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 UNREPL protocol.
Both definitions above are correct and complement each other.
SPIRAL started as a simple experiment for using the 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.
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 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 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 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 CIDER, since it’s more stable, more & better documented, and has a bigger community behind it.
SPIRAL is available in MELPA, and it’s the recommended way to install it. Simply run:
M-x package-install [RET] spiral [RET]
- Install a.el, clojure-mode, and treepy. All available in MELPA.
- Download this repository, or clone it with its submodules:
$ git clone --recursive https://github.com/unrepl/spiral - 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:
(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))
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 Leiningen or 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:
# 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.jarAfter 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.
Besides the REPL Buffer, SPIRAL enables a few commands in each Clojure Buffer
running spiral-mode:
- Autocompletion with company-mode.
C-c C-z: Switch to REPL bufferC-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 avy.C-c q: Quit SPIRAL.
SPIRAL currently supports Leiningen, Boot >= 2.7.2, or Clojure’s 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.
Taking advantage of one of UNREPL’s nice features, the REPL buffer will elide big or complex data structures with clickable buttons.
Making use of the awesome 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.
SPIRAL supports displaying buffered images directly in the REPL.
This is a customizable feature, you can turn it off by setting
spiral-repl-group-stdout to nil.
A la Unravel. Hit C-c C-d to get in-place documentation of the symbol at
point.
For now, stacktraces show differently between Clojure 1.8.0 and 1.9.0, due to a breaking change in Clojure. See also unrepl#27.
Lazy errors are reduced to a minimum expression, with a button to inspect further.
Same as CIDER and LightTable.
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.
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.
Please refer to CONTRIBUTING.org.
- UNREPL: the protocol.
- Unravel: an UNREPL terminal-based client.
- The Ultimate Guide To Clojure REPLs on the Socket REPL.
- replicant: proof of concept of using Socket REPL for tooling
Join the #unrepl channel in the Clojurians slack!
© 2017 Daniel Barreto
Distributed under the terms of the GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE, version 3.