20 ms·

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

424 points by amasad 8y ago

html5web 8y ago
Congrats to the team!
cercatrova 8y ago
I'm disappointed that now you need to sign up on www.repl.it rather than just spinning up a test environment, definitely cuts down on usage. I've found a workaround with www.http://repl.it/languages/python3 http://repl.it/languages/python3 for example, but I'm not sure how long this will still be active given their plans to become a full-fledged IDE.
- bharris62 8y ago
  I think it has always been like that, if you scroll to the bottom you can click on what environment you want to load. Been like that awhile I think.
  - cercatrova 8y ago
    Before you got the drop down on the front page that you now see on repl.it/languages. I admit I didn't look too hard at the list of languages that are there now, but just that one change to sign up instead of dive into the repl was a little annoying.
- amasad 8y ago
  We have no plans and I see no reason to make you have to sign up. (Although to cut down on abuse some things aren't available for anonymous users like long-term web hosting). You can also go to repl.it/languages and see all the langauges. As for our plans to become an IDE: we've given ourselves the hard task of being a REPL-first IDE and to always load in under 2 seconds. More here: https://repl.it/blog/platform https://repl.it/blog/platform For the landing page: we've found that most people coming through there go through the signup/login flow anyways so we've emphasized that. You can still get to the languages in the footer.
  - _sword 8y ago
    Congrats on the fundraising and the momentum Amjad!
    - amasad 8y ago
      Thank you!
  - solarkraft 8y ago
    > we've found that most people coming through there go through the signup/login flow anyways This baffles me. Why? Don't people just want to mash something into a REPL quickly (step in between: write the first one or two letters of the language you want to use and press enter)? That's certainly how I use it ...
    - amasad 8y ago
      Oh most people will google "repl.it ruby" and get to that directly. We also just discussed this and we're adding a language selector on the homepage.
- hayaodeh2 8y ago
  You can always use Repl.it as anon, we found out that many people lose their work and forget to create accounts. If you create an account you'll always be logged in and it won't cut down on usage IMO. Happy to hear your thoughts.
sampriti 8y ago
Real happy for the them, I've using them for so long, probably since they started. Amazing service.
- hayaodeh2 8y ago
  Thanks! and we're happy to be there for everyone who has been using repl.it <3 Do you have a repl.it shirt?
  - sampriti 8y ago
    Nope.
    - hayaodeh2 8y ago
      if you're interested in having one I can send you a repl tee, my email is haya@repl.it
dang 8y ago
Related: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/22/andreessen-horowitz-leads-4point5-million-seed-round-in-replit.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/22/andreessen-horowitz-leads-4p... via https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18276247 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18276247
debt 8y ago
This is awesome I hope they invest some of that into rebranding as I do believe Repl.it is probably the worst name for anything. It almost sounds like a nefarious file format or like some software company for the early 90s; maybe that’s the vibe they’re going for. Even the word Replit looks like “reptile”. I guess it’s very developer-y it’s just grammatically grating on the nerves.
- lifeformed 8y ago
  For what it's worth, I found them by googling "online c# repl", so having repl in the name is pretty strong for people with my use case.
- krrrh 8y ago
  I think it's perfect. Obviously the customer base is never going to expand beyond programmers who already know what REPL stands for, and the full name is a homonym for "replete" which is aspirational for a tool that aims to grow into a more fully-featured service.
  - amasad 8y ago
    Oh that's a cool thought thank you!
    - krrrh 8y ago
      You’re quite welcome. Best of luck with the startup.
  - vram22 8y ago
    Good one. Also, like "repleat". As in, refactor your code - online :)
- ikfmpwdsoz 8y ago
  Their name is honestly fine - it's memorable, has a good domain, and is super, super search-friendly. Also, personally, it reminds me of "replete" more than "reptile", but that's neither here nor there.
savrajsingh 8y ago
I'm sold -- hadn't seen it before but I was able to run python and install a bunch of packages quickly without issue. I can see this being big.
- amasad 8y ago
  awesome!
- hayaodeh2 8y ago
  Happy to have you with us! we share the same dream and imagination
meguest 8y ago
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?
- gcb0 8y ago
  they will evolve/pivot to a "big data notebook" and monetize on this.
- poulsbohemian 8y ago
  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.
  - jgalt212 8y ago
    I can quickly run some code on my daughter's Chrome book. I like having that option.
  - RBerenguel 8y ago
    We've occasionally used it when discussing Python X vs Python Y behaviours across separate machines (I don't have 3.6 installed but 3.7, a coworker has 3.6 but no 3.7) and are the kind of questions you just want to quickly check, not create a new virtual environment (under Homebrew on Mac, good luck having 3.6 _and_ 3.7 if you regularly `brew cleanup`...) or spin a docker instance. The coworker also regularly tries Scala stuff there (he's had to code review some simple things to start getting familiar with the language), he seems to like it more than the normal Scala repl (which I use). It's also handy for funny little languages you may not have (the APL version it has is decent enough, for instance, although I prefer GNU, as the free one)
    - philwelch 8y ago
      pyenv is a good solution for managing multiple Python version installations.
mark212 8y ago
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.
- Shane325 8y ago
  Interesting indeed. Definitely weeds out applicants who are not familiar with the command line.
  - jakebasile 8y ago
    It also weeds out people who don't have time for "cute" little games like that.
    - ribosometronome 8y ago
      Sounds like it might also be their way of weeding out people who aren't going to be a culture fit.
    - fileeditview 8y ago
      To be honest it didn't really take more than a few seconds to get the relevant information. So time really isn't the limiting factor here..
      - solarkraft 8y ago
        It's not supposed to be. It's like proving you can write a hello world. program.
    - sjg007 8y ago
      It's not really a game..
    - icelancer 8y ago
sethbannon 8y ago
Funny to see PG listed as "Paul Graham, founder of Viaweb" and not "Paul Graham, founder of Y Combinator" :-)
- amasad 8y ago
  Tongue-in-cheek :-P but I do think that Viaweb is relevant here: their original business model (it was called Webgen) was to let people host their sites with them. They were also the first to figure out "cloud" where they ran their customers generated code on their infrastructure. I believe after building Viaweb, PG had a similar idea of an IDE + language + infrastructure to allow people to build and ship applications from the browser.
  - emiliobumachar 8y ago
    So, they basically invented Software As A Service? Relevant indeed.
    - sirodoht 8y ago
      Here is a (recent) very interesting interview with PG, among others, talking about Viaweb. Bonus points: very funny. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WO5kJChg3w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WO5kJChg3w
      - amasad 8y ago
        I believe the example he gave about "doing a naughty thing" was referencing our idea of terminal-apps-as-webpages: https://repl.it/jobs https://repl.it/jobs for an example
ram_rar 8y ago
out of curiosity, how is this different from meteorjs https://www.meteor.com/ https://www.meteor.com/ ?
- emerongi 8y ago
  Meteor is a framework for building web applications on top of Node. repl.it is more like an editor/IDE.
mxstbr 8y ago
Congratulations Amjad! It's inspiring to see repl.it grow, very happy to see them investing in growth
- amasad 8y ago
  Thanks, Max! Likewise on Spectrum, I'm seeing it everywhere these days.
mcgwiz 8y ago
Reminds me of the IMHO under-appreciated https://glitch.com https://glitch.com, but for more languages.
- amasad 8y ago
  Indeed. Online coding is a fun space to be in right now (although we've been around for a while so it's cool to see it start to take off). However, a few things that make Repl.it unique: 1. A REPL-first environment. We believe when hackers start coding they generally start sketching things out and a fast iteration loop makes it easy to make progress. That's why Repl.it starts out as a REPL. This also makes it less intimidating and more useful for newbies. Everyone's first program is a text-based program as GUI is really hard to get started with. 2. We're building a generic toolchain that could be decomposed and used in different ways. We built a highly dynamic IDE[0], and a super fast container orchestration system that works as both a development environment and a hosting platform[1]. We're starting to explore what that means by building plugins to other editors and making it available on the cli[2]. 3. Repl.it's has an awesome community of hackers collaborating, helping, and building stuff for each other. We have a Hackernews-like forum where people can share their creations, ask questions, or teach others and, it's creating an awesome positive-feedback loop in the community[3]. [0]: https://repl.it/blog/ide https://repl.it/blog/ide [1]: https://repl.it/blog/deploy https://repl.it/blog/deploy [2]: https://github.com/replit/repl.sh https://github.com/replit/repl.sh [3]: https://repl.it/talk https://repl.it/talk
kod 8y ago
Great tool, my 11 year old's class is using it to learn programming. Might want to spell check the announcement, e.g. "oppurtinity"
- amasad 8y ago
  oops, thanks!
snake117 8y ago
This seems like a solid product and I will definitely keep it in mind. One thing that I really like is the number of languages you support (https://repl.it/languages https://repl.it/languages). I would recommend adding support for Elixir and Phoenix down the road. While the community is small (compared to other languages/frameworks), it is growing, and the community is great. Congrats on securing your funding and all the best!
- martinrame 8y ago
  Hey, please add FreePascal and Lazbuild (command line Lazarus compilation).
- amasad 8y ago
  Definitely on the roadmap. We're working on making it easy to add languages by creating common abstractions. As a start we just open-sourced Prybar: "a universal interpreter front-end" https://github.com/replit/prybar https://github.com/replit/prybar
  - dnautics 8y ago
    congrats amjad! I think I was one of your first interviewing candidates (didn't get the job) but I'm missing my favorite programming languages (Julia, Elixir) on repl.it!! Hope they show up soon.
- hayaodeh2 8y ago
  Thanks for your support, we're growing the community slowly, just like we grew our languages on Repl.it. Support for more and more languages is on our roadmap and we are building the technology for it.
vram22 8y ago
As a trainer (among other roles) I have an interest in such online browser-based programming sites and have tracked some over time, and blogged about them, including repl.it. In no particular order: Codingbat, Progress Graphs and Michael Jordan: https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2013/02/codingbat-progress-graphs-and-michael.html https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2013/02/codingbat-progress-graph... Online Python Tutor looks quite interesting: https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2013/03/online-python-tutor-looks-quite.html https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2013/03/online-python-tutor-look... Online turtle graphics in Python from Runestone Interactive: https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2013/02/online-turtle-graphics-in-python-from.html https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2013/02/online-turtle-graphics-i... glot.io, an open source pastebin with runnable snippets: https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2017/04/glotio-open-source-pastebin-with.html https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2017/04/glotio-open-source-paste... repl.it, online REPL for many languages, and empythoned: https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2013/03/replit-online-repl-for-many-languages.html https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2013/03/replit-online-repl-for-m... And while I'm at it, a plug for my Python and other training courses (page updated recently): https://jugad2.blogspot.com/p/training.html https://jugad2.blogspot.com/p/training.html
- nhooyr 8y ago
  You should check out https://coder.com https://coder.com as well
  - vram22 8y ago
    Thanks for the tip, I will.
lynnetye 8y ago
I'm so excited for the team at Repl.it! A million users in the last month is phenomenal, and evidence of a great product. Congratulations! Ps. I love your /jobs.
- amasad 8y ago
  Thanks, we wanted to make sure our /jobs presented our key values, as some would say ;) ;)
nodesocket 8y ago
What are the pros/come versus using a mature online editor such as Cloud9, that supports direct terminal access to the backend instance and FTP/SFTP support? Though I will admit I was disappointed when AWS acquired Cloud9.
- amasad 8y ago
  Good question. Repl.it is all about instantness, you should be able to get a REPL really fast[0]. If you want to host a webserver you should be able to do it quickly from the same interface[1], if you want to share your work then that should also be possible[2]. You could code and ship a small webserver on Repl.it faster than you can sign up for Cloud9. Repl.it is also what's no called "Serverless" in that it's logically always available and you don't have to worry about the underlying resources. We're not doing because we wanted to ride a fad, we've always done it this way, we think that's the future of computing. When we build Repl.it we always think what's a "web native" way to do online coding. We think it's a) instant! b) social c) simple yet powerful. The previous generation of online IDEs -- C9, Nitrous, Koding -- were awesome, yet most pivoted or shutdown. It's good to ask why that is? We think it might be that they were not "web native."
  - throwaway342 8y ago
    > The previous generation of online IDEs -- C9, Nitrous, Koding -- were awesome, yet most pivoted or shutdown. It's good to ask why that is? We think it might be that they were not "web native." Maybe it's because giving away cloud services for free is not a sustainable business model.
    - amasad 8y ago
      All of those companies charged for their product and had enterprise plans ;)
      - throwaway872 8y ago
        Sure, but no one used them -- just like Repl.it, pretty much all of their monthly active users were only there for the free plan, and they left as soon as the companies tried to monetize. Koding, in particular, went through pretty much exactly the same cycle as Repl.it a few years ago. They started out getting tons of users by giving cloud servers away for free, targeted mainly at children/education market. Then they started selling premium plans for beefier servers, but no one bought them. Then, they tried to become a cloud infrastructure company[1] and created a distributed filesystem product[2], which seems to be exactly your plan as well! As it turns out, the educational users were only there because going on a free website is easier than installing Python on your computer, so when Koding started trying to charge for stuff, no one bought it. [1]: https://blog.koding.com/koding-is-not-an-online-ide-e2693f740ce8 https://blog.koding.com/koding-is-not-an-online-ide-e2693f74... [2]: https://www.koding.com/docs/kd https://www.koding.com/docs/kd
throwaway473 8y ago
Repl.it's current business model appears to be giving cloud services away for free, attracting lots of users, and using their high user counts to get more venture capital funding to spend on giving away cloud services for free. Am I missing something, or is this basically the programming equivalent to MoviePass? Surely as soon as they start trying to be profitable, people will find some other startup to give them cloud services for free. See, e.g., Koding, who went through this exact cycle a few years ago: they started out getting tons of users by giving away cloud servers for free so people could learn programming, then they tried to monetize by building out IDE features and cloud filesystems and orchestration, and pretty much no one bought them.
- amasad 8y ago
  I see you keep creating throwaways to spread misinformation. I answered you elsewhere but here we go again: we've been bootstrapped and profitable for a while before we got funding and we still make lots of money. We grow our MRR from classroom and hacker plan more than 5% monthly: https://repl.it/pricing https://repl.it/pricing Go find something better to do.
  - tomglynch 8y ago
    I agree with you, but suggest you lose the personal attacks. Not a good look
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - mistersolomon 8y ago
    If you check the timestamps, I actually posted this before writing my reply to you elsewhere in this thread, but the post was killed immediately. Maybe HN has a naughty word filter banning people from mentioning MoviePass in threads about YCombinator startups. Dunno why it came back, guess some other users thought it was informative enough to vouch for.
    - lacker 8y ago
sjg007 8y ago
Neat idea. You guys should look at ceph for the backend file store.
- amasad 8y ago
  Oh cool -- I'll take a look. Storage is definitely our biggest challenge going forward.
dopeboy 8y ago
I'm a technical trainer and repl.it has been a godsend. Just this past summer I was running a Python course and due to company policy, I couldn't get my students to download some libs. Spun up repl.it, did our pip commands, and off we were.
- amasad 8y ago
  Awesome! I'm not sure if you saw but we now have a visual package manager that automatically generates requirements.txt for you: https://repl.it/talk/announcements/Announcing-Universal-Package-Manager/5201 https://repl.it/talk/announcements/Announcing-Universal-Pack...
sixhobbits 8y ago
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 of trying because environment mess-up is ridiculous. The value in a programming environment that literally just works and can give you a functioning web app (the modern very basic I/O) in less than a minute is a huge value add for education. I'm a complete convert. I've worked with Amasad to write tutorials[0] showing how easy repl is to use and these have become some of my most popular tutorials. Absolutely incredible that repl.it has done so much in such a short time and with a very small team. All the best for the future! [0] https://www.codementor.io/garethdwyer/posts https://www.codementor.io/garethdwyer/posts
- avip 8y ago
  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.
  - nonce725 8y ago
    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.
    - avip 8y ago
      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.
amasad 8y ago
Just a fun meta note: I initially authored this blogpost and collaborated on it with my colleagues using repl.it. It's also hosted under https://repl.vc https://repl.vc and you can get to the source this way https://repl.vc/__repl https://repl.vc/__repl Moreover, lots of people are discovering our jobs (https://repl.it/jobs https://repl.it/jobs) page. It's worth noting that it's as part of an ongoing project we're calling repl.run: ship terminal apps as websites. We released it in beta last week and we're already seeing lots of fun apps built with it: - Text-based rpg game: https://rpg.dtfps.repl.run/ https://rpg.dtfps.repl.run/ - snake game: https://sssnake.ericqweinstein.repl.run/ https://sssnake.ericqweinstein.repl.run/ - cool interactive terminal animation in ruby: https://key-press-2.theangryepicbanana.repl.run/ https://key-press-2.theangryepicbanana.repl.run/ - Pure Python Bash Shell: https://ppbs.neocities.org/ https://ppbs.neocities.org/ - Chatroom: https://chatroom.pyelias.repl.run/ https://chatroom.pyelias.repl.run/ - Our jobs page standalone: https://jerbs.util.repl.run/ https://jerbs.util.repl.run/ More on repl.run: https://repl.it/talk/announcements/BetaExplorers-Announcing-replrun-publish-your-terminal-apps-as-websites/7802 https://repl.it/talk/announcements/BetaExplorers-Announcing-...
- mindgam3 8y ago
  Awesome job on the terminal-app-as-webpage concept. I like how it also fits in with your meta "IDE to learn programming" concept. It made slightly more sense to me when I saw it on context at this URL: https://repl.it/site/jobs https://repl.it/site/jobs
  - amasad 8y ago
    Yeah, the idea is that almost everyone's first computer program is a terminal program along the lines of: name = input('What is your name?\n') print('Hi, %s.' % name) (https://name.amasad.repl.run/ https://name.amasad.repl.run/) Every programmer has experienced an intense sense of accomplishment when someone uses their program. The problem is that, until today, there was no easy way to share text and terminal-based programs. The bar to sharing apps shouldn't be GUI as it remains really really hard.
    - 8y ago
ttul 8y ago
I love how a seed round today is $4.5M...
- amasad 8y ago
  Honestly, we think of it as an A. We're planning to get (back) to profitability on it ;)
eadmund 8y ago
It sure would be neat if they supported Common Lisp & TCL too …
sergiotapia 8y ago
Where will this succeed where countless others failed? Just timing of the market? Were the others too early? This is Koding.com with a new interface. They also gave away a lot of free resources, then tried to monetize, failed. What will this company do different?
sbr464 8y ago
Is the jobs site working? Mine says connecting (loading)
- amasad 8y ago
  Seems to be having trouble with adblock. Try it in incognito or something. We're looking into it now
dreamdu5t 8y ago
Why did you raise money? How will you make money? Is there a similar service that’s not involved with VC?
- deleted 8y ago
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- deleted 8y ago
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bribri 8y ago
Someone really needs to figure a reasonable way of writing code on mobile/touchscreen. I would love a lisp drag and drop repl, I feel like its syntax could be well suited for this
- amasad 8y ago
  Yes! We're happy to fund some of that work if someone is interested in working on it email me amjad@repl.it
vyking 8y ago
I have been using repl.it as my go-to playground to write small scripts to check how a particular implementation would look like. However, IMHO the new Repl.it concept looks astonishingly similar to cloud 9! Is it also going to be bought off by some giant corporation and then start asking money for playground ?! :(
mcguire 8y ago
I guess it's memories week... Once upon a time C++ was the newest, shinyist thing to be seen. A lot of companies jumped in with libraries and spiffy tools. Then they discovered users wanted support and while that was easy at first, then they had to deal with new clueless users and experienced, sophisticated users, and there was no money in supporting everyone. Rational was, I think, the last one standing.
ryan-allen 8y ago
Great news! It's an awesome product. Congrats Repl.it!
sschueller 8y ago
How does it differ from sites like https://stackblitz.com/ https://stackblitz.com/ other than supported languages?
- amasad 8y ago
  Answered here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18277896 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18277896
pixelcort 8y ago
In light of the recent post https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18269007 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18269007 about LP funding sources, is there any insight into the sources of where the money from this round is coming from?
bfung 8y ago
jobs@repl.it:~$ cat tech #!/usr/bin/env bash echo -e "$(cat pages/our-tech.txt)"jobs@repl.it:~$ ./tech ... As for our infrastructure, we're building a new kind of computing platform: it's Serverless in that users don't have to care about the underlying resources, but it's not Serverless in that it's stateful. ... So... hosted smalltalk/pharo/squeak? =P
pankajdoharey 8y ago
WoW, such products can raise money.
dbosch 8y ago
any plans to bring back the code execution as an API?
sytelus 8y ago
This is a great product with several business possibilities: - IDE to Production -> all in cloud, always reproducible everywhere - Pre-in-person-interview testing - B2B IDE supplier to GitHub, GitLab etc - Online interviews - Collaborative developments - Hackathons - MOOCs
dxxvi 8y ago
Does it support Scala? Or I didn't see it?
williamstein 8y ago
> What's in progress: Multiplayer REPLs: text collaboration is easy but imagine collaborating with others on the same container, same filesystem, same interpreter process! Heh, that's what I did when I built https://cocalc.com.. https://cocalc.com...
wezm 8y ago
I gave this a look but the version of Rust is 1.9 from May 2016... There's been 20 releases (excluding patch releases) since then. For a language with such great backwards compatibility seems like it should be kept more up to date.

424 points by amasad 8y ago

Congrats to the team!

I'm disappointed that now you need to sign up on www.repl.it rather than just spinning up a test environment, definitely cuts down on usage. I've found a workaround with www.http://repl.it/languages/python3 http://repl.it/languages/python3 for example, but I'm not sure how long this will still be active given their plans to become a full-fledged IDE.

bharris62 8y ago
I think it has always been like that, if you scroll to the bottom you can click on what environment you want to load. Been like that awhile I think.
- cercatrova 8y ago
  Before you got the drop down on the front page that you now see on repl.it/languages. I admit I didn't look too hard at the list of languages that are there now, but just that one change to sign up instead of dive into the repl was a little annoying.
amasad 8y ago
We have no plans and I see no reason to make you have to sign up. (Although to cut down on abuse some things aren't available for anonymous users like long-term web hosting). You can also go to repl.it/languages and see all the langauges. As for our plans to become an IDE: we've given ourselves the hard task of being a REPL-first IDE and to always load in under 2 seconds. More here: https://repl.it/blog/platform https://repl.it/blog/platform For the landing page: we've found that most people coming through there go through the signup/login flow anyways so we've emphasized that. You can still get to the languages in the footer.
- _sword 8y ago
  Congrats on the fundraising and the momentum Amjad!
  - amasad 8y ago
    Thank you!
- solarkraft 8y ago
  > we've found that most people coming through there go through the signup/login flow anyways This baffles me. Why? Don't people just want to mash something into a REPL quickly (step in between: write the first one or two letters of the language you want to use and press enter)? That's certainly how I use it ...
  - amasad 8y ago
    Oh most people will google "repl.it ruby" and get to that directly. We also just discussed this and we're adding a language selector on the homepage.
hayaodeh2 8y ago
You can always use Repl.it as anon, we found out that many people lose their work and forget to create accounts. If you create an account you'll always be logged in and it won't cut down on usage IMO. Happy to hear your thoughts.

sampriti 8y ago

Real happy for the them, I've using them for so long, probably since they started. Amazing service.

hayaodeh2 8y ago
Thanks! and we're happy to be there for everyone who has been using repl.it <3 Do you have a repl.it shirt?
- sampriti 8y ago
  Nope.
  - hayaodeh2 8y ago
    if you're interested in having one I can send you a repl tee, my email is haya@repl.it

dang 8y ago

Related: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/22/andreessen-horowitz-leads-4point5-million-seed-round-in-replit.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/22/andreessen-horowitz-leads-4p... via https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18276247 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18276247

debt 8y ago

This is awesome I hope they invest some of that into rebranding as I do believe Repl.it is probably the worst name for anything. It almost sounds like a nefarious file format or like some software company for the early 90s; maybe that’s the vibe they’re going for. Even the word Replit looks like “reptile”. I guess it’s very developer-y it’s just grammatically grating on the nerves.

lifeformed 8y ago
For what it's worth, I found them by googling "online c# repl", so having repl in the name is pretty strong for people with my use case.
krrrh 8y ago
I think it's perfect. Obviously the customer base is never going to expand beyond programmers who already know what REPL stands for, and the full name is a homonym for "replete" which is aspirational for a tool that aims to grow into a more fully-featured service.
- amasad 8y ago
  Oh that's a cool thought thank you!
  - krrrh 8y ago
    You’re quite welcome. Best of luck with the startup.
- vram22 8y ago
  Good one. Also, like "repleat". As in, refactor your code - online :)
ikfmpwdsoz 8y ago
Their name is honestly fine - it's memorable, has a good domain, and is super, super search-friendly. Also, personally, it reminds me of "replete" more than "reptile", but that's neither here nor there.

savrajsingh 8y ago

I'm sold -- hadn't seen it before but I was able to run python and install a bunch of packages quickly without issue. I can see this being big.

amasad 8y ago
awesome!
hayaodeh2 8y ago
Happy to have you with us! we share the same dream and imagination

meguest 8y ago

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?

gcb0 8y ago
they will evolve/pivot to a "big data notebook" and monetize on this.
poulsbohemian 8y ago
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.
- jgalt212 8y ago
  I can quickly run some code on my daughter's Chrome book. I like having that option.
- RBerenguel 8y ago
  We've occasionally used it when discussing Python X vs Python Y behaviours across separate machines (I don't have 3.6 installed but 3.7, a coworker has 3.6 but no 3.7) and are the kind of questions you just want to quickly check, not create a new virtual environment (under Homebrew on Mac, good luck having 3.6 _and_ 3.7 if you regularly `brew cleanup`...) or spin a docker instance. The coworker also regularly tries Scala stuff there (he's had to code review some simple things to start getting familiar with the language), he seems to like it more than the normal Scala repl (which I use). It's also handy for funny little languages you may not have (the APL version it has is decent enough, for instance, although I prefer GNU, as the free one)
  - philwelch 8y ago
    pyenv is a good solution for managing multiple Python version installations.

mark212 8y ago

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.

Shane325 8y ago
Interesting indeed. Definitely weeds out applicants who are not familiar with the command line.
- jakebasile 8y ago
  It also weeds out people who don't have time for "cute" little games like that.
  - ribosometronome 8y ago
    Sounds like it might also be their way of weeding out people who aren't going to be a culture fit.
  - fileeditview 8y ago
    To be honest it didn't really take more than a few seconds to get the relevant information. So time really isn't the limiting factor here..
    - solarkraft 8y ago
      It's not supposed to be. It's like proving you can write a hello world. program.
  - sjg007 8y ago
    It's not really a game..
  - icelancer 8y ago

sethbannon 8y ago

Funny to see PG listed as "Paul Graham, founder of Viaweb" and not "Paul Graham, founder of Y Combinator" :-)

amasad 8y ago
Tongue-in-cheek :-P but I do think that Viaweb is relevant here: their original business model (it was called Webgen) was to let people host their sites with them. They were also the first to figure out "cloud" where they ran their customers generated code on their infrastructure. I believe after building Viaweb, PG had a similar idea of an IDE + language + infrastructure to allow people to build and ship applications from the browser.
- emiliobumachar 8y ago
  So, they basically invented Software As A Service? Relevant indeed.
  - sirodoht 8y ago
    Here is a (recent) very interesting interview with PG, among others, talking about Viaweb. Bonus points: very funny. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WO5kJChg3w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WO5kJChg3w
    - amasad 8y ago
      I believe the example he gave about "doing a naughty thing" was referencing our idea of terminal-apps-as-webpages: https://repl.it/jobs https://repl.it/jobs for an example

ram_rar 8y ago

out of curiosity, how is this different from meteorjs https://www.meteor.com/ https://www.meteor.com/ ?

emerongi 8y ago
Meteor is a framework for building web applications on top of Node. repl.it is more like an editor/IDE.

mxstbr 8y ago

Congratulations Amjad! It's inspiring to see repl.it grow, very happy to see them investing in growth

amasad 8y ago
Thanks, Max! Likewise on Spectrum, I'm seeing it everywhere these days.

mcgwiz 8y ago

Reminds me of the IMHO under-appreciated https://glitch.com https://glitch.com, but for more languages.

amasad 8y ago
Indeed. Online coding is a fun space to be in right now (although we've been around for a while so it's cool to see it start to take off). However, a few things that make Repl.it unique: 1. A REPL-first environment. We believe when hackers start coding they generally start sketching things out and a fast iteration loop makes it easy to make progress. That's why Repl.it starts out as a REPL. This also makes it less intimidating and more useful for newbies. Everyone's first program is a text-based program as GUI is really hard to get started with. 2. We're building a generic toolchain that could be decomposed and used in different ways. We built a highly dynamic IDE[0], and a super fast container orchestration system that works as both a development environment and a hosting platform[1]. We're starting to explore what that means by building plugins to other editors and making it available on the cli[2]. 3. Repl.it's has an awesome community of hackers collaborating, helping, and building stuff for each other. We have a Hackernews-like forum where people can share their creations, ask questions, or teach others and, it's creating an awesome positive-feedback loop in the community[3]. [0]: https://repl.it/blog/ide https://repl.it/blog/ide [1]: https://repl.it/blog/deploy https://repl.it/blog/deploy [2]: https://github.com/replit/repl.sh https://github.com/replit/repl.sh [3]: https://repl.it/talk https://repl.it/talk

kod 8y ago

Great tool, my 11 year old's class is using it to learn programming. Might want to spell check the announcement, e.g. "oppurtinity"

amasad 8y ago
oops, thanks!

snake117 8y ago

This seems like a solid product and I will definitely keep it in mind. One thing that I really like is the number of languages you support (https://repl.it/languages https://repl.it/languages). I would recommend adding support for Elixir and Phoenix down the road. While the community is small (compared to other languages/frameworks), it is growing, and the community is great. Congrats on securing your funding and all the best!

martinrame 8y ago
Hey, please add FreePascal and Lazbuild (command line Lazarus compilation).
amasad 8y ago
Definitely on the roadmap. We're working on making it easy to add languages by creating common abstractions. As a start we just open-sourced Prybar: "a universal interpreter front-end" https://github.com/replit/prybar https://github.com/replit/prybar
- dnautics 8y ago
  congrats amjad! I think I was one of your first interviewing candidates (didn't get the job) but I'm missing my favorite programming languages (Julia, Elixir) on repl.it!! Hope they show up soon.
hayaodeh2 8y ago
Thanks for your support, we're growing the community slowly, just like we grew our languages on Repl.it. Support for more and more languages is on our roadmap and we are building the technology for it.

vram22 8y ago

As a trainer (among other roles) I have an interest in such online browser-based programming sites and have tracked some over time, and blogged about them, including repl.it. In no particular order: Codingbat, Progress Graphs and Michael Jordan: https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2013/02/codingbat-progress-graphs-and-michael.html https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2013/02/codingbat-progress-graph... Online Python Tutor looks quite interesting: https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2013/03/online-python-tutor-looks-quite.html https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2013/03/online-python-tutor-look... Online turtle graphics in Python from Runestone Interactive: https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2013/02/online-turtle-graphics-in-python-from.html https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2013/02/online-turtle-graphics-i... glot.io, an open source pastebin with runnable snippets: https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2017/04/glotio-open-source-pastebin-with.html https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2017/04/glotio-open-source-paste... repl.it, online REPL for many languages, and empythoned: https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2013/03/replit-online-repl-for-many-languages.html https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2013/03/replit-online-repl-for-m... And while I'm at it, a plug for my Python and other training courses (page updated recently): https://jugad2.blogspot.com/p/training.html https://jugad2.blogspot.com/p/training.html

nhooyr 8y ago
You should check out https://coder.com https://coder.com as well
- vram22 8y ago
  Thanks for the tip, I will.

lynnetye 8y ago

I'm so excited for the team at Repl.it! A million users in the last month is phenomenal, and evidence of a great product. Congratulations! Ps. I love your /jobs.

amasad 8y ago
Thanks, we wanted to make sure our /jobs presented our key values, as some would say ;) ;)

nodesocket 8y ago

What are the pros/come versus using a mature online editor such as Cloud9, that supports direct terminal access to the backend instance and FTP/SFTP support? Though I will admit I was disappointed when AWS acquired Cloud9.

amasad 8y ago
Good question. Repl.it is all about instantness, you should be able to get a REPL really fast[0]. If you want to host a webserver you should be able to do it quickly from the same interface[1], if you want to share your work then that should also be possible[2]. You could code and ship a small webserver on Repl.it faster than you can sign up for Cloud9. Repl.it is also what's no called "Serverless" in that it's logically always available and you don't have to worry about the underlying resources. We're not doing because we wanted to ride a fad, we've always done it this way, we think that's the future of computing. When we build Repl.it we always think what's a "web native" way to do online coding. We think it's a) instant! b) social c) simple yet powerful. The previous generation of online IDEs -- C9, Nitrous, Koding -- were awesome, yet most pivoted or shutdown. It's good to ask why that is? We think it might be that they were not "web native."
- throwaway342 8y ago
  > The previous generation of online IDEs -- C9, Nitrous, Koding -- were awesome, yet most pivoted or shutdown. It's good to ask why that is? We think it might be that they were not "web native." Maybe it's because giving away cloud services for free is not a sustainable business model.
  - amasad 8y ago
    All of those companies charged for their product and had enterprise plans ;)
    - throwaway872 8y ago
      Sure, but no one used them -- just like Repl.it, pretty much all of their monthly active users were only there for the free plan, and they left as soon as the companies tried to monetize. Koding, in particular, went through pretty much exactly the same cycle as Repl.it a few years ago. They started out getting tons of users by giving cloud servers away for free, targeted mainly at children/education market. Then they started selling premium plans for beefier servers, but no one bought them. Then, they tried to become a cloud infrastructure company[1] and created a distributed filesystem product[2], which seems to be exactly your plan as well! As it turns out, the educational users were only there because going on a free website is easier than installing Python on your computer, so when Koding started trying to charge for stuff, no one bought it. [1]: https://blog.koding.com/koding-is-not-an-online-ide-e2693f740ce8 https://blog.koding.com/koding-is-not-an-online-ide-e2693f74... [2]: https://www.koding.com/docs/kd https://www.koding.com/docs/kd

throwaway473 8y ago

Repl.it's current business model appears to be giving cloud services away for free, attracting lots of users, and using their high user counts to get more venture capital funding to spend on giving away cloud services for free. Am I missing something, or is this basically the programming equivalent to MoviePass? Surely as soon as they start trying to be profitable, people will find some other startup to give them cloud services for free. See, e.g., Koding, who went through this exact cycle a few years ago: they started out getting tons of users by giving away cloud servers for free so people could learn programming, then they tried to monetize by building out IDE features and cloud filesystems and orchestration, and pretty much no one bought them.

amasad 8y ago
I see you keep creating throwaways to spread misinformation. I answered you elsewhere but here we go again: we've been bootstrapped and profitable for a while before we got funding and we still make lots of money. We grow our MRR from classroom and hacker plan more than 5% monthly: https://repl.it/pricing https://repl.it/pricing Go find something better to do.
- tomglynch 8y ago
  I agree with you, but suggest you lose the personal attacks. Not a good look
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- mistersolomon 8y ago
  If you check the timestamps, I actually posted this before writing my reply to you elsewhere in this thread, but the post was killed immediately. Maybe HN has a naughty word filter banning people from mentioning MoviePass in threads about YCombinator startups. Dunno why it came back, guess some other users thought it was informative enough to vouch for.
  - lacker 8y ago

sjg007 8y ago

Neat idea. You guys should look at ceph for the backend file store.

amasad 8y ago
Oh cool -- I'll take a look. Storage is definitely our biggest challenge going forward.

dopeboy 8y ago

I'm a technical trainer and repl.it has been a godsend. Just this past summer I was running a Python course and due to company policy, I couldn't get my students to download some libs. Spun up repl.it, did our pip commands, and off we were.

amasad 8y ago
Awesome! I'm not sure if you saw but we now have a visual package manager that automatically generates requirements.txt for you: https://repl.it/talk/announcements/Announcing-Universal-Package-Manager/5201 https://repl.it/talk/announcements/Announcing-Universal-Pack...

sixhobbits 8y ago

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 of trying because environment mess-up is ridiculous. The value in a programming environment that literally just works and can give you a functioning web app (the modern very basic I/O) in less than a minute is a huge value add for education. I'm a complete convert. I've worked with Amasad to write tutorials[0] showing how easy repl is to use and these have become some of my most popular tutorials. Absolutely incredible that repl.it has done so much in such a short time and with a very small team. All the best for the future! [0] https://www.codementor.io/garethdwyer/posts https://www.codementor.io/garethdwyer/posts

avip 8y ago
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.
- nonce725 8y ago
  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.
  - avip 8y ago
    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.

amasad 8y ago

Just a fun meta note: I initially authored this blogpost and collaborated on it with my colleagues using repl.it. It's also hosted under https://repl.vc https://repl.vc and you can get to the source this way https://repl.vc/__repl https://repl.vc/__repl Moreover, lots of people are discovering our jobs (https://repl.it/jobs https://repl.it/jobs) page. It's worth noting that it's as part of an ongoing project we're calling repl.run: ship terminal apps as websites. We released it in beta last week and we're already seeing lots of fun apps built with it: - Text-based rpg game: https://rpg.dtfps.repl.run/ https://rpg.dtfps.repl.run/ - snake game: https://sssnake.ericqweinstein.repl.run/ https://sssnake.ericqweinstein.repl.run/ - cool interactive terminal animation in ruby: https://key-press-2.theangryepicbanana.repl.run/ https://key-press-2.theangryepicbanana.repl.run/ - Pure Python Bash Shell: https://ppbs.neocities.org/ https://ppbs.neocities.org/ - Chatroom: https://chatroom.pyelias.repl.run/ https://chatroom.pyelias.repl.run/ - Our jobs page standalone: https://jerbs.util.repl.run/ https://jerbs.util.repl.run/ More on repl.run: https://repl.it/talk/announcements/BetaExplorers-Announcing-replrun-publish-your-terminal-apps-as-websites/7802 https://repl.it/talk/announcements/BetaExplorers-Announcing-...

mindgam3 8y ago
Awesome job on the terminal-app-as-webpage concept. I like how it also fits in with your meta "IDE to learn programming" concept. It made slightly more sense to me when I saw it on context at this URL: https://repl.it/site/jobs https://repl.it/site/jobs
- amasad 8y ago
  Yeah, the idea is that almost everyone's first computer program is a terminal program along the lines of: name = input('What is your name?\n') print('Hi, %s.' % name) (https://name.amasad.repl.run/ https://name.amasad.repl.run/) Every programmer has experienced an intense sense of accomplishment when someone uses their program. The problem is that, until today, there was no easy way to share text and terminal-based programs. The bar to sharing apps shouldn't be GUI as it remains really really hard.
  - 8y ago

ttul 8y ago

I love how a seed round today is $4.5M...

amasad 8y ago
Honestly, we think of it as an A. We're planning to get (back) to profitability on it ;)

eadmund 8y ago

It sure would be neat if they supported Common Lisp & TCL too …

sergiotapia 8y ago

Where will this succeed where countless others failed? Just timing of the market? Were the others too early? This is Koding.com with a new interface. They also gave away a lot of free resources, then tried to monetize, failed. What will this company do different?

sbr464 8y ago

Is the jobs site working? Mine says connecting (loading)

amasad 8y ago
Seems to be having trouble with adblock. Try it in incognito or something. We're looking into it now

dreamdu5t 8y ago

Why did you raise money? How will you make money? Is there a similar service that’s not involved with VC?

deleted 8y ago
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bribri 8y ago

Someone really needs to figure a reasonable way of writing code on mobile/touchscreen. I would love a lisp drag and drop repl, I feel like its syntax could be well suited for this

amasad 8y ago
Yes! We're happy to fund some of that work if someone is interested in working on it email me amjad@repl.it

vyking 8y ago

I have been using repl.it as my go-to playground to write small scripts to check how a particular implementation would look like. However, IMHO the new Repl.it concept looks astonishingly similar to cloud 9! Is it also going to be bought off by some giant corporation and then start asking money for playground ?! :(

mcguire 8y ago

I guess it's memories week... Once upon a time C++ was the newest, shinyist thing to be seen. A lot of companies jumped in with libraries and spiffy tools. Then they discovered users wanted support and while that was easy at first, then they had to deal with new clueless users and experienced, sophisticated users, and there was no money in supporting everyone. Rational was, I think, the last one standing.

ryan-allen 8y ago

Great news! It's an awesome product. Congrats Repl.it!

sschueller 8y ago

How does it differ from sites like https://stackblitz.com/ https://stackblitz.com/ other than supported languages?

amasad 8y ago
Answered here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18277896 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18277896

pixelcort 8y ago

In light of the recent post https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18269007 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18269007 about LP funding sources, is there any insight into the sources of where the money from this round is coming from?

bfung 8y ago

jobs@repl.it:~$ cat tech #!/usr/bin/env bash echo -e "$(cat pages/our-tech.txt)"jobs@repl.it:~$ ./tech ... As for our infrastructure, we're building a new kind of computing platform: it's Serverless in that users don't have to care about the underlying resources, but it's not Serverless in that it's stateful. ... So... hosted smalltalk/pharo/squeak? =P

pankajdoharey 8y ago

WoW, such products can raise money.

dbosch 8y ago

any plans to bring back the code execution as an API?

sytelus 8y ago

This is a great product with several business possibilities: - IDE to Production -> all in cloud, always reproducible everywhere - Pre-in-person-interview testing - B2B IDE supplier to GitHub, GitLab etc - Online interviews - Collaborative developments - Hackathons - MOOCs

dxxvi 8y ago

Does it support Scala? Or I didn't see it?

williamstein 8y ago

> What's in progress: Multiplayer REPLs: text collaboration is easy but imagine collaborating with others on the same container, same filesystem, same interpreter process! Heh, that's what I did when I built https://cocalc.com.. https://cocalc.com...

wezm 8y ago

I gave this a look but the version of Rust is 1.9 from May 2016... There's been 20 releases (excluding patch releases) since then. For a language with such great backwards compatibility seems like it should be kept more up to date.