Company
Date Published
Author
Amjad Masad
Word count
249
Language
English
Hacker News points
None

Summary

We're big fans of REPLs because they accelerate learning and are more productive by cutting out the need for UIs or scripts. We include a `repl.sh` script in every medium-to-large project, which starts a REPL with preloaded libraries, custom commands, and database connections when necessary. In NodeJS, we use the built-in `repl` module to create a custom eval function that can process and parse code before calling a callback. We also use async/await with Babel in the REPL to make it easy to update or delete from a development database. By creating shells and REPLs for projects, developers can gain a productivity win.