Serious question: has anyone gotten anything out of these browser-based language playgrounds? I just don't think it's hard to download the real thing to try it, so I thought I'd ask if anyone has really been inspired by it.
I first tried Ruby about 2004/5 or so. downloaded it, did a few examples, thought meh and forgot about it.
2007 and I came across the try ruby site (during lunch at work, I think). Started on the tutorial and by about exercise 4 I "got it". Downloaded the Windows 1-click installer and couldn't get enough. Became very proficient at using the win32ole library to automate office apps and found Ruby a great tool for scripting my job away :)
fast forward a year and I got into Rails, then was able to move from enterprise Java dev into a small Rails shop, then onto the life of a freelance dev. I'd like to assume I'd have ended up here without that kick from TryRuby, but you never know
On a personal note, I'd much rather try a language in a browser, then download it if I like it.
Personally, I love browser based language introductions. On OS X for example, many Rubyists will tell you to install brew or rvm or rbenv, then a more recent Ruby (1.9.2 or 1.9.3 or...), then TextMate or more stuff for vim, ...