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What makes a good REPL?

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Re: What makes a good REPL?

#11

Post by abhirag »

yoodenvranx wrote: post #4

Matlab has a nice sort-of-repl feature which I miss in every other language: you can separate the code in a file into several blocks and then execute the current block (the one with which contained the cursor) with ctrl+enter. With this feature you still have the full text editing capabilities but you also have a flexibility you get from a repl.

You seem to be using SublimeText, check out SublimeREPL extension[https://github.com/wuub/SublimeREPL/blob/master/README.md]. Once setup you'll be able to evaluate code blocks in a running REPL :) Also, Emacs modes of most languages with REPLs will have this functionality inbuilt.

Re: What makes a good REPL?

#13

Post by abhirag »

mhluongo wrote: post #7
hamandcheese wrote: post #6

There's a lot of excitement about compiled languages lately, and many seem to wonder if interpreted languages are dying. Unfortunately I don't see the value of a good REPL brought up in those conversations very often.

I like a good interpreted language as much as the next guy, but there are REPLs for compiled languages. Pretty sure Scala has one and maybe Haskell

C# and F# do too.

Re: What makes a good REPL?

#14

Post by [deleted] »

taeric wrote: post #8
mhluongo wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like a good interpreted language as much as the next guy, but there are REPLs for compiled languages. Pretty sure Scala has one and maybe Haskell

Though, they are lacking the magic of a REPL in CL. Hotspot replacement in JVM languages is neat compared to the magic of redefinitions in CL. And it seems nobody ever tries hooking a REPL up to a running system anymore.

[deleted]

Re: What makes a good REPL?

#16

Post by jhgb »

yoodenvranx wrote: post #4

Matlab has a nice sort-of-repl feature which I miss in every other language: you can separate the code in a file into several blocks and then execute the current block (the one with which contained the cursor) with ctrl+enter. With this feature you still have the full text editing capabilities but you also have a flexibility you get from a repl.

Lisp buffers? Smalltalk workspaces? Is this capability any different from those?

Re: What makes a good REPL?

#17

Post by bpicolo »

I loved this article. I am a huge proponent of development ergonomics, and clojure(script) are really fantastic in this area. Most languages have a pretty similar standard set of tooling, but the pieces that a language does exceptionally well really stand out in cases like this.

I'd really love to see what languages designed specifically with ergonomics/tooling in mind look like

Re: What makes a good REPL?

#18

Post by breatheoften »

Quokka adds a nice repl like experience for JavaScript/typescript to various editors. I'm a fan of their products!

Hydrogen is quite nice for python repl development in atom. Hydrogen connected to a remote kernel plus a script to synchronize files to a remote server replaces writing code in Jupyter notebooks for me (I just can't enjoy editing code in a browser ...)

Re: What makes a good REPL?

#19

Post by blt »

yoodenvranx wrote: post #4

Matlab has a nice sort-of-repl feature which I miss in every other language: you can separate the code in a file into several blocks and then execute the current block (the one with which contained the cursor) with ctrl+enter. With this feature you still have the full text editing capabilities but you also have a flexibility you get from a repl.

Matlab's REPL experience is great. It satisfies almost all of the "what makes a good REPL" and "what makes a programming language REPL-friendly" criteria in the article. Having a full featured plotting library available to inspect intermediate values when debugging is amazing.

Re: What makes a good REPL?

#20

Post by alphaalpha101 »

mhluongo wrote: post #7
hamandcheese wrote: post #6

There's a lot of excitement about compiled languages lately, and many seem to wonder if interpreted languages are dying. Unfortunately I don't see the value of a good REPL brought up in those conversations very often.

I like a good interpreted language as much as the next guy, but there are REPLs for compiled languages. Pretty sure Scala has one and maybe Haskell

They aren't really REPLs. A REPL isn't just a prompt that you can put code into.
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