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Repl.it raises $4.5M from A16Z, Paul Graham, and others

repl.it

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Re: Repl.it raises $4.5M from A16Z, Paul Graham, and others

#111

Post by amasad »

ryandrake wrote: post #110
sixhobbits wrote: post #77

Python, the "second best language for everything", has had a huge impact for teaching people programming. Beginners can do useful and interesting things and solve real problems after a few hours of learning. And yet the number of times I've seen beginners completely discouraged or even give up programming forever because they have conda and pip and brew and pyenv installed and can't run a basic script after 4 hours o…

This was one of the great things about the ol’ Commodore 64, decades ago: straight from the factory, power on, and a second later, you were in a fully set up BASIC developer environment/REPL. How did things get so complicated?

We think repl.it is the C64 of the cloud era:

>Cloud-computing is one of the most significant paradigm shifts in our industry, yet it remains commandable only by relatively few professionals. It's similar to when, prior to microcomputers, only big corporations and universities had mainframes. We want Repl.it to be the microcomputer to the cloud's mainframe.

Re: Repl.it raises $4.5M from A16Z, Paul Graham, and others

#112

Post by justbaker »

luizfzs wrote: post #89
mark212 wrote: post #14

the jobs link is interesting. Takes you to a functioning command line but has no other hints or instructions. An interesting gating function: those who don't know how to proceed further (or can't problem-solve sufficiently to find out) aren't likely to succeed in the role and can safely be excluded. Might also have the added bonus of being safe from headhunter bot scrapers.

I see a shell, I type `ls`. It's how life works.

`pwd` -- "where am i...?"

Re: Repl.it raises $4.5M from A16Z, Paul Graham, and others

#113

Post by 7ewis »

sixhobbits wrote: post #77

Python, the "second best language for everything", has had a huge impact for teaching people programming. Beginners can do useful and interesting things and solve real problems after a few hours of learning. And yet the number of times I've seen beginners completely discouraged or even give up programming forever because they have conda and pip and brew and pyenv installed and can't run a basic script after 4 hours o…

I've been using Python as my go-to language for a while.

It works well and I feel like I understand the basics, but pipenv, pyenv, pip etc. seem needlessly complex. Especially when I'm trying to create a serverless framework package, or upload a zip to AWS Lambda. Never know what tool to use to install packages, or how to specify the python version... or even change the python version on my Mac. Homebrew Python, system python, virtualenv?

Would love it if I could find one simple way to do all of this, but always seem to run into issues and have to use another method.

How do the professionals do it? Do you know if any good guides?

Re: Repl.it raises $4.5M from A16Z, Paul Graham, and others

#114

Post by ryandrake »

amasad wrote: post #111
ryandrake wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was one of the great things about the ol’ Commodore 64, decades ago: straight from the factory, power on, and a second later, you were in a fully set up BASIC developer environment/REPL. How did things get so complicated?

We think repl.it is the C64 of the cloud era: >Cloud-computing is one of the most significant paradigm shifts in our industry, yet it remains commandable only by relatively few professionals. It's similar to when, prior to microcomputers, only big corporations and universities had mainframes. We want Repl.it to be the microcomputer to the cloud's mainframe.

I like the goal but find it weird that getting back to the great usability of a system over 30 years old now requires a cloud service and round trips to a server. Why can’t I buy a boot ROM for a PC that drops me to a python prompt after a sub-1-second boot up?

Re: Repl.it raises $4.5M from A16Z, Paul Graham, and others

#115

Post by jimbokun »

ryandrake wrote: post #110
sixhobbits wrote: post #77

Python, the "second best language for everything", has had a huge impact for teaching people programming. Beginners can do useful and interesting things and solve real problems after a few hours of learning. And yet the number of times I've seen beginners completely discouraged or even give up programming forever because they have conda and pip and brew and pyenv installed and can't run a basic script after 4 hours o…

This was one of the great things about the ol’ Commodore 64, decades ago: straight from the factory, power on, and a second later, you were in a fully set up BASIC developer environment/REPL. How did things get so complicated?

Dependency management is the big one, I think.

It’s still pretty easy to run default Python prompt in MacOS (as long as you know what the terminal is). But it gets complex really fast the moment you want to use a cool library. Which is probably a few minutes into your coding tutorial.

Re: Repl.it raises $4.5M from A16Z, Paul Graham, and others

#116

Post by nonce725 »

avip wrote: post #92
sixhobbits wrote: post #77

Python, the "second best language for everything", has had a huge impact for teaching people programming. Beginners can do useful and interesting things and solve real problems after a few hours of learning. And yet the number of times I've seen beginners completely discouraged or even give up programming forever because they have conda and pip and brew and pyenv installed and can't run a basic script after 4 hours o…

This is where JS shines (we all have browsers). I think dedicating 10 minutes to ensure `docker run --rm -it -v $PWD:/srv python bash` should suffice, without digging into what it does.

As a beginner, I have no idea what docker is.

This is one of the most frustrating parts of learning ANY language. The assumed knowledge and supposed "here's a quick start guide" actually starts on step 8.

Don't assume the beginner knows what docker is.

Don't assume the beginner knows what a shell is.

I've tried to learn 3-4 languages or frameworks over the years, and I have only a vague idea of how to move between directories in the command prompt. Nevermind where I should download or extract files.

I've found people's attitude when I tell them this is dismissive. But I sold a business for 6 figures last year that was parimarily automation scripts in PHP. Figure that one out.

Re: Repl.it raises $4.5M from A16Z, Paul Graham, and others

#117

Post by amasad »

ryandrake wrote: post #114
amasad wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We think repl.it is the C64 of the cloud era: >Cloud-computing is one of the most significant paradigm shifts in our industry, yet it remains commandable only by relatively few professionals. It's similar to when, prior to microcomputers, only big corporations and universities had mainframes. We want Repl.it to be the microcomputer to the cloud's mainframe.

I like the goal but find it weird that getting back to the great usability of a system over 30 years old now requires a cloud service and round trips to a server. Why can’t I buy a boot ROM for a PC that drops me to a python prompt after a sub-1-second boot up?

That should exist too. Right now doing it in the cloud allows instant sharing and hosting but I hope we can get to a point where we can build something like what you suggest.

Re: Repl.it raises $4.5M from A16Z, Paul Graham, and others

#118

Post by meguest »

poulsbohemian wrote: post #21
meguest wrote: post #10

I am a long time user of repl.it and I think it's great but I do wonder what the expected ROI is here? Call me short sighted, but It's still just a repl. Perhaps it could be sold to GitHub to integrate with Gist?

Since you've been using this for a while, maybe you can educate me on the benefit of this over a shell or IDE on my local system? I don't quite get it.

I use it whenever I don't have a local shell available.

For example, when using an iPhone or iPad, or if I need to test something real quick in language X and I don't have X installed on the machine.

Re: Repl.it raises $4.5M from A16Z, Paul Graham, and others

#119

Post by avip »

nonce725 wrote: post #116
avip wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is where JS shines (we all have browsers). I think dedicating 10 minutes to ensure `docker run --rm -it -v $PWD:/srv python bash` should suffice, without digging into what it does.

As a beginner, I have no idea what docker is. This is one of the most frustrating parts of learning ANY language. The assumed knowledge and supposed "here's a quick start guide" actually starts on step 8. Don't assume the beginner knows what docker is. Don't assume the beginner knows what a shell is. I've tried to learn 3-4 languages or frameworks over the years, and I have only a vague idea of how to move between di…

I do not assume anything. I'm taking the beginner seat almost daily, in some context or another. But he who shell instruct his children to start with installing docker, rather with installing "python" (which is an ill-defined term) - will have much, much sooner, a class running predictable setup. And, speaking of assuming things - it will keep running even without network connectivity.

Re: Repl.it raises $4.5M from A16Z, Paul Graham, and others

#120

Post by iamdave »

nonce725 wrote: post #116
avip wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is where JS shines (we all have browsers). I think dedicating 10 minutes to ensure `docker run --rm -it -v $PWD:/srv python bash` should suffice, without digging into what it does.

As a beginner, I have no idea what docker is. This is one of the most frustrating parts of learning ANY language. The assumed knowledge and supposed "here's a quick start guide" actually starts on step 8. Don't assume the beginner knows what docker is. Don't assume the beginner knows what a shell is. I've tried to learn 3-4 languages or frameworks over the years, and I have only a vague idea of how to move between di…

But I sold a business for 6 figures last year that was parimarily automation scripts in PHP. Figure that one out.

I'd be keen to learn more, can I reach out? I'm not really looking for guidance or ideas to do the same, I just genuinely enjoy reading these kinds of stories-like a weird Reader's Digest sort of thing but for entrepreneurs.

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