What is a "REPL" in javascript? [closed]

Question

I saw a reference to creating a "REPL". What is a REPL?

var arDrone = require('ar-drone'); var client  = arDrone.createClient(); client.createRepl(); 

Answer 1

Good information in the repl tag right here on Stack Overflow:

About read-eval-print-loop

A Read-Eval-Print Loop (REPL) is an interactive interpreter to a programming language. It originated with LISP systems, but many other languages (Python, Ruby, Haskell, Tcl, etc.) use REPL's to manage interactive sessions. They allow for simple experimentation with a language by bypassing the compile stage of the "code -> compile -> execute" cycle.

There are 4 components to a REPL (named in LISP notation):

• A read function, which reads input from the keyboard
• An eval function, which evaluates code passed to it
• A print function, which formats and displays results
• A loop function, which runs the three previous commands until termination

Answer 2

The first Google hit gives you the definition on Wikipedia: REPL stands for read–eval–print loop:

A read–eval–print loop (REPL) is a simple, interactive computer programming environment.

In short, it starts an interactive console where you can type in commands and immediately see the result of these commands.