As the year winds down, I find its a good time to sneak in some research, experiment with new concepts, or even start learning a new language before everything picks back up in the new year.

If you do not have a target language in mind, you can get an introductory sample in your browser before you go off and fetch development kits and associated utilities.

Ruby

The first browser-based tutorial to hit prominence was TryRuby. It’s still a great tutorial, and anything that has those talking foxes is OK by me. This tutorial sets the pattern that is the basis for most of the other tutorials that follow in this list.

Clojure

Interested in a Lisp dialect or typing parentheses? If so, then Try Clojure could be your thing.

Python

There’s an extensive Python tutorial over at the IronPython website — unfortunately, it is not as accessible as the others in the list, and it requires the installation of Silverlight.

Haskell

No prizes for guessing that if you want to sample Haskell, then the site is called Try Haskell.

JavaScript

This one seems a little superfluous, since you can actually test JavaScript natively in your browser, but, if you must try it in a textarea, it lives at Try JavaScript.

If I’ve missed out an online tutorial that started you on a new language, make sure you leave its URL in the comments.