Enable spacemacs/default-pop-shell like behavior for mode specific REPL's

[luxbock]

I'd like to propose that for languages that support a REPL inside Emacs, the mode specific evil-leader binding (i.e. , ') should pop it up and behave similarly as the SPC ' binding behaves with shell:

• If no REPL buffer is running, it one should be created.
• If a REPL is running but not visible, it should pop-up the same way the shell does.
• If a REPL is running and visible, , ' should focus that window.

I can give a go at implementing this for Clojure if there's no objections to it.

[bmag]

Would be nice to hit , ' instead of , s i (in Python) 👍

IIRC, C-c C-z is the convention in Emacs for opening a REPL, so most of it should already be implemented.
If the window doesn't open where you want it (bottom of the screen, I assume), I think you'd probably want to look at display-purpose-alist.

Also, shouldn't , ' close the REPL if used from inside the REPL?

[luxbock]

With display-purpose-alist I assume you are refering to #1958? We probably can't rely on that given that it's a layer and not enabled by default.

Yes , ' should close the REPL if called from inside the REPL buffer.

[bmag]

Oh sorry, I got confused somehow 😞 I meant display-buffer-alist. My apologies.

[syl20bnr]

But how can we discriminate between the REPL and a regular terminal if both are under SPC ' ? I like the idea but we need a new key binding for the REPL.

[bmag]

@syl20bnr I don't understand what you mean. There will be two distinct bindings:
SPC ' for terminal
, ' for REPL
I've managed to implement such behavior for python and emacs-lisp (ielm) in my personal config, but I've used window-purpose for it. I could try doing it without window-purpose, though.

Also, I thought it might be nice if , ' in Dired buffers would open the recently used REPL, but I'm not sure if it's really useful.

[d12frosted]

Fixed with released of Spacemacs v0.200. Let us know if you still have any problems with this issue.