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Is there a modern non-Smalltalk, non-Lisp (or its derivatives) non functional imperative programming language that supports a "real repl" that the author is tal

by avl999 6y ago

Is there a modern non-Smalltalk, non-Lisp (or its derivatives) non functional imperative programming language that supports a "real repl" that the author is talking about? I don't know if that kind of environment is for me but I'd love to give it a spin. I have never found the REPL (the Python/Ruby REPL which is not a "real repl" according to this article) to be that useful beyond quickly playing with API of a library with sample data and getting a feel of it and its return types. So this version of repl described in the article does sound interesting.

tieze 6y ago
In Emacs you can set up Python in a (quite neutered) similar way. Whenever I change a function, I just evaluate the whole buffer to load it in the attached Python process, and will switch over to the Python process to play with it if need be. Also, Forth sports a repl.
sgillen 6y ago
Julia certainly places a lot of emphasis on the repl. It doesn't have break looks that I'm aware of although I really wish it did!. It's a specialty language though IMO, if you're not doing something scientific I'm not sure it makes much sense to learn.
tlarkworthy 6y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25620899 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25620899 (JavaScript)
CraigJPerry 6y ago
I’m thinking a SQL console mostly qualifies per the article’s idea of a repl. The break loop concept isn’t perfect there though. I’ve always liked the python repl, breaking out a django repl and being able to manipulate the db via the api always felt like a super power to me when coupled with the expressiveness of basic python but last year i started dabbling with Clojure. My first “real” repl driven development experience. 2 things stood out for me: 1. You end up with some genuinely useful executable documentation and it just makes sense to me to preserve some of what i did in the repl while developing. I saw this first here: https://github.com/stuartsierra/component/blob/master/dev/examples.clj https://github.com/stuartsierra/component/blob/master/dev/ex... 2. Integration with your editor is essential - having a keystroke to send a form to the repl or evaluate in-line is a real productivity boost. It’s like writing code while an intelligent debugger is permanently live. You don’t need to wait for a compiler run then parse the feedback, it’s just instant in-line runtime feedback. “Paredit” is really sweet. I used calva in vs code for this and tbh it’s as attractive as the language in some ways. I have no idea how to meaningfully apply those concepts to something like python or javascript though. They just don’t lend themselves to that kind of structural editing.
- moocowtruck 6y ago
  have you ever tried something like https://gtoolkit.com/ https://gtoolkit.com/
cutler 6y ago
There's Hy (hylang.org) for Python which comes with a real repl.
dnautics 6y ago
Bash?
- eikenberry 6y ago
  Shells in general are a great example IMO. They are what I'd maybe call repl-first environments, in that they are used primarily as interactive repls but can be used to write programs.

by avl999 6y ago

tieze 6y ago

In Emacs you can set up Python in a (quite neutered) similar way. Whenever I change a function, I just evaluate the whole buffer to load it in the attached Python process, and will switch over to the Python process to play with it if need be. Also, Forth sports a repl.

sgillen 6y ago

Julia certainly places a lot of emphasis on the repl. It doesn't have break looks that I'm aware of although I really wish it did!. It's a specialty language though IMO, if you're not doing something scientific I'm not sure it makes much sense to learn.

tlarkworthy 6y ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25620899 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25620899 (JavaScript)

CraigJPerry 6y ago

I’m thinking a SQL console mostly qualifies per the article’s idea of a repl. The break loop concept isn’t perfect there though. I’ve always liked the python repl, breaking out a django repl and being able to manipulate the db via the api always felt like a super power to me when coupled with the expressiveness of basic python but last year i started dabbling with Clojure. My first “real” repl driven development experience. 2 things stood out for me: 1. You end up with some genuinely useful executable documentation and it just makes sense to me to preserve some of what i did in the repl while developing. I saw this first here: https://github.com/stuartsierra/component/blob/master/dev/examples.clj https://github.com/stuartsierra/component/blob/master/dev/ex... 2. Integration with your editor is essential - having a keystroke to send a form to the repl or evaluate in-line is a real productivity boost. It’s like writing code while an intelligent debugger is permanently live. You don’t need to wait for a compiler run then parse the feedback, it’s just instant in-line runtime feedback. “Paredit” is really sweet. I used calva in vs code for this and tbh it’s as attractive as the language in some ways. I have no idea how to meaningfully apply those concepts to something like python or javascript though. They just don’t lend themselves to that kind of structural editing.

moocowtruck 6y ago
have you ever tried something like https://gtoolkit.com/ https://gtoolkit.com/

cutler 6y ago

There's Hy (hylang.org) for Python which comes with a real repl.

dnautics 6y ago

Bash?

eikenberry 6y ago
Shells in general are a great example IMO. They are what I'd maybe call repl-first environments, in that they are used primarily as interactive repls but can be used to write programs.