraries manually or you can use whatever Codepen has to offer, which includes a good deal of popular frameworks if what you are trying to learn is a specific feature or a framework plugin.
- Codepen’s editor is actually easy to use, with different layout options, preview pane and it can even tidy you messy code ;).
- Codepen can be a good place to show off your skills and maybe even publish your work. Another good use for this cloud based IDE, is that you will have access to everything you do everywhere.
- One last thing to mention is one of Codepen’s new features and that is projects. Yes, you can have a place where you can manage a whole app and not only little bits of codes. Including file structure management, the ability to handle big apps in a friendly enviroment and you can use this option to host different boilerplates or templates you use often during your day.
To summarize things I would say Codepen has done a really good job providing us with an environment not only good for starting things but also to maintain our work and make us more efficient.
by Yousef Shamshoum
