Collaborative Coding Interfaces on the Web

The recent developments in Web technologies, including full‐stack reactive application frameworks, peer‐to‐peer communication and client‐side audiovisual APIs have introduced the possibility of creative collaboration in a number of contexts. Such technologies have the potential to transform the way Internet users interact with code. This paper introduces a theoretical and technical methodology for developing collaborative coding interfaces as web applications, tackling the issues of interactive rendering, user‐platform interaction and collaboration. A number of existing interactive programming environments are reviewed, followed by a technical description and evaluation of CodeCircle, a collaborative coding web platform developed at Goldsmiths, University of London.