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Kicking Off the Repl.it Programming Language Jam

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Re: Kicking Off the Repl.it Programming Language Jam

#21

Post by azhenley »

amasad wrote: post #20
gver10 wrote: post #16

Nothing per se against repl.it, but I'm surprised to see this on #1 of the front page as it's basically a call to free labour. Will there ever be a future when companies innovate themselves again? IMHO all these "hackathons" or "jams" are really just about finding use cases for their product and getting it tested for a very affordable reward ...

We make all of our money from the education market through our classroom products and believe me teachers don't need more languages to teach nor in a hundred years will they teach a hobbyist language. So I invite you to provide a compelling case for how this is a call for free labour.

Unless the hobbyist language is created by the teacher :)

Re: Kicking Off the Repl.it Programming Language Jam

#22

Post by eatonphil »

There's a surprisingly big list of languages not supported, just off the top of my head: Standard ML, OCaml, Rebol, Elm, PureScript, Racket, Lisp-flavored Erlang, Common Lisp, Zig, Perl 5.

Most of these even have JavaScript targets already.

Edit: OCaml is supported through Reason Node.js on BuckleScript.

Re: Kicking Off the Repl.it Programming Language Jam

#23

Post by wizzwizz4 »

gver10 wrote: post #16

Nothing per se against repl.it, but I'm surprised to see this on #1 of the front page as it's basically a call to free labour. Will there ever be a future when companies innovate themselves again? IMHO all these "hackathons" or "jams" are really just about finding use cases for their product and getting it tested for a very affordable reward ...

Repl.it is an amazing idea, but it's infuriating to use. No syntax highlighting in the REPL, laaaaaag everywhere, hardly any version control… It's useful for performing a 30 second Python interaction on machines without Python installed, but that 30 seconds becomes 3 minutes because Repl.it is so clunky.

I tried to log in to check whether things had improved, but apparently I need Google's permission to do so now? And, in fact, nothing will run without allowing Google's JavaScript, even once I've logged in.

Anyway, version control is there now, and you can edit existing Git repos! Except it's actually GitHub, not Git, so I can't use it for any of my existing projects, including my programming language…

That being said, I think the world is better with Repl.it in it. It's not like these other things I criticise where I think we're better off without them; Repl.it's flaws are infuriating because they're stopping me from appreciating something potentially great.

Re: Kicking Off the Repl.it Programming Language Jam

#24

Post by mamcx »

This make restart the work on my own lang (https://github.com/Tablam/TablaM) and convince a friend to also use this for learn rust.

Tooling around development (langs, editor, shells, debuggers, etc) is at 2 apart sides: Supported by deep-pocket companies or by the crazy/love of a very few individuals.

So, the idea to at least get a little push to justify the time is a big plus, IMHO.

This few years this group is becoming a little bigger (check for example https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammingLanguages/).

When i start with the idea of tablam I feel is like walk in a deserted planet, now is more like a little oasis in the middle!

Re: Kicking Off the Repl.it Programming Language Jam

#26

Post by amasad »

eatonphil wrote: post #22

There's a surprisingly big list of languages not supported, just off the top of my head: Standard ML, OCaml, Rebol, Elm, PureScript, Racket, Lisp-flavored Erlang, Common Lisp, Zig, Perl 5. Most of these even have JavaScript targets already. Edit: OCaml is supported through Reason Node.js on BuckleScript.

I agree they should be there. We've been more focused more on vertical feature work than horizontal. But we're hiring a language hacker if anyone wants to help us get more language and tooling support https://repl.it/@util/jerbs#open-positions/language_hacker.t...

Re: Kicking Off the Repl.it Programming Language Jam

#27

Post by milansuk »

simias wrote: post #7
ahmedfromtunis wrote: post #2

> We built Repl.it to make it easy to explore and learn languages and programming paradigms. We were, however, surprised by how slow-moving the programming language space seems to be. Given how fast software is growing, shouldn’t we see more innovation in programming languages? Isn't this like saying: "the construction industry is growing fast, how come there are no new hammers being invented every other week?" I, to…

I've been coding for almost 20 years now, I definitely saw many changes in that time. Languages like Java and C# became huge, scripting languages like Python or JavaScript became not-just-scripting-languages. C went from "The English of programing languages" to "The Latin of programing languages". Then you have a newer generation starting to take over some niches with the likes of Go, Rust and a few others. If anythi…

>If anything what bothers me is not the lack of innovation in programming languages per se but the relative lack of innovation in program representation.

Exactly, We don't need a new programming language every month. We need a new IDE every month. I believe there is a lot of space for improvements.

Re: Kicking Off the Repl.it Programming Language Jam

#28

Post by amasad »

wizzwizz4 wrote: post #23
gver10 wrote: post #16

Nothing per se against repl.it, but I'm surprised to see this on #1 of the front page as it's basically a call to free labour. Will there ever be a future when companies innovate themselves again? IMHO all these "hackathons" or "jams" are really just about finding use cases for their product and getting it tested for a very affordable reward ...

Repl.it is an amazing idea, but it's infuriating to use. No syntax highlighting in the REPL, laaaaaag everywhere, hardly any version control… It's useful for performing a 30 second Python interaction on machines without Python installed, but that 30 seconds becomes 3 minutes because Repl.it is so clunky. I tried to log in to check whether things had improved, but apparently I need Google's permission to do so now? An…

> Repl.it is an amazing idea, but it's infuriating to use. No syntax highlighting in the REPL, laaaaaag everywhere, hardly any version control… It's useful for performing a 30 second Python interaction on machines without Python installed, but that 30 seconds becomes 3 minutes because Repl.it is so clunky.

We've improved performance a lot and we'll keep working on it. I just timed it and it took me 5 seconds to start a new Python repl and execute code :)

> I tried to log in to check whether things had improved, but apparently I need Google's permission to do so now? And, in fact, nothing will run without allowing Google's JavaScript, even once I've logged in.

What do you mean by this? You can log-in via Google but that's about it.

> That being said, I think the world is better with Repl.it in it. It's not like these other things I criticise where I think we're better off without them; Repl.it's flaws are infuriating because they're stopping me from appreciating something potentially great.

Thanks we're always happy to hear feedback, negative more important than positive. I'd invite you or anyone who loves Repl.it but find it to be lacking to apply to work with us https://repl.it/jobs

Re: Kicking Off the Repl.it Programming Language Jam

#29

Post by saagarjha »

simias wrote: post #7
ahmedfromtunis wrote: post #2

> We built Repl.it to make it easy to explore and learn languages and programming paradigms. We were, however, surprised by how slow-moving the programming language space seems to be. Given how fast software is growing, shouldn’t we see more innovation in programming languages? Isn't this like saying: "the construction industry is growing fast, how come there are no new hammers being invented every other week?" I, to…

I've been coding for almost 20 years now, I definitely saw many changes in that time. Languages like Java and C# became huge, scripting languages like Python or JavaScript became not-just-scripting-languages. C went from "The English of programing languages" to "The Latin of programing languages". Then you have a newer generation starting to take over some niches with the likes of Go, Rust and a few others. If anythi…

> C went from "The English of programing languages" to "The Latin of programing languages".

There's still a huge amount of development being done in C.

> If anything what bothers me is not the lack of innovation in programming languages per se but the relative lack of innovation in program representation.

One of the benefits of using text is you get a huge number of tools that work with it, without the things that are par for the course these days like vendor lock-in. It'd be interesting to see new efforts in this area, but there's a huge barrier to this.

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