Description

Tmux script to create a "scratchpad" for quickly writing/running throwaway Node code. Alternative to starting a repl, an online service like repl.it, or writing code in your browser console, etc.

Why it's Useful

I often find myself wanting to write and run some throwaway code as I reason about various problems. I will sometimes open up the Chrome Console to write code, but this can get annoying if you use const, as re-running your code will cause Identifier has already been declared errors.

Other times, I'll just create a new file called foo.js and manually run node foo.js after every save, which can be cumbersome.

node-scratchpad will script a tmux session, with two vertically split windows: your code on the left (in vim), and a file watcher on the write to run and print the console output of your code after every save.

Dependencies

• https://github.com/watchexec/watchexec
• https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm

Installation and Usage

• Clone this repository
• Create a symlink to somewhere in your PATH
  • Ex: ln -s <path_to_scratch.sh> /usr/local/bin/scratch
• Run scratch
• If no Scratch session is already running, tmux will script a new one, and prompt you to enter your desired node version
  • You can run CTRL+b followed by d to detach from your current session without ending it (assuming your tmux "prefix" key is CTRL+b)
• If a Scratch session already exists, tmux will attach to existing session

Other Notes

• This creates a file in the location of ~/scratchpad/scratch.js
• The file is not erased after closing the session
• You can copy the file contents to another location if you watch to save your scratchpad code