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I have done a few blog posts with interactive doodads like this. It takes a lot (like really a _lot_) more time to do, but I think it's the right way to go. There is so much noise on the internet caused by people casting their 2 cents into the void.

Interactive thingywotsits may slow down individuals making posts, but there are a lot of individuals out there.

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Not being a frontend dev, I have no idea how to even start making something like that.

Are there some frameworks that make interactive simulations like that easier to make, or do you just do it the hard way?

The "hard" way is often the simple way with these sort of things. What makes it easier is while building out your code, you make little pieces of UI to visualize what you're doing. Think of them like unit tests or test driven development. Then you can take those, clean them up a little and publish them.

p5.js is a great medium. I did a short series in this style - you can inspect it to see full source (non minified / obfuscated) with some comments here and there.

https://jason.today/falling-sand

This is an amazing series. Love the style and incremental examples.

Wow thank you!

Excellent, that does look quite approachable indeed. Thanks!

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