For someone that’s only using the community editio...

# javascript

[Nicole]

For someone that’s only using the community edition of Intellij for a personal project, what’s the best way to write a Kotlin/JS project that can utilize a nice REPL style? My first thought was to try and run the code via node.js during development/debugging, but that doesn’t seem like it’s an option? My next thought was to just build it as a multiplatform jvm/js project, and just run the jvm version during development, and deploy the js at the end? Is there a better way, given I don’t actually want to target the jvm? ^^

[Andrew]

What is an example of something you are trying to do, regarding REPL style? I would have recommended a scratch file which sounds like it would do that but couldn't get it working myself, at least with using code in the current project which is probably what you want.

[Nicole]

Yeah, I’m not sure. The project is something that takes a file as input and applies a bunch of transforms to it, and then gives it back to the user.

[Nicole]

“For real” the user will pick it and this should all happen on the client side, but the transforms are a bit complex, so being able to run it over and over to check things is important to me.

[Nicole]

(It’s currently written in Python, which works, but is hosted on a server at the moment. I like the idea of being able to use Kotlin/JS and bringing it to be local)

[Andrew]

some of that sounds like a good candidate for unit tests. Are you looking for something like a command line that inputs the file you specify and shows the output of the conversion?

[Nicole]

At a high level, yes. The end-to-end output is rather complex, and so another piece of software is used to verify it.

[Nicole]

So yes, individual parts could be in unit tests, but an integration test would (or feels at least) like it would be really difficult for me to write, which is why I just create the file and then open it in the other app