jlbox

jlbox uses node.js to provide a mechanism for automatically reloading julia source and test files via gulp.js and a ZMQ socket. The tests are assumed to be using the FactCheck.jl package. jlbox will even restart your julia process if you manage to write code that crashes it!

jlbox will also stub out module/test file pairs.

Dependencies

In julia, ensure you have the following packages installed:

Pkg.add("ZMQ")
Pkg.add("FactCheck")
Pkg.add("Lint")

Install nodejs and ZMQ:

OS X

I use homebrew:

brew install node
brew install zmq

Windows

For windows there were several things I needed to do (if you already have node.js and can build things via node-gyp you can skip these steps):

1. Install chocolatey
2. Install node cinst nodejs.install
3. Install zmq windows client
4. Satisfy the node-gyp build dependencies. FYI - I wasn't able to complete step 4 on XP (said Windows SDK 7.1 not found, but compiling still worked for me)
5. Make sure julia binary is in your PATH. When using the prepackaged binary I needed to copy julia-readline.exe as julia.exe (from the /bin folder) and add that location (including the bin dir) to my PATH. Validate that typing julia on the command line opens the julia REPL.

Note: you may need to restart a few times (I did) to complete all the dependencies.

Install jlbox

Use npm to install:

npm install -g gulp
npm install -g jlbox

The -g flag will make the jlbox and gulp binaries available from your command line.

Workflow

> mkdir my_project
> cd my_project
> jlbox init
> jlbox module Sample
> gulp

With your project ready to go, run the gulp command in your project root. This command will start watching files in in src/ and test/ directories. When a source file is modified, it will look in the test/ folder for corresponding file filename_test.jl. When a test file is modified, it will re-run the tests in that file.

In order to avoid redefinition problems, use modules for your code and tests. Please see jlbox.jl and jlbox_test.jl for examples.

For more information, please see my blog post.

Commands

init

Running jlbox init will setup your project for watching julia files. It should be run in your project root. It does a few things:

• Makes test/ and src/ folders
• Creates a gulpfile.js and gulp.jl file
• Creates a package.json file
• Uses npm to install: gulp, gulp-util, and zmq node packages

module

Running jlbox module Simple will make two files: src/Simple.jl and test/Simple_test.jl. The files will be stubbed out and include a module-based setup for you to begin coding and testing.

Contributing

I'm very open to contributions. This tool has helped me improve my workflow and I'm sure there are plenty of features (e.g. custom templates, etc.) that will make it much better. Feel free to submit a PR/issue with your ideas.