Two days ago we introduced our beta support for React frameworks, ranging from static-site generators like GatsbyJS, to fullstack frameworks like Next.js. Today we're launching a significant performance enhancement that we're calling preboot.
Whenever you land on a repl, you get a container to develop against. Our containers are generic and work for any language/framework. When you land on a React framework, you had to hit "run" to start the server (it basically sends a yarn develop or similar to the container) . The container manager will then detect an open port, send an event to the IDE, which will show you a webview (speeded up gif below) -- afterward, you're on your way building your app.
However, this kind of experience is suboptimal because it's slow. We pride ourselves on setting up the development environment within 2 seconds of selecting a language/framework so, naturally, we need to do better.
Luckily, we have previously implemented a pooling mechanism on our infrastructure so that containers are ready and hot when you need them. What was missing from that is custom "boot" command that gets the container really hot, listening on a port, and ready to start serving. So now, when you land on a React framework environment, we grab a container for you that's already running -- your repl IDE will simply attach to it.
Take a look:
As mentioned in the announcement post, we're moving fast on getting this out of beta into something we're proud of and can, with confidence, offer to you as, if not your primary development environment, at least your secondary/prototyping one.
Stay tuned for more updates.
