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The Future of the Gitlab Web IDE

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Re: The Future of the Gitlab Web IDE

#81

Post by leodriesch »

shp0ngle wrote: post #33

Running VSCode remotely introduces many interesting challenges, mostly due to security. (You are letting your users run any arbitrary code on your infrastructure.) However, I guess GitLab already has this sorted out, because of their existing IDE, and they are experts in this area. Also the open source versions of VSCode don't have access to the official VSCode marketplace. (Both VSCodium and coder.com Code Server.)…

Users can already run code on their infrastructure with CI jobs, so I’d guess they already have that part figured out.

The extensions and settings sync are going to be interesting, especially since they were pretty positive about extension support in the post.

Re: The Future of the Gitlab Web IDE

#82

Post by makeitdouble »

TekMol wrote: post #59

What is the idea here on how to use it for anything but front end development? When I edit PHP, Python, Ruby, whatever code that is hosted on GitLab via their Web IDE, how am I supposed to see the result when it needs a whole stack with Linux, Apache and MySQL below it to run?

I use the current web editor a lot for small changes on repositories I don't want to full clone.

For instance if you need to change a value in a configuration file, you can make the change in a new branch, have the CI pass on it, check if every was fine, and merge/deploy as needed. All from the web interface.

I'm sure some people use it do crazy complex changes, but I see it as convenience for scope limited tasks more than anything.

Re: The Future of the Gitlab Web IDE

#83

Post by leodriesch »

TekMol wrote: post #59

What is the idea here on how to use it for anything but front end development? When I edit PHP, Python, Ruby, whatever code that is hosted on GitLab via their Web IDE, how am I supposed to see the result when it needs a whole stack with Linux, Apache and MySQL below it to run?

GitHub Codespaces and VSCode remote development solve this problem by using docker and optionally docker compose to create reproducible development environments.

GitHub is using Codespaces itself [0], which is a huge Rails app with tons of infrastructure behind it I’d assume.

[0]: https://github.blog/2021-08-11-githubs-engineering-team-move...

Re: The Future of the Gitlab Web IDE

#84

Post by pjmlp »

spc476 wrote: post #34
sdf4j wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, you can. Web IDEs are usually some sort of containerized linux environment with a text editor and a terminal. All accessible in the browser. What kind of lack of control are you thinking of?

30 years of experience of using UNIX as my IDE, with my editor and debugger of choice. All I see is the industry heading back to the 60s, where the high priests took care of the computer, and users were an after thought that paid for CPU and storage. We had the PC revolution for a reason.

The UNIX high priests here quite active up to 15 years ago, in 2005 I was still telneting into the UNIX development server and starting my own graphical tools via X remote sessions.

Re: The Future of the Gitlab Web IDE

#85

Post by [deleted] »

daenz wrote: post #12

Maybe I'm getting old, but I don't want to do all development-related tasks in my web browser. As a software engineer, I want local control, where an internet connection is optional. I want to be able to experiment with the software in various local setups. I just don't get why Gitlab thinks this is a good idea worth a huge amount of engineering effort. Are people really clamoring for this feature?

[deleted]

Re: The Future of the Gitlab Web IDE

#86

Post by teddyh »

echelon wrote: post #45
daenz wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ailments you describe can be resolved by having a small dedicated Developer Experience team. Their mission is to ensure that developers can ramp up quickly with deterministic environments and keep a high velocity with developer tooling. If a big company doesn't have one, they're messing up. I see the benefits of having something that "always works" though the browser, but for me, the lack of control does not outw…

> The ailments you describe can be resolved by having a small dedicated Developer Experience team. This is a cost center and will be underfunded in most companies and orgs. Companies want to focus on their core competency. Also, devenv is non-standard across companies. If a company wants a truly interchangeable workforce, they want standard tools that look the same everywhere. > but for me, the lack of control does n…

Because firing people more efficiently in the creative industry is an important problem to be solved?

Re: The Future of the Gitlab Web IDE

#87

Post by [deleted] »

[deleted] wrote: post #85
daenz wrote: post #12

Maybe I'm getting old, but I don't want to do all development-related tasks in my web browser. As a software engineer, I want local control, where an internet connection is optional. I want to be able to experiment with the software in various local setups. I just don't get why Gitlab thinks this is a good idea worth a huge amount of engineering effort. Are people really clamoring for this feature?

[deleted]

[deleted]

Re: The Future of the Gitlab Web IDE

#88

Post by forty »

jve wrote: post #74
daenz wrote: post #12

Maybe I'm getting old, but I don't want to do all development-related tasks in my web browser. As a software engineer, I want local control, where an internet connection is optional. I want to be able to experiment with the software in various local setups. I just don't get why Gitlab thinks this is a good idea worth a huge amount of engineering effort. Are people really clamoring for this feature?

You have a choice after all (local vs remote). And it is useful/convenient on having remote development option available. There is another remote development convenience point I don't see mentioned in this thread: Infrastructure. If your frontend/backend is isolated and depends on heavy services (i.e on-premise cloud platform API), having development environment configured for you where everything is configured appro…

Well we do have the choice for now, but it's not very hard to imagine a version of gitlab (or competitor) without external git support, and everything would have to be done inside the webIDE. It's for sure very attractive for security/IT people, which is why I would not even be surprised if that actually happens in the future (and that makes me extremely sad)

Re: The Future of the Gitlab Web IDE

#89

Post by hk__2 »

alephnan wrote: post #77
DeathArrow wrote: post #65

I want to own the code, own the software, own the tools (IDE, compiler etc) and also be the only one who controls them. And I want to also develop fast, not wait for some goddamn web app. And no, I don't need to code on my phone or tablet while travelling to Bahamas.

What IDE do you 'own'?

I guess that OP is talking about having the IDE/compiler/etc binary on their computer and not having to rely on any external service to work.

Re: The Future of the Gitlab Web IDE

#90

Post by jillesvangurp »

jve wrote: post #78
zarzavat wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft may have a dominant position in developer tooling, but they don’t have a monopoly. A well-funded team could create a compelling competitor to VS Code. The issue is that there’s no money to be made duplicating the effort that has gone into VS Code when VS Code is open source. Even Google doesn’t seem to care about entering that space.

Haven't ever used JetBrains Rider, but I hear they too have remote development capability: https://www.jetbrains.com/remote-development/

Jetbrains just did a deal with gitpod as well: https://www.gitpod.io/blog/gitpod-jetbrains

Remote development environments are becoming a thing. I've not really had a chance to explore this space a lot but I might.

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