[article] Advantages of running an external Clojure REPL

The main advantages I can think of for running an external repl include

• separation from the editor
  • the editor can be closed leaving the Repl running,
  • different editors can be used with the same REPL process
• Run a Repl on a remote server
  • enables collaboration such as mob programming
• Resilience
  • an editor or IDE crash/hang will leave the repl running
• Long running services
  • e.g. web services like jetty / http-kit, local log output
  • service control (integrant Repl) in a separate dedicated terminal window
• Easily tailored configuration
  • specifically for Clojure CLI aliases, especially user level aliases as not all editors directly support user level aliases

Practicalli has a terminal UI that is very optimised experience, so using an external repl allows using its full potential

On a side note, it's often easier to show the command of how to do something in Clojure than try and describe how to do something in all the other Clojure aware editors out there