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GitHub’s engineering team has moved to Codespaces

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Re: GitHub’s engineering team has moved to Codespaces

#81
post #19

I would quit so fast if my company forced me to use a web IDE.

I am wary of requiring an internet connection in order to develop, but there seem to be more and more advantages to using something like Codespaces. The article describes using pretty much any IDE, so they are just offloading the setup and running of the development environment to the cloud while letting you run your preferred IDE locally.

Some people literally disconnect the cable to get rid of all the online distractions. I've seen this mentioned in a few threads on procrastination here. It's sad some tools will not let you do that anymore.

Re: GitHub’s engineering team has moved to Codespaces

#82
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GitHub isn't forcing anybody to use a web IDE. The most broadly used access interface is VSCode. Then there are heretics like me who choose to ssh in so we can use Vim. This is described in the article.

Do you have to drag your .vimrc and plugins along every time you set up a new code space? My vim setup is pretty bespoke, it would be annoying to have to set that up every time.

You can have it clone your dotfiles repo automatically and run a set-up script:

https://docs.github.com/en/codespaces/customizing-your-codes...

I also have a very bespoke dotfiles config that predates Codespaces (https://github.com/wincent/wincent), so I made a thin wrapper around it that makes it work (https://github.com/wincent/dotfiles). For people with less complicated set-ups (ie. basically the entire universe), it is pretty straightforward.

Re: GitHub’s engineering team has moved to Codespaces

#84

I would quit so fast if my company forced me to use a web IDE.

I would be happy to let go of an employee who bank their employment on the preference of toolings. Hear me out: Toolings are, like the name suggests, a means to an end. If a web IDE is fast, works reasonably, and can continue improve itself. And the learning curve is friendly to engineers with different background and experience. Everyone should be comfortable to be nudged to use it. And if the tool additionally is a…

Yeah, whenever I hear this kind of rhetoric - if my company ever required it's time for a new job - I roll my eyes. Sure, keep pushing yourself out of more companies, there are a lot of good engineers* who will be absolutely as productive as you and who won't be a drain on everyone around them.

*it's always engineers making these statements or I only know engineers

Re: GitHub’s engineering team has moved to Codespaces

#85
post #40

Just a couple of years ago some kid gained access to every repo on github. Now githubs code is going to be developed on an online platform, which works by sharing code others have uploaded. I have a feeling that this is not a good recipe.

>Just a couple of years ago some kid gained access to every repo on github.

Very curious to know more about this. What exactly are you talking about? Closest thing I could find is this[0], but you said "couple of years ago".

[0] https://www.zdnet.com/article/hacker-gains-access-to-a-small...

Re: GitHub’s engineering team has moved to Codespaces

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be happy to let go of an employee who bank their employment on the preference of toolings. Hear me out: Toolings are, like the name suggests, a means to an end. If a web IDE is fast, works reasonably, and can continue improve itself. And the learning curve is friendly to engineers with different background and experience. Everyone should be comfortable to be nudged to use it. And if the tool additionally is a…

I'd absolutely never work with someone so arrogant (and, for lack of a more polite word, dumb, as you). When I work for someone, I do the work they ask me and in return they pay me AND I get to learn something. For my learning process, I need the work part to be over fast. And that means I need to use stuff that I works best for me. I also need to be able to be able to fulfill my potential and spend time doing actual…

sounds good, good luck

Re: GitHub’s engineering team has moved to Codespaces

#87

I would quit so fast if my company forced me to use a web IDE.

Note that they mainly use VS Code and also support vim and emacs.

Okay? That's three editors and there are hundreds of others (though probably <25 that are used by more than a few people). There are sizeable followings for other CLI editors like Neovim, Kakoune, Yi, etc.

Re: GitHub’s engineering team has moved to Codespaces

#89
post #35

I was curious about the cost. The pricing and compute resources just about correspond to an Azure A series instances, but the ram corresponds better to the v2 series, which is cheaper than v1. I wonder if they're upcharging for v2 machines.

These are also the costs for Teams/Enterprise (who would be willing to pay more); I wonder if they'll release a cheaper/free SKU for individual users.

Would love for them to have a free tier. Example: 25 hours free per month, just to play around.

This might be very resource intensive though.

Re: GitHub’s engineering team has moved to Codespaces

#90
> "So we moved to 32 core, 64 GB RAM VMs. By changing a single line of configuration, we upgraded every engineer’s machine."

On GitHub, that instance type is $2.88/hour or $2,073 monthly per developer for a single instance.

(Granted, that's running 24/7 but still - wow, that's expensive for a single instance)

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