5 ms·

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. Perhap

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.
    - solarkraft 8y ago
      Yes, but this is better for quickly trying something.
      - philwelch 8y ago
        Definitely agreed on that.
    - RBerenguel 8y ago
      Thanks, I had assumed it would have issues with 3.6 binary not svailable. Will try sgain (although my plan is get everybody using 3.7...)
- pmoriarty 8y ago
  Also, on an ordinary local repl, I'm never going to have to suffer through watching ads... which is where I see this sort of thing headed.
- meguest 8y ago
  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.
amasad 8y ago
Towards the end of the post there's a bit about our business. As we've noticed that more people want to use repl.it for more things: from building websites and apps (250,000 in 6 months) to data science[0] and education, with a growing community of hackers[1] it's becoming a generic computing platform. The fact that the REPL is the main interface is besides the point. We're going to productize our infrastructure that runs all this. After all, Microsoft started as a Basic interpreter for the Altair[2] ;) [0]: https://towardsdatascience.com/build-deploy-data-science-projects-at-lightspeed-2cf4670c7d06 https://towardsdatascience.com/build-deploy-data-science-pro... [1]: https://repl.it/talk https://repl.it/talk [2]: http://www.paulgraham.com/altair.html http://www.paulgraham.com/altair.html

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.
  - solarkraft 8y ago
    Yes, but this is better for quickly trying something.
    - philwelch 8y ago
      Definitely agreed on that.
  - RBerenguel 8y ago
    Thanks, I had assumed it would have issues with 3.6 binary not svailable. Will try sgain (although my plan is get everybody using 3.7...)
pmoriarty 8y ago
Also, on an ordinary local repl, I'm never going to have to suffer through watching ads... which is where I see this sort of thing headed.
meguest 8y ago
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.

amasad 8y ago

Towards the end of the post there's a bit about our business. As we've noticed that more people want to use repl.it for more things: from building websites and apps (250,000 in 6 months) to data science[0] and education, with a growing community of hackers[1] it's becoming a generic computing platform. The fact that the REPL is the main interface is besides the point. We're going to productize our infrastructure that runs all this. After all, Microsoft started as a Basic interpreter for the Altair[2] ;) [0]: https://towardsdatascience.com/build-deploy-data-science-projects-at-lightspeed-2cf4670c7d06 https://towardsdatascience.com/build-deploy-data-science-pro... [1]: https://repl.it/talk https://repl.it/talk [2]: http://www.paulgraham.com/altair.html http://www.paulgraham.com/altair.html