I have used Python's REPL successfully before. You need to have an editor with a good "send to REPL" function. It works when you are writing a single script, like people do with Jupyter notebooks. I've worked with scientists over my shoulder in this fashion and it's really helped them understand what I'm doing for them.

Where it falls apart is when developing a "real" package that is split into several modules. You can't use it for that.