Web-based IDEs? Less far-fetched than you think.
Do you remember the Eclipse 4.0 "prototype" shown at the EclipseCon? Yes, the web-based Eclipse workbench? I must admit that I've not been very convinced that a web-based IDE would have much practical appeal. However seeing the demo videos for Heroku - a web-based IDE and hosting environment for Ruby on Rails applications - has changed my mind.
After all if the app has to be on the web and source == binary (Ruby is interpreted), why not put the IDE on the web too? Having the tools, the code and the runtime environment on-line makes several things easier:
- Start working in a snap: Instant access to the source code from anywhere. No need to set-up an IDE. No need to set-up a local Ruby on Rails environment. No need to check out any code. Your data is there.
- Instant collaboration: create a developer account. Send link to log-in page to developer. Start collaborating. (I hope it will support collaborative editing).
- Deployment of the app is trivial. No need to find and configure a suitable server.
- The "hosted-everything" aspect could make a great "source-forge-with-hosting" combo. Imagine finding a good web-application and just having to click on "deploy and run this on my account" for giving it a test drive.
Now, how does it apply to Java web-apps?
Food-for-thought,
Elias.
Image Source: Heruko Demo Videos - (c) Copyright 2008 Heroku.com.
5 comments:
:-)
No don't do that. Dont get to be another vistim of the web hype. Theres something going on on managing eclipse deployment configurations for teams. That will make it easy to have a preconfigured eclipse ready for our teams. If you need it, web start it. But keep away from me with your web hype guis, its a nightmare whats going on there with ajax on all this unready technologies. what we need is a browser thats capable of handling proper guis without that ugly ajax hacking. look at silverlight I think what they are doing goes in the right direction.
While you're at it, you may want to whip up your Rails deployment appetite by sampling Morph eXchange, too, Elias.
Best.
alain
@Tom: I'm not proposing that everybody should use a web-based IDE. However for web-apps it makes sense to have a web-based IDE. Heroku shows how this can work for Ruby.
I agree with you that low-level ajax hacking is ugly. However that is where technologies like Eclipse RAP (which abstracts the ajax stuff away behind Java APIs) can help.
@friarminor: interesting, I had a look at the demo on your site. I missed the "web-IDE" aspect - which was one of the thinks I find very interesting on Heroku. Otherwise, just jugding by the web-site, Morph eXchange seems to be a little more mature.
Regards,
Elias.
Well, what about RIAs? For this purpose they seem to be well-fitted.
And i want something like this for GRAILS (My new favourite toy).
Oh and to come back to Eclipse: Its a long road till you have something like a useable deployment configuration for companies. :(
p2 is a first step but only the very first(At least you can have theoretically a central dropin-folder for all plugins).
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