So I've looked around online for APIs that will allow the compiling and running of code in a web browser, but haven't really found anything that I like. (I've seen ideone, programr, codepad and the like) They seem to either be proprietary or a bit outdated and slow. As a sort of project, I'm considering building an open source robust API for compiling and executing code. Limiting to Java for now, but we'll see about expansion after I get something up and running. I know a bit about compilers, but I'd really like to see if anyone on stackoverflow has suggestions for a robust and progressive implementation, and if there are things that I might consider before I jump in.
Thanks much everyone! This community is great!
I would implement the java compiler with a java Servlet. You can call javac from a System call as long as your Servlet container is running from a user account with that level of access. Then the Servlet can execute the compiled code with class loader. If you want functionality to include multiple files and projects, maybe you could look at the source code for netbeans and see about moving their build function to your Web app.
It might actually be easier to start with groovy since compiled and execute is one command, you just need to figure out how to redirect the output to the browser.