Paul Graham on Replit's Growth • Hacker News Board

Re: Paul Graham on Replit's Growth

#11

Post by carls » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 7:05 PM UTC

I teach an AP CS A class at a Bay Area school. In previous years, the class would have students write and run Java on their own computers.

This year, given the remote nature, the class has completely transitioned to using Repl.it. We publish assignments and projects on it (and have also tried syncing with Github classroom to give more in-depth comments for each commit), and also demonstrate new topics by pulling up a blank Repl.it and live coding.

While there have been hiccups and days when the service crashed during class, it has for the most part exceeded our (my co-teachers and I) expectations.

I appreciate that they have a vibrant community. There seem to be lots of tinkerers/hackers on the platform who are doing weird, interesting things (I saw a Python implementation of a text-based Among Us game the other day [1] and a turkey translator [2]). There are also other CS teachers who have published their exercises/projects on Repl.it free to use or remix.

There are also a number of tutorials (i.e., here's one for this year's Advent of Code Day 1 [3]). These give me favorable impressions of the active community.

I don't have any comments on their long-term path to profitability and growth, but the personal experiences I've had with it have been mostly positive so far.

------------

[1] https://repl.it/talk/share/GAME-ROOMS-Among-Us-ALPHA/79187

[2] https://repl.it/talk/share/Turkey-Translator/82208

[3] https://repl.it/talk/learn/Advent-of-Code-1-Walkthrough/8353...

Re: Paul Graham on Replit's Growth

#12

Post by lazyjeff » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 7:07 PM UTC

skybrian wrote: post #2

Anyone know what their 30-day users looks like? It seems like a lot of people created accounts to try it, and this is growing, but it doesn't tell us anything about churn.

I teach computer science, and love the growth of these cloud-based IDE/compiling tools because it's a good backup for students who can't get their programming environment set up in a remote class during the pandemic. It's much harder to figure out package dependency and configuration issues when you can't take over the keys to check out their programming environment.

I used repl.it for a class and it worked out nicely, where I could set up a template with data and code and the students could fork it. The one thing that made me not renew past a month is their receipts say "Hacker" on it as your purchase (it's one of their pricing levels), and it was awkward getting a reimbursement from the university for that. Even handing a receipt saying that I purchased "Hacker" (without much context) made me hesitate.

Re: Paul Graham on Replit's Growth

#13

Post by chiyc » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 7:08 PM UTC

gonehome wrote: post #6

skybrian wrote: post #2

Anyone know what their 30-day users looks like? It seems like a lot of people created accounts to try it, and this is growing, but it doesn't tell us anything about churn.

That's what I'd be curious about too. I made an account to check it out, but didn't use it after that. I also suspect if people are linking to it in tutorials as a way to get an immediate environment there might be a lot of new signups that don't stick around. Is anyone on HN using this consistently day-to-day for something?

I still use it occasionally as a scratchpad for working things out, especially in languages I'm not as familiar with. Figuring out how to use a standard library function, class inheritance behavior, edge cases like null handling.

I definitely don't see myself ever needing to pay for their product. I'd guess the play is to get into B2B or EDU as a hiring or education platform.

Re: Paul Graham on Replit's Growth

#14

Post by amasad » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 7:08 PM UTC

carls wrote: post #11

I teach an AP CS A class at a Bay Area school. In previous years, the class would have students write and run Java on their own computers. This year, given the remote nature, the class has completely transitioned to using Repl.it. We publish assignments and projects on it (and have also tried syncing with Github classroom to give more in-depth comments for each commit), and also demonstrate new topics by pulling up a…

Hi carls! Sorry about the crashes. You'd be happy to know that we've focused on quality (https://blog.repl.it/quality) the past couple of months and made tremendous progress (https://blog.repl.it/how-far).

You can always email me (amjad@repl.it) with feedback.

Re: Paul Graham on Replit's Growth

#15

Post by krisdol » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 7:11 PM UTC

I tried to spin up a repl.it session for the first time yesterday, with the intent to hack on clojure solutions to Advent of Code 2020. After a while I just got pretty frustrated battling the editor's default/only formatting settings. Maybe I missed something, but they seem badly mismatched to how clojure code (and I'd say lisp generally) is normally formatted, it felt like writing clojure in a javascript editor.

Re: Paul Graham on Replit's Growth

#16

Post by Aeolun » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 7:13 PM UTC

lazyjeff wrote: post #12

skybrian wrote: post #2

Anyone know what their 30-day users looks like? It seems like a lot of people created accounts to try it, and this is growing, but it doesn't tell us anything about churn.

I teach computer science, and love the growth of these cloud-based IDE/compiling tools because it's a good backup for students who can't get their programming environment set up in a remote class during the pandemic. It's much harder to figure out package dependency and configuration issues when you can't take over the keys to check out their programming environment. I used repl.it for a class and it worked out nicel…

I’m fairly certain that’s an indictment of your university instead of Repl.it.

Re: Paul Graham on Replit's Growth

#17

Post by Aeolun » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 7:15 PM UTC

aladdinw wrote: post #8

just another product that will be killed by a vscode plugin

I think that they’re completely different things.

No need for VS Code with repl.it at all.

Re: Paul Graham on Replit's Growth

#18

Post by verdverm » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 7:16 PM UTC

aladdinw wrote: post #8

just another product that will be killed by a vscode plugin

and/or VS code in the browser

Re: Paul Graham on Replit's Growth

#19

Post by mlyle » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 7:20 PM UTC

Aeolun wrote: post #16

lazyjeff wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I teach computer science, and love the growth of these cloud-based IDE/compiling tools because it's a good backup for students who can't get their programming environment set up in a remote class during the pandemic. It's much harder to figure out package dependency and configuration issues when you can't take over the keys to check out their programming environment. I used repl.it for a class and it worked out nicel…

I’m fairly certain that’s an indictment of your university instead of Repl.it.

Finance departments are so silly-- wanting a receipt to explain what is actually being purchased in some kind of understandable language!

Re: Paul Graham on Replit's Growth

#20

Post by mlyle » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 7:23 PM UTC

lazyjeff wrote: post #12

skybrian wrote: post #2

Anyone know what their 30-day users looks like? It seems like a lot of people created accounts to try it, and this is growing, but it doesn't tell us anything about churn.

I teach computer science, and love the growth of these cloud-based IDE/compiling tools because it's a good backup for students who can't get their programming environment set up in a remote class during the pandemic. It's much harder to figure out package dependency and configuration issues when you can't take over the keys to check out their programming environment. I used repl.it for a class and it worked out nicel…

They want you to buy the "Team for Education" level for $35/mo which offers your students unlimited "multiplayer", letting you drop into their individual notebooks during class, etc.