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Vantage.js: A new take on interactive CLI for Node

187 points by dc2 11y ago

alexserver 11y ago
Interesting and strong app, I'm wondering what's the best use for this ? deployment like gulp/grunt ? ordinary devops tasks like app management and backups ?
- mtrpcic 11y ago
  Also great for debugging and maybe even profiling.
- dc2 11y ago
  Thanks! It can take on several roles. I think the most prominent are devops / debugging live apps. It gives you a bit more leeway than having to just rely on what you logged before you deployed the app. If you are missing data, it can let you jump into a remote REPL and find out more. Another one is helping while you are developing an app - you can call functions you are working on and play around with application state. That's why I originally put it together for myself. But I'm sure others can think of even more inventive uses - that's why I made it extensible so others smarter than me can write plugins.
qhoc 11y ago
I was thinking if this is like a Putty-on-the-web kinda thing with Terminal UI embedded. That would be nice. But I guess it's not what I thought.
amelius 11y ago
Some ideas: it would be nice if you could run it inside a web browser. You could print data-structures, and like in the developer console, you could navigate through data-structures by unfolding them. You could also do console.log(image), and the image would appear inside the browser. Or you could type "admin()", and a menu with buttons would appear below the command prompt. Etcetera... (Just thinking out loud).
- dc2 11y ago
  Definitely good ideas, but there's some tools that do similar things, and I wouldn't want to tread on the other libraries' boots. I forget the name, but one popular library creates a web server where you can open chrome web tools and do profiling on the fly, which is awesome. Vantage.js is entirely based on TTY controls, so it wouldn't really work too well in a browser.
- reilly3000 11y ago
  You really should check out Figwheel.
BFay 11y ago
I've been waiting for something like this, it looks great! I hope it can work with "babel-node" without any hiccups, so I can keep my server on ES6.
- dc2 11y ago
  I think I had one user try it out, and after fixing one thing it was working fine. ESLint was used to lint it pretty thoroughly, so check it out.
talles 11y ago
Nice. I love the idea to REPL to a live node application. But I would be a little afraid to use it in production though, if there's a security breach the attacker could just pretty much do anything.
musha68k 11y ago
Cool to see more REPL love in node land. The Rails console / tools like pry always were some of the bigger selling points for Ruby / Rails to me. I do wonder if node.js will eventually become or maybe even already is the new PHP/Ruby/Rails all rolled into one ;)
- dc2 11y ago
  Thanks - yeah, that would be pretty cool.
ippster 11y ago
Great stuff, been playing with it all day, this will be really useful!
- dc2 11y ago
  That's great! Happy you're finding it useful.

187 points by dc2 11y ago

Interesting and strong app, I'm wondering what's the best use for this ? deployment like gulp/grunt ? ordinary devops tasks like app management and backups ?

mtrpcic 11y ago
Also great for debugging and maybe even profiling.
dc2 11y ago
Thanks! It can take on several roles. I think the most prominent are devops / debugging live apps. It gives you a bit more leeway than having to just rely on what you logged before you deployed the app. If you are missing data, it can let you jump into a remote REPL and find out more. Another one is helping while you are developing an app - you can call functions you are working on and play around with application state. That's why I originally put it together for myself. But I'm sure others can think of even more inventive uses - that's why I made it extensible so others smarter than me can write plugins.

qhoc 11y ago

I was thinking if this is like a Putty-on-the-web kinda thing with Terminal UI embedded. That would be nice. But I guess it's not what I thought.

amelius 11y ago

Some ideas: it would be nice if you could run it inside a web browser. You could print data-structures, and like in the developer console, you could navigate through data-structures by unfolding them. You could also do console.log(image), and the image would appear inside the browser. Or you could type "admin()", and a menu with buttons would appear below the command prompt. Etcetera... (Just thinking out loud).

dc2 11y ago
Definitely good ideas, but there's some tools that do similar things, and I wouldn't want to tread on the other libraries' boots. I forget the name, but one popular library creates a web server where you can open chrome web tools and do profiling on the fly, which is awesome. Vantage.js is entirely based on TTY controls, so it wouldn't really work too well in a browser.
reilly3000 11y ago
You really should check out Figwheel.

BFay 11y ago

I've been waiting for something like this, it looks great! I hope it can work with "babel-node" without any hiccups, so I can keep my server on ES6.

dc2 11y ago
I think I had one user try it out, and after fixing one thing it was working fine. ESLint was used to lint it pretty thoroughly, so check it out.

talles 11y ago

Nice. I love the idea to REPL to a live node application. But I would be a little afraid to use it in production though, if there's a security breach the attacker could just pretty much do anything.

musha68k 11y ago

Cool to see more REPL love in node land. The Rails console / tools like pry always were some of the bigger selling points for Ruby / Rails to me. I do wonder if node.js will eventually become or maybe even already is the new PHP/Ruby/Rails all rolled into one ;)

dc2 11y ago
Thanks - yeah, that would be pretty cool.

ippster 11y ago

Great stuff, been playing with it all day, this will be really useful!

dc2 11y ago
That's great! Happy you're finding it useful.