blog post about scastie release

with revision by Heather Miller <heather.miller@epfl.ch>

Author: MasseGuillaume

blog/_posts/2017-02-20-introducing-scastie.md

@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ We also enable a worksheet mode, which feels much like a worksheet in an IDE. Th
 ## What's next?
 
 * Improve the sharing model. For example, we could use a similar approach as gist or JS Fiddle where you can fork and edit code snippets.
-* Support Scala.js and Scala-Native. Vote on which one you'd like to see first! ([Vote for Scala.js](https://github.com/scalacenter/scastie/issues/38) or [vote for Scala Native](https://github.com/scalacenter/scastie/issues/40))
+* Support Scala.js and Scala-Native. Vote on which one you'd like to see first! ([Vote for Scala.js](https://github.com/scalacenter/scastie/issues/38) or [vote for Scala Native](https://github.com/scalacenter/scastie/issues/50))
 * Make it possible to embed Scastie in your project's documentation.
 
 ## Want to try it?

blog/_posts/2017-05-19-scastie.md

@@ -0,0 +1,142 @@
+---
+layout: blog
+post-type: blog
+by: Guillaume Massé
+title: Scastie is out of beta and available to everybody!
+---
+
+The Scala Center team is extremely happy to announce that
+[Scastie](https://scastie.scala-lang.org) is out of beta! That means anyone can
+use Scala in the browser over at
+[scastie.scala-lang.org](https://scastie.scala-lang.org)!
+
+## What is Scastie?
+
+**Scastie is... Scala + sbt in your browser!**. You can:
+
+- use any version of Scala (scalac), or even alternate backends such as Dotty, Scala.js, Scala Native, and Typelevel Scala.
+- use any library published on Maven.
+- save and share Scala programs/builds with anybody
+
+This is all possible because Scastie is based on sbt, allowing us to support newer
+Scala versions and resolve library dependencies on Maven.
+
+Want to see what Scastie can do? Check out our [ray tracer demo using Scala.js on Scastie](https://scastie.scala-lang.org/9ZgBIUCQQ6u8bRaJFLI0Yg) below!
+
+<a href="/resources/img/blog/scastie/scastie2.png" target="_blank">
+  <img alt="scastie screenshot"
+       src="/resources/img/blog/scastie/scastie2.png">
+</a>
+
+
+## How does Scastie work?
+
+When a user evaluates their code, the browser sends all its input to our server.
+We run your code in an isolated Java Virtual Machine on our servers. We
+integrated a scaladex interface to allow you to search the Scala ecosystem and
+include any published Scala library in your project. You don’t need to remember
+what the latest version number of a specific library is anymore!
+
+The output will be streamed back to the user. A specific protocol will allow the
+client to interpret different events such as compiler errors, runtime
+exceptions, instrumentation, console output, etc.
+
+We also enable a worksheet mode, which feels much like a worksheet in an IDE.
+This lets a user write code as top-level expressions, without having to put code
+inside of a class or object with a main method. Worksheet mode gives you two
+ways to interleave your results; on the one hand, when an expression is
+evaluated, you can see the value and type of the evaluated expression to the
+right of the code that you wrote. On the other hand, worksheet mode also makes
+it possible to do a kind of literate programming; that is, you may interleave
+code and HTML blocks much like in notebook environments such as iPython
+notebooks.
+
+## New features
+
+So, what's new since we released our original beta a couple of months ago? Other
+than a stabler Scastie with fewer bugs, we have a brand new UI, support for
+sharing snippets, and support for Scala.js!
+
+### New UI
+
+We collaborated with <a href="https://www.47deg.com/" target="_blank">47Deg</a> to provide a fresh UI.
+
+<a href="/resources/img/blog/scastie/newui.png" target="_blank">
+  <img alt="scastie screenshot"
+       src="/resources/img/blog/scastie/newui.png">
+</a>
+
+### Sharing
+
+The main purpose of Scastie is to help people learn and communicating with code
+examples.
+
+In the last few months, we've worked hard to provide a new sharing model. Now
+it's possible to save, fork, and update snippets! Just like JSFiddle, you can
+now fork an existing snippet, change it however you like, and then login with
+GitHub to save it!
+
+When logged in through GitHub, you can now create new snippets or edit existing
+ones.
+
+### Scala.js
+
+Since the intial release of our beta, we also added support for Scala.js! In Scala.js mode, once your code is compiled, your snippet is run in your browser.
+
+HTML DOM elements referred in your code such as images appears in the editor for convenience. This feature is illustrated in this example: [such doge!](https://scastie.scala-lang.org/MasseGuillaume/KuKtYXx1SpW7gu5HUTmPSA/1).
+
+Since the execution environment is your browser, you can set breakpoints in your
+javascript inspector. Source mapping is enabled and allowing you to step into
+your Scala code.
+
+<a href="/resources/img/blog/scastie/Scala-js-debug.png" target="_blank">
+  <img alt="scastie screenshot"
+       src="/resources/img/blog/scastie/Scala-js-debug.png">
+</a>
+
+You can try it out yourself: [ray tracer](https://scastie.scala-lang.org/9ZgBIUCQQ6u8bRaJFLI0Yg)
+([Li Haoyi](https://github.com/lihaoyi) is the author of this demo)
+
+## What's next
+
+### Google Summer of Code
+
+Dmitrii Petukhov was accepted as a Google Summer of Code student to work on
+[Auto-completion and type
+information](https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/organizations/4568241046290432/#5494264097144832).
+Rory Graves, an ENSIME contributor, is the mentor for this project. ENSIME is an
+IDE server. It can power text editors such as vim an eclipse with IDE
+functionnalities such as autocompletion.
+
+### Scala Center's Plan
+
+The Scala Center will continue the development of Scastie. We want to improve
+the integration with Scala projects. We will add an embedded mode were you can
+include Scastie in your documentation. We also want to use existing data sources
+such as StackOverflow or GitHub to have more code examples.
+
+## Talk to us!
+
+Thoughts or opinions about Scastie? Join us over on [Scala Contributors](
+https://contributors.scala-lang.org/t/introducing-scastie-an-interactive-playground-for-scala/494)
+to contribute to the discussion.
+
+## Brought to you by
+
+Scastie is an original idea from Aleh Aleshka ([OlegYch](https://github.com/OlegYch/)).
+
+<div>
+  <a href="https://scala.epfl.ch/" target="_blank" style="border:none;">
+    <img alt="scalacenter logo"
+         style="padding: 15px; height: 60px"
+         src="/resources/img/blog/scalacenter/scala-center-swirl.png">
+  </a>
+  Scala Center is covering the hosting cost and the engineering work.
+
+  <a href="https://www.47deg.com/" target="_blank" style="border:none">
+    <img alt="47deg logo"
+         style="padding: 15px; height: 60px;"
+         src="/resources/img/blog/scalacenter/47deg-logo.png">
+  </a>
+  47Deg worked on the UI design.
+</div>