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#+TITLE: SPIRAL (beta) #+AUTHOR: Daniel Barreto #+EMAIL: [email protected] #+DESCRIPTION: SPIRAL project README #+LANGUAGE: en #+OPTIONS: H:4 num:nil toc:2 p:t #+STARTUP: showall

[[https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/][file:https://img.shields.io/badge/Emacs-25-8e44bd.svg]] [[https://travis-ci.org/Unrepl/spiral][file:https://travis-ci.org/Unrepl/spiral.svg?branch=master]] [[https://melpa.org/#/spiral][file:https://melpa.org/packages/spiral-badge.svg]]

Emacs >= 25.1, Clojure >= 1.8.0

Pick your definition:

SPIRAL is a Clojure IDE for Emacs.
SPIRAL is a client interface to a Clojure's Socket REPL through the [[https://github.com/unrepl/unrepl][UNREPL]] protocol.

Introduction Both definitions above are correct and complement each other.

SPIRAL started as a simple experiment for using the [[https://github.com/unrepl/unrepl][UNREPL]] protocol as the communication method between an Emacs buffer and a Clojure Socket REPL. With the pass of time, it has been evolving into a baby Clojure IDE. Currently it has a fair amount of [[#features][Features]].

SPIRAL's UI is meant to rely heavily on the REPL buffer for displaying any kind of data that may be too big or complex to display in the Echo Area or as an overlay. The main idea is to allow you maintain focus on only two things during your development workflow: Your Clojure code (in =clojure-mode= buffers) and the REPL buffer. SPIRAL will try, whenever possible and reasonable, to favor displaying data in the REPL buffer over using external temporary buffers.

SPIRAL is of the same nature as [[https://cider.readthedocs.io/en/latest/][CIDER]]. In fact, SPIRAL takes a lot of inspiration from CIDER's features, but both differ in certain UI decisions (included the aforementioned.)

Another important difference is that SPIRAL is meant to be used to connect to Socket REPLs, where CIDER is built to connect to [[https://github.com/clojure/tools.nrepl][nREPL]]. Both Socket REPLs and nREPL serve the purpose of allowing you to connect to a running Clojure process, send it stuff to be evaluated and get data back. If you want to get deeper into these concepts, I encourage you to go read Arne Brasseur's [[https://lambdaisland.com/guides/clojure-repls][The Ultimate Guide To Clojure REPLs]].

Lastly, SPIRAL is a young project, so if you are new to Clojure development in Emacs, for now I would recommend to start with [[https://cider.readthedocs.io/en/latest/][CIDER]], since it's more stable, more & better documented, and has a bigger community behind it.
Quick Start

** Installing

*** Package.el

SPIRAL is available in [[http://melpa.milkbox.net/#/][MELPA]], and it's the recommended way to install it. Simply run:

#+BEGIN_SRC M-x package-install [RET] spiral [RET] #+END_SRC

*** Manual installation

Install [[https://github.com/plexus/a.el][a.el]], [[https://github.com/clojure-emacs/clojure-mode][clojure-mode]], and [[https://github.com/volrath/treepy.el][treepy]]. All available in [[http://melpa.milkbox.net/#/][MELPA]].
Download this repository, or clone it with its submodules:

#+BEGIN_SRC shell-script $ git clone --recursive https://github.com/unrepl/spiral #+END_SRC
Then place this repository, and its parseclj submodule copy, somewhere in your load-path. Or just paste this in your emacs configuration and evaluate it:

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp (let ((spiral-dir "/path/to/your/copy/of/spiral/")) (add-to-list 'load-path spiral-dir) (add-to-list 'load-path (expand-file-name "parseclj" spiral-dir)) (require 'spiral)) #+END_SRC

** Connecting to a Socket REPL The main way to connect to a Socket REPL in SPIRAL is by issuing: =M-x spiral-connect=.

When this command is executed in a buffer that belongs to a Clojure project, it will automagically create a Socket REPL for it and connect. Right now, SPIRAL supports only automatic connection in projects using [[https://leiningen.org/][Leiningen]] or [[http://boot-clj.com/][Boot]]

= 2.7.2.

If you already have a Socket REPL running, you can prefix the connect command (=C-u M-x spiral-connect=) or issue =M-x spiral-connect-to= to get a prompt for inserting your Socket's host and port.

There are several ways to create your own Socket REPL, here are some examples:

#+BEGIN_SRC shell-script # clojure 1.9.0 $ clj -J-Dclojure.server.myrepl="{:port 5555,:accept,clojure.core.server/repl}" # lein: $ JVM_OPTS='-Dclojure.server.myrepl={:port,5555,:accept,clojure.core.server/repl}' lein repl # or boot < 2.7.2: $ boot -i "(do (require 'clojure.core.server) (clojure.core.server/start-server {:port 5555 :name :repl :accept 'clojure.core.server/repl}))" wait # or boot >= 2.7.2: $ boot socket-server --port 5555 wait # or plain Clojure jar: $ java -Dclojure.server.myrepl="{:port 5555,:accept,clojure.core.server/repl}" -jar ~/.m2/repository/org/clojure/clojure/1.8.0/clojure-1.8.0.jar #+END_SRC

After SPIRAL successfully connects to a Socket REPL you will be greeted with a REPL Buffer, and all your Clojure buffers related to the project you just connected will have the =spiral-mode= activated automatically.

** Usage Besides the REPL Buffer, SPIRAL enables a few commands in each Clojure Buffer running =spiral-mode=:

Autocompletion with [[http://company-mode.github.io/][company-mode]].
=C-c C-z=: Switch to REPL buffer
=C-x C-e=: Evaluate expression before point.
=C-c C-c=: Evaluate top level expression.
=C-c C-r=: Send last evaluation to the REPL buffer.
=C-c C-b=: Evaluate buffer.
=C-c C-g=: Interrupt current evaluation.
=M-s-.=: Easy jumping through buttons with [[https://github.com/abo-abo/avy/][avy]].
=C-c q=: Quit SPIRAL.

Features :PROPERTIES: :CUSTOM_ID: Features :END:

*** Automatically create a Socket REPL using your project's build tool SPIRAL currently supports [[https://leiningen.org/][Leiningen]], [[http://boot-clj.com/][Boot]] >= 2.7.2, or Clojure's [[https://clojure.org/guides/deps_and_cli][clj CLI]]. In this example, the project has both a build.boot file and a deps.edn file, so spiral-connect prompts for a way to run the project.

#+caption: M-x spiral-connect
[[file:gifs/connect.gif]]

*** Connect to an existing Socket REPL

#+caption: M-x spiral-connect-to
[[file:gifs/connect-to.gif]]

*** Elided data structures Taking advantage of one of UNREPL's nice features, the REPL buffer will elide big or complex data structures with clickable buttons.

#+caption: Elided data structures
[[file:gifs/elision.gif]]

*** Easy shortcut to navigate buttons Making use of the awesome [[https://github.com/abo-abo/avy/][avy]] library, SPIRAL provides a REPL shortcut to jump to any button in the screen. Bound to =M-s-.=. Watch how easy is to jump to the 1st, 3rd, and 5th button on the screen.

#+caption: Navigate REPL buttons
[[file:gifs/avy.gif]]

*** Playing with Images? why not opening them in the REPL? SPIRAL supports displaying buffered images directly in the REPL.

#+caption: Image support
[[file:gifs/hendrix.gif]]

*** Standard output strings can be grouped into their respective REPL entries This is a customizable feature, you can turn it off by setting =spiral-repl-group-stdout= to =nil=.

#+caption: Grouped stdout strings
[[file:gifs/grouped-outs.gif]]

*** In place documentation A la [[https://github.com/unrepl/unravel][Unravel]]. Hit =C-c C-d= to get in-place documentation of the symbol at point.

#+caption: In place documentation
[[file:gifs/in-place-doc.gif]]

*** Pretty (and elided) stacktraces For now, stacktraces show differently between Clojure 1.8.0 and 1.9.0, due to a [[https://github.com/clojure/clojure/blob/master/changes.md#33-other-fixes][breaking change in Clojure]]. See also [[https://github.com/Unrepl/unrepl/issues/27][unrepl#27]].

#+caption: Elided stacktraces
[[file:gifs/exceptions.gif]]

*** Even for lazy errors Lazy errors are reduced to a minimum expression, with a button to inspect further.

#+caption: Lazy errors
[[file:gifs/lazy-errors.gif]]

*** Interactive evaluation results overlays Same as [[https://github.com/clojure-emacs/cider/][CIDER]] and [[http://lighttable.com/][LightTable]].

#+caption: Interactive evaluation overlays
[[file:gifs/overlays.gif]]

*** Is the result too big? Inspect it in the REPL When interactive results are too big for in-buffer overlays, you can just move them to the REPL buffer and inspect them there.

SPIRAL will also copy/paste the evaluated expression and add it to the
REPL history.

#+caption: Interactive inspection
[[file:gifs/interactive-inspection.gif]]

*** Interactive Exception happened? Inspect it in the REPL Exceptions are shown in the REPL buffer, no matter where they come from. SPIRAL will try to figure out which expression caused the exception and will copy it to the REPL buffer as well.

#+caption: Interactive exception
[[file:gifs/interactive-exception.gif]]

Contributing

Please refer to [[file:CONTRIBUTING.org][CONTRIBUTING.org]].

Resources
- [[https://github.com/unrepl/unrepl][UNREPL]]: the protocol.
- [[https://github.com/unrepl/unravel][Unravel]]: an UNREPL terminal-based client.
- The Ultimate Guide To Clojure REPLs on the [[https://lambdaisland.com/guides/clojure-repls/clojure-repls#orgheadline20][Socket REPL]].
- [[https://github.com/puredanger/replicant][replicant]]: proof of concept of using Socket REPL for tooling

Join the =#unrepl= channel in the [[http://clojurians.net/][Clojurians slack]]!

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