Raspberry Pi Code Editor Now Supports HTML/CSS and Mobile Devices

The Raspberry Pi Foundation today announced two big updates for its free, online, open source, and kid-friendly Code Editor: Support for web projects with HTML and CSS and an improved experience for those on tablets and other mobile devices.

“Earlier this year, we launched our Code Editor, a free online tool to help make learning text-based programming simple and accessible for kids age 9 and up,” Raspberry Pi’s Mel Farrington writes. “We focus on supporting the needs of young people who are learning programming at school, in Code Clubs and CoderDojos, and at home. Today, we have two exciting updates to share: support for web page projects with HTML/CSS, and an improved mobile and tablet experience.”

With its new support for HTML and CSS, aspiring web developers can create and preview webpages and websites directly in Code Editor. It supports side-by-side views so you can code and preview at the same time, and because Raspberry Pi wants it to be safe and age-appropriate, it has excluded certain functions like the ability to add external web links or upload images. (There is a library of free images to use.) Raspberry Pi has also added a new Introduction to web path with six HTML and CSS projects on its Projects site.

Code Editor has also been updated to offer a better experience on tablets and other mobile devices. It now looks and works better on small-screen devices and has separate Menu, Code, and Output/Preview tabs, but it still offers the same features as on desktop systems.

Code Editor is still in beta and is available for free online.