[ANN] Swirl.jl - Interactive Julia Learning in the REPL :cyclone: Hi everyone! :waving_hand: I’m really happy to introduce Swirl.jl, an interactive platform that teaches Julia programming right inside the REPL. It’s inspired by the excellent swirl package for R , which has helped thousands of people…

This is very cool. I remember starting to learn R with zero understanding of programming or computers through Swirl and a Coursera course (both from Johns Hopkins Biostatistics).

[image] TheCedarPrince: This is exactly something I was so excited about year’s ago being: GitHub - caseykneale/JuliaTutor.jl: Learn Julia from the REPL. The author, Casey Kneale, used to be quite prolific in the Julia ecosystem but I haven’t seen him around in nearly 4/5 years (oye, I am gettin…

Really helpful and targeted feedback. Thanks! [image] tecosaur: :heart: I will definitely look at your package! [image] tecosaur: This reminds me of some work I started a while back on an interactive version of the Emacs tutorial for Doom. Sample: Impressive! [image] tecosaur: I…

I’ve always thought Swirl was a brilliant idea for R users. I actually shared a similar entry experience to R myself.

Hi everyone Swirl now supports a fully interactive REPL mode powered by ReplMaker.jl , while still keeping the classic mode for backward compatibility. This makes Julia learning experiences smoother and more immersive right from your REPL. Below is a quick summary of what changed. TL;DR swirl() …

From the screenshots, it looks like the user inputs a number to select an entry from a menu. If that is correct, then TerminalMenus.jl might provide a much smoother interface.

Having a peek at the package source code, I’m awfully tempted to try a tweaked approach :sweat_smile: slaps hand: bad Timothy, don’t start doing another thing.

Haha, I know that feeling @tecosaur , the eternal struggle not to start another side project :sweat_smile: Your reaction might just be the push I needed. looks like it’s time to merge the REPL-support PR (probably later tonight or tomorrow). Even with two unrelated talks to prepare this month, I s…

That’s a great point. And yes, right now it’s number-based. I’ll definitely take a look at TerminalMenus.jl; it seems like a great match for Swirl’s menu navigation once the REPL mode is fully merged.

Until now, Swirl for Julia worked in a classic readline-based mode. The latest update introduces REPL-based interaction, powered by ReplMaker.jl, meaning you can now enter Swirl lessons directly inside your REPL in `swirl> mode with syntax highlighting, persistent variables, and smooth transitions …

Swirl.jl - Interactive Julia Learning in the REPL 🌀

Package Announcements

stevengj Split this topic November 18, 2025, 6:58pm 24

21 posts were split to a new topic: Reliability of AI coding tools

Topic		Replies	Views
Swirl for Julia? Teaching & Outreach question	4	857	November 6, 2025
RFC: JuliaTutor.jl Package Announcements	11	1585	May 3, 2021
Teaching Julia to Children Teaching & Outreach	29	1473	February 14, 2025
Guide the user through ?-REPL (Help mode) Internals & Design	14	1442	July 15, 2018
Issues encountered teaching classes with Julia for the first time New to Julia	140	9402	November 11, 2022

Swirl.jl - Interactive Julia Learning in the REPL 🌀

Related topics