A better Node.js REPL for Numerical and Scientific Computing
- Mentors
- Philipp Burckhardt, Stephannie
- Organization
- stdlib
- Technologies
- javascript, node.js
- Topics
- developer tools, cli, Repl, Interactive Interpreter
The read-eval-print loop (REPL) is a fixture of data analysis and numerical computing and provides a critical entry-point for individuals seeking to learn and better understand APIs and their associated behavior.
For a library emphasizing numerical and scientific computing, a well-featured REPL
becomes an essential tool allowing users to easily visualize and work with data in an
interactive environment.
The stdlib REPL is a command-line based interactive interpreter environment for Node.js equipped with namespaces and tools for statistical computing and data exploration enabling easy prototyping, testing, debugging, and programming. It aims to be a better alternative to the Node.js REPL with a specialized focus on scientific computing and data analysis.
This project focuses on implementing a suite of enhancements to the stdlib REPL including fuzzy auto-completion, syntax highlighting, visualization tools for tabular data, bracketed-paste, multi-line editing, custom keybindings, and workshops for numerical computing, to ultimately achieve feature parity with similar environments for interactive computing like IPython and Julia.