codepad.org – execute and share code snippets online

While computer programs are usually plain text they require quite a bit of paraphernalia to run (unless they are compiled and even then for some programming languages). That makes it inconvenient to test code snippet if you (or recipient you are communicating with) don’t have environment set up.

codepad builds on an idea of sharing code snippets online and complements snippets with results of their execution.

What it does

Site is very simple to use – you have text input for code and choice of languages (C,C++,PHP and more plus plain text). When you submit your snippet you are forwarded to generated page with it and execution results.

URL for page (short and randomly generated) is to be shared with whom you want to.

Strong features

Code execution is obviously very valuable feature here. In case you don’t need it it can be optionally disabled for snippet.

By default snippets are public and appear in list of recent submissions. You can check for submission to be private which will hide it from recent and report as non-indexable to search engines.

You can fork snippets (edit posted code and save it into a new snippet) and download code as file (web tends to mess up special symbols and such so very useful).

With optional registration you can maintain project pages that act as collections of snippets.

Downsides

Experience is very polished, the only thing I don’t see is information on how long data is retained and if it can be removed on demand.

Overall

One of those services that are simple and useful to the point of being magical. Perfect solution to quickly share small amounts of code.

Link http://codepad.org/