Repl from Repo

by archmaster • 7 years ago

259 76 7 years ago

archmaster3• 7 years ago

Repl.it is an amazing cloud-based IDE, and I'm super excited that they just launched a Git GUI and GitHub integration! Now it's possible to import almost any repository from GitHub in the click of a button and get it running with a very minimal amount of configuration.

There are still a few kinks to work out, but I can see this being very useful.

dang• 7 years ago

It's great to post something you find exciting, but "Show HN" is explicitly for sharing your own work. So please don't use that in titles unless it's something you made.

https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html

skiboyec• 7 years ago

I look forward to using this

zubairq7• 7 years ago

Can I run nodejs projects on this? I wanted to see if I could run yazz Pilot on this

archmaster3• 7 years ago

You can! In fact, I've found that it actually works the best with Node.js

zubairq7• 7 years ago

Super, I’ll give it a go soon then :)

faitswulff• 7 years ago

Does run on repl.it work with all of the languages that normal repl.it supports?

sansnomme2• 7 years ago

Try glitch too, it is pretty good for demos.

zubairq7• 7 years ago

Can you import nodejs git repos into glitch?

msoad• 7 years ago

repl.it is a god sent for low income students I teach CS to. They only have Chromebooks but can run Python, C++ and more.

My feedback to the team is that please try using it on those slow and small Chromebooks. You'll see how the navbar is eating 20% of vertical space in a 11 inch Chromebook. Make the UI dense. Those kids have sharp eyes!

amasad13• 7 years ago

Chromebooks are one of the primary devices we test on (https://m.imgur.com/a/3eCnqUE)!

That's a good point tho, will discuss with the team.

saagarjha• 7 years ago

I have that exact Chromebook! It runs Linux pretty well, but I can see schools not being all to pleased with going in that direction…

atiffany• 7 years ago

It's amazing for anyone learning to code. I run my coding school's classes off of Replit Classroom.

TrackerFF• 7 years ago

Might wanna check out Google colab, if you haven't. I switch between repl.it and colab, depending on what I'm working on.

mattigames3• 7 years ago

The big thing missing on repl.it is to use visual studio code instead of their own editor (think like Stackblitz), that would really be a game changer to be able to use one custom key-shortcuts, to use vscode plugins and so on.

enigmadev3• 7 years ago

Suggest it at https://repl.it/feedback/ :D In fact,y es this would be really cool!

amasad13• 7 years ago

We decided against using vscode verbatim for a few reasons, chief among them is keeping repl.it simple for people starting to code.

And as much as I like vscode and the team behind it, it doesn't seem smart to tie your core tech to a project under the control of MSFT.

With regards to extensions you can easily imagine a vscode-replit bridge.

Finally, we came up with a novel approach to IDE/window management that we think people will be excited to write extensions for when we open it up: https://repl.it/blog/ide

mattigames3• 7 years ago

I disagree, vscode UI is pretty simple and even if not you can always creat a basic theme and use it as the initial default (after all it's just css/html) to make it simpler for novice users, the code is not really under the control of Microsoft in the sense the is open source and in the worse case scenario you create a fork from the latest build, which is already pretty stable. Microsoft itself realized the reality of this rationale and that's why their latest web browser is Chromium-based despite Chromium being under the "control" of Google.

syrusakbary• 7 years ago

I'd love to see an approach similar to Makepad for the Repl.it IDE (all powered by WebAssembly). Keep up the good work!

http://makepad.nl/

https://github.com/makepad/makepad

tarr11• 7 years ago

You can run your own hosted web-based VSCode.

https://github.com/cdr/code-server

mattigames3• 7 years ago

Yeah all it would be missing is full integration with repl.it...

ZainRiz• 7 years ago

Fyi, there's another similar project called gitpod.io

Take any github repo, prepend the url with "https://gitpod.io/#", and hit Enter

(so https://github.com/ZainRizvi/UseRWithGpus would become https://gitpod.io/#https://github.com/ZainRizvi/UseRWithGpus)

That'll open up an instance of VSCode in a web browser and you can start coding

amasad13• 7 years ago

Gitpod is awesome and a really bright team behind it.

However, Repl.it is different in that we're focused on speed and minimal configuration. You don't even need to login to clone a repo and start it.

The URL structure is repl.it/github/<GitHub path>

Try this 2048 implementation in C: https://repl.it/github/mevdschee/2048.c

(You can even run it on your phone!)

whycombagator2• 7 years ago

Try this 2048 implementation in C: https://repl.it/github/mevdschee/2048.c

I did and got: "Failed to connect, retrying"

MuffinFlavored2• 7 years ago

If the Github repo has a docker-compose.yml file in it, can it spin up all of the containers?

verttii• 7 years ago

Public sharing of REPLs for anyone even without an account is just awesome. Gitpod or anyone else that I know of doesn't offer this.

0x4FFC8F• 7 years ago

Okay this is irrelevant to the discussion but I just typed in `github/mevdschee/2048.c` in the address bar expecting Firefox to perform a Google search but it instead lead me to the repo! What!

aalhour• 7 years ago

It takes forever to open on my phone, tried different browsers and it still doesn't work, is this intended for desktop use only?

shaneprrlt2• 7 years ago

GitPod is a lifesaver on the go when you need to work on private repos. Couldn't recommend more highly.

j88439h84• 7 years ago

What's special about private repos? Why not just clone and use a local editor?

zubairq7• 7 years ago

when i log in to gitpod I get the message:

We have trouble parsing your context Error: Couldn't parse context '%22'. Please file an issue if you think this is a bug.

jankeromnes• 7 years ago

'%22' is an urlencoded double-quote: '"'

Maybe you accidentally have a double-quote in your URL?

ss3000• 7 years ago

That'll open up an instance of _VSCode_ in a web browser and you can start coding

GitPod actually runs https://theia-ide.org/, not VSCode, but Theia is compatible with VSCode extensions, and they've themed it to look practically identical, so it's definitely not super obvious.

snek• 7 years ago

so it tries to automatically submit prs to repos using the users? sounds like why typescript has the @types org. I'd be annoyed receiving prs of weird metadata from people using some random site or tool.

enigmadev3• 7 years ago

No not automatically! It obviously suggest implementing it and it shows you what you have to do and prepares a pr.

wishinghand• 7 years ago

Will this change the pricing model at all? Or add a new tier? NBD if it does, just wondering if a lot of people start using this if Repl.it can keep the lights on.

amasad13• 7 years ago

No, not at all. Our infra costs are a lot less than most people expect.

JoshTriplett• 7 years ago

Can you talk a little bit about your infrastructure and how you manage that?

I'm also very interested in the distributed filesystem you mentioned as item 5 in the post.

itin• 7 years ago

I've been a fan of repl.it from the start, though I failed to see the utility that a senior dev/someone with compute resources would derive from it. With this new feature, however, I think repl.it will save developers a lot of time. Kudos!

amasad13• 7 years ago

Thank you! ^^

According to "disruption" theory we're on our way :P https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Innovator%27s_Dilemma

chrisaycock2• 7 years ago

I can get the repo cloned, but nothing builds automatically. Specifically, when I click the "run on repl.it" badge, a repl.it command line appears with the cloned repo, but the run command from the .replit file is not invoked. I can type the command manually and then everything works.

I tried the first three examples (ascii_racer, minesweeper, ddgr) on both Safari (with ad blocker) and Chrome (no ad blocker). I do not have a repl.it account, so I am not logged into anything.

Overall this feature looks very impressive.

sweetjerry• 7 years ago

hi, repl.it engineer here. Are you hitting the run button in the header?

We now put you in a blank repl, and will upgrade you to the right language once we read the .replit file. After we do that reload, hitting the run button should work!

chrisaycock2• 7 years ago

Oh! My bad. The "Run" button is featured in the video.

AcerbicZero• 7 years ago

I really like Repl.it as a learning tool, and I used it a bunch while transitioning from ruby to python, although its also given me a few bad habits, and I've never been able to find much use for it while working on "real" projects. Still, I pull it up from time to time, just to confirm some bit of code I'm working on.

it's still the best multi-language Powershell ISE-ish repl I've ever used though :)

amasad13• 7 years ago

Give it a try for a "real" project and see how you feel about it. We've improved a lot recently. I'd love to hear your feedback when you try it out: amjad@repl.it

westoncb2• 7 years ago

Somebody submitted a PR to a JavaScript/glsl game of mine last night (https://github.com/westoncb/under-game), adding a badge/link that would open the repo on repl.it.

I looked around at the user's activity a bit and they had sent essentially the same PR to at least one other repo recently, and appeared to be affiliated with repl.it.

I went ahead and merged the PR since it does just seem like a small net positive addition.

I still wonder though: what downside to this might I be missing?

davesque3• 7 years ago

Yep, I got the same thing. Haven't merged it and probably won't. Since it appeared to be a bot that created the PR, it seemed like a rather underhanded, spammy way of promoting the repl.it project. It kinda reminds me of the whole tip4commit debacle with the flask project: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8542969

amasad13• 7 years ago

We're certainly not operating any bots if that's what you're implying.

amasad13• 7 years ago

I looked up the PR author and it's a repl.it user and community moderator (https://repl.it/@eankeen).

Anyways, I hope the PRs are not annoying -- it certainly cool to be able to run under game quickly (I scored 97 https://imgur.com/a/HHMMXAY)

westoncb2• 7 years ago

It's not necessarily an issue—I am for now happy to have the badge/link on my repo.

I would have been less suspicious if the messaging had been more straightforward (e.g. "Hey, we're seeing if some projects we like would be interested in adding a repl.it badge to their READMEs."). As it was, the PR initially sounded like something personalized, directed toward me—but then I go and find the exact message being sent to others, which activates my suspicion.

zapita• 7 years ago

I would be surprised if repl.it didn't get acquired by Github before the end of 2020.

PRTIFFANY• 7 years ago

my thoughts exactly

ebbflowgo• 7 years ago

This is awesome guys! One conversion suggestion, in your "Try it out" section, add the repl.it link beside the project. I went into ascii_racer and didn't find the repl.it button so I bounced.

From repo to running repl is a dream.

anaphor• 7 years ago

What's the recommended way to deal with projects that have system level dependencies? (E.g. in C). I have build scripts but no way to install anything. Do I have to use docker or some other container technology?

Edit: sounds like they plan on allowing docker containers which would be really nice. Great job on the MVP.

gnumoksha• 7 years ago

There is a well established FOSS IDE that does the job: http://eclipse.org/che (SaaS http://codenvy.com)

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