Modules and Revise

The most practical way to develop code in Julia, particularly when the code becomes more complex, is to write modules and use the Revise package.

To install the Revise package, do:

julia> ] add Revise

The workflow is, then:

Create a function

Create a file with a function, for example: f.jl

function f(x)
y = 2*x
return y
end

Create a module

Create a file called, for example, MyModule.jl, in which you define a module of the same name. Include the files with your function definitions in this module:

module MyModule
export f
include("./f.jl")
end

The export f command makes the f function visible from outside the module. That is, later when you load the module with using MyModule you will be able to directly call f(x) instead of having to type MyModule.f(1). Exporting or not functions is optional.

Develop using Revise

Now, start Julia and load the module with the following commands:

using Revise
using MyModule

(it is a good idea to put these commands in a file, lets say devel.jl, to load it with julia -i devel.jl every time you start a development section).

This will load the module with its functions. Since the module was loaded after Revise, the changes to the files included in that module will be tracked and updated automatically.

That means that:

julia> using Revise

2
Now, if I modify the file f.jl such that the function multiplies the value of x by 5, and save it, we have:
julia> f(1)

Thus, the REPL section can be kept open and I can change and modify my package functions without having to load all the packages all the time. The only situation, for now, that will require the restart of Julia is the redefinition of a struct, which for complicated reasons Revise is not able to track appropriately and update the state of the Julia section.