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Version: Next

Playground (status)

A live browser Playground is intentionally deferred for this release. The current documentation site is static and hosted on GitHub Pages, while running G# code requires gsc to parse, bind, and either interpret code in a .NET process or compile it to a managed assembly.

Why it is deferred​

The Go Playground is backed by a separate sandbox service that compiles and runs programs with CPU, memory, network, filesystem, and time limits. G# needs the same class of backend. GitHub Pages can serve HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and static assets, but it cannot run gsc, start isolated .NET processes, enforce resource limits, or clean up execution environments.

A safe public G# Playground would need at least:

  • process or container isolation for every run;
  • CPU, memory, wall-clock, stdout/stderr, network, and filesystem limits;
  • deterministic cleanup after each request;
  • rate limiting and abuse monitoring;
  • a deployment target separate from GitHub Pages;
  • a strategy for diagnostics, runtime output, and possibly snippet sharing.

Without that sandbox, accepting arbitrary source code from the public internet would be unsafe.

Possible future architecture​

A future Playground could keep the documentation site static and add an isolated backend service.

Browser editor on GitHub Pages → HTTPS API → sandboxed .NET worker → gsc → stdout/stderr/diagnostics

One practical shape would be:

  1. A static React or Docusaurus frontend embedded in the docs site.
  2. A separately hosted API, for example on Azure Container Apps, Fly.io, or another container platform.
  3. Per-request workers that invoke gsc in interpreter mode or emit mode inside a locked-down container.
  4. Strict resource budgets and no ambient network or filesystem access from the user program.
  5. Optional snippet sharing through encoded URLs or a small persistent store.

What to use now​

Use the local toolchain and the static Tour while the live Playground is deferred:

  • install G# locally with the installation guide;
  • work through the Tour;
  • run examples with dotnet run for .gsproj projects or gsc for direct compiler experiments.
dotnet new install Gsharp.Templates
dotnet new gsharp-console -n MyApp
cd MyApp
dotnet run

The goal is to add browser execution later without compromising user safety or repository hosting simplicity.