REPL: show user loaded packages in the banner

[IanButterworth]

I think it would be helpful to inform the user what was automatically loaded by startup.jl (or by -ie "using Foo" but less useful)

% ./julia
               _
   _       _ _(_)_     |  Documentation: https://docs.julialang.org
  (_)     | (_) (_)    |
   _ _   _| |_  __ _   |  Type "?" for help, "]?" for Pkg help.
  | | | | | | |/ _` |  |
  | | |_| | | | (_| |  |  Version 1.13.0-DEV.563 (2025-05-09)
 _/ |\__'_|_|_|\__'_|  |  Commit 6180ca0e53* (0 days old master)
|__/                   |  Loaded packages: Revise, SimpleLooper

julia>

In particular it's helpful to be reminded whether Revise is loaded when working between multiple machines.

[timholy]

What happens if I put OmniPackage's direct and indirect dependencies in my startup.jl? Do you still like the outcome?

[IanButterworth]

Yeah. Good point. I think it's reasonable for this to just truncate with ...

[IanButterworth]

Note that Pkg and REPL are in this list because they were loaded as user packages via -ie "using REPL, Pkg" rather than the typical require_stdlib way.

[Keno]

If the point is for people to know if Revise is loaded, why not have Revise modify the julia prompt to provide a small unobtrusive indicator, e.g. ⟳ julia> on the REPL prompt? That way you don't even have to scroll up. I don't know if the full list of loaded packages is a useful thing in general to always print.

[IanButterworth]

Julia + Revise

juliar>

More seriously..

julia≥

Or a different green? That's a bit too subtle perhaps. Maybe underline?

A prefix like you suggest might be ok. We do that in Pkg already..

[timholy]

@Keno, that's a really good idea.

[IanButterworth]

My browser font was so small I didn't realize your suggestion was an arrow circle. Yeah I like that.
Some arrow circle chars might be more obvious. Needs testing. I can look into what's needed for Revise & REPL to support this

⟳ julia>
↻ julia> 

[giordano]

Wouldn't that break copy-pasting terminal output? Given how much Revise is popular, that'd cause inconvenience to many users.

[Keno]

The REPL pasting code is robust to changes in the prompt (that's how copy/pasting non-standard REPL modes works). I don't know if it's robust to prefix changes outside of the Pkg mode, but I'm sure it could be adjusted.

[IanButterworth]

That could be fixed for the version it lands on, but yeah, not backwards compatible which might be blocker.

[timholy]

I guess we could safely do a color-only change. Say blue instead of green?

[KristofferC]

Blue is Pkg mode.

[IanButterworth]

Underline?