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What is this?

Binoculars to Binomials is a code platform for making and sharing web projects about birds and data. It's part of the Binoculars to Binomials community run by Jer Thorp. Every project you make here is a live website with its own URL — you write the code, and it runs right in your browser.

Getting an account

Sign up from the home page using GitHub or another supported auth provider. Pick a username, choose your login method, and submit. Accounts start out disabled — once you're part of the BtB community (or reach out to Jer), your account will be enabled and you can start making projects.

The editor

The editor has three columns:

• Left — file tree. All the files in your project. Click a file to open it. You can add, rename, and delete files using the buttons that appear when you hover over the file tree.
• Middle — code editor. Write your code here. Files open as tabs at the top. You can drag tabs to reorder them. Press Tab to indent.
• Right — live preview. A live view of your running project. It updates as your project restarts. Use new tab to open your project as a full page in its own browser tab.

You can drag the dividers between columns to resize them.

Toolbar buttons

• home — go back to the main page.
• remix — make your own copy of this project to edit.
• settings — change your project name, description, and run script.
• 💾 download — download the whole project as a .zip file.
• 🤩 format — auto-format your code to make it tidy.
• 🔄 rewind — step back through the history of your project, file by file.
• view logs — see the output and error logs from your running project.
• restart — restart your project's server container.
• pause / new tab — pause auto-reload, or open the preview in its own tab.

Starter projects

You don't have to start from scratch. The home page lists starter projects you can remix:

• Single page — a basic HTML, CSS, and JavaScript website.
• Node.js / Express — a simple server-side web app.
• Web graphics — an interactive graphics canvas you can code in JS.
• Empty project — a blank slate with Node.js and Python preinstalled.

To remix any project, click remix in the toolbar while viewing it. A copy will appear in your account.

Sharing your work

Every project has a public URL — you can find the link at the bottom of its project card on the home page, or open the preview in a new tab. All code on this platform is open source: anyone can view and remix your projects.

Questions or problems?

Reach out to Jer on Bluesky.