https://amasad.me/replit_ide

Repl.it is a reaction to the modern software development grind, where many developers spend their time waiting for builds, running tests, fighting with linters, and configuring frameworks. It's an attempt to get back to the basics of programming -- to make coding fun again.

I think this article pretty well sums up why I find it hard to get excited about repl.it and its ilk... In striving to be reactionary, they've abandoned the good and the bad of what we have, but at the same time haven't made any truly revolutionary changes to it either. You end up with a tool that rejects fitting in to the ecosystem in favor of creating its own microcosm of the same thing. It's either too reactionary or not revolutionary enough.

Fair assessment. I think repl.it and their ilk are essentially asking two questions: 1. Now that we can get an IDE-like programming experience in the browser, does it still make sense for developers to maintain their own local development environments? 2. If everyone is coding in the cloud, do the current tools we use for collaboration (mainly

git

) still make sense in that context? I think these are good things to test, but like you've said, most of the contemporary approach to programming stays the same.

I actually was more excited after reading this. It seems surprising for a startup to explicitly say they're not optimizing for legacy enterprise software use cases. The cynic in me still wonders how they're going to build a business with just users building side projects. But I hope they fail (or succeed!) in an exciting new way.

What you don't do is as at least as important as what you do do.