July 2018 Summaries

Open-source has revolutionized software development, making it more accessible to programmers by providing a vast array of open-source packages at their fingertips. Repl.it aims to further this goal with its Universal Package Manager, which supports multiple languages, including JavaScript, Python, HTML/CSS/JS, and web frameworks. The package manager enables search and spec file support across all supported languages, allowing developers to easily install dependencies and manage their project's requirements. This innovation is made possible by the creation of common package manager runner abstractions, making it simple to add support for new languages by modifying a JSON config file. Repl.it also has an ambitious project in the works to build a universal package manager with the same semantics across all languages, inviting developers to join them in this endeavor.

At Repl.it, our goal is to provide state-of-the-art developer tools to everyone in the world for free. We had to invent standards and wrappers around every language tool for our frontend to consume when we started adding IDE features to our product. However, Microsoft's VS Code team has introduced a single all-encompassing protocol called the "Language Server Protocol" (LSP) that provides general-purpose language tooling, allowing tools to be implemented once and plugged into any editor that understands this protocol. Repl.it is now using this LSP and Monaco, an open-sourced web-based editor, to provide features like autocomplete, jump to definition, find references, refactor, linting, hover, and formatting for supported languages. This release marks one step closer to Repl.it's vision of building a holistic development service that understands code in all its stages, available anywhere and at any time, regardless of device, platform, location, or programming language. The team is grateful for the VS Code team and community's help in making their job easier.