For Developers

For Developers: Why Use Motoko Playground?

The Motoko programming language has been specially designed for use on the IC network, providing more flexibility than any other language.

Specifically designed to support the unique features of the IC, Motoko is designed to provide a familiar yet robust development environment for those that wish to build on the network.

The Motoko language, the compiler, documentation, and other forms of tooling are completely open source, and contributions are welcome from the community in true web3 spirit.

A Learning and Productivity Resource

As the Motoko language is constantly improving and updating, developers need to remain current with any changes that may have been made.

The Motoko Playground app, accessible on the IC homepage, strives to make learning Motoko more straightforward by providing a modular interface for developers to interact with. By making it easier to learn Motoko, the app seeks to help developers keep abreast of changes and updates.

An IDE native to the IC, Motoko Playground, has been created to improve the onboarding process for developers. Motoko Playground allows users to build and deploy canister smart contracts directly within the web browser, much like the Remix IDE does on the Ethereum blockchain.

The application means that developers do not need to download the DFINITY Canister SDK or set up a wallet in order to get started creating and deploying canister smart contracts on the IC. Developers are empowered to get started coding out their ideas with minimal fuss. Tutorials and packages are freely available within the Motoko Playground IDE and allow builders to learn the Motoko programming language as they go.

Tutorials provide several boilerplate projects that developers can load up into the IDE to get started, which can then be modified and tinkered with before deployment. These tutorials are a fantastic sandbox environment for developers to learn and become more familiar with the Motoko programming language.

While the IDE has stock features such as tutorials, it is also possible for developers to load up their own files and canisters into the IDE. This import feature affords developers full flexibility when using the application and allows for a number of different development scenarios to be carried out.

A Useful Tool for Developers

While Motoko Playground won't make you a rockstar developer alone, it is an extremely useful tool for better understanding the Motoko programming language and the IC blockchain.

While the Motoko language is quite young and relatively new to everyone, it helps to utilize every possible resource to understand the language more quickly.

Developers that take the time to understand Motoko (and Rust) will find themselves better equipped to create great dApps on the IC network.

For this reason, it is well worth checking out the IC homepage and researching all of the great learning resources available to the developer community on the IC.

Those interested in developing dApps on the IC blockchain will find useful information to help them on their way.