Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Web IDE Beta

docs.gitlab.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 258 posts

Re: Web IDE Beta

#2

Post by oblio »

Interesting, I think several websites are doing this.

I wonder if at some point VS Code will add some enterprise editions, these feel like the perfect place to do it.

Re: Web IDE Beta

#4

Post by epolanski »

oblio wrote: post #2

Interesting, I think several websites are doing this. I wonder if at some point VS Code will add some enterprise editions, these feel like the perfect place to do it.

I think the biggest risk for those companies (see GitPod who had multiple blog posts about it) is that the good parts of VSC really are closed source or not MIT-licensed so you can't use things like share or extensions and many others.

I think cloud vendors like gitlab and others should actually work on rewriting or maintaining a different fork or write an entirely different web editor altogether.

VSC is not a piece of competitor-friendly software and most importantly it does not support mobile browsers so imho all these companies are locking themselves in the past as the need for mobile and tablet editing (even if limited) is going to keep rising and they are not offering it.

Re: Web IDE Beta

#5

Post by lozenge »

oblio wrote: post #2

Interesting, I think several websites are doing this. I wonder if at some point VS Code will add some enterprise editions, these feel like the perfect place to do it.

They have one, it's called GitHub Codespaces. (Remember, nobody wants to sell software any more, only services).

Microsoft's strategy is to build a moat around VS Code/GitHub. Compared to GitLab, they have:

* Brand recognition of VS Code

* VS Code extension gallery that only VS Code can connect to

* Buttons in the Desktop version of VS Code to connect to GitHub Codespaces, Azure etc

* MS-written closed source extensions- Pylance, parts of OmniSharp, Remote SSH, Remote Containers, Remote WSL, Live Share, GitHub Copilot, IntelliCode, Python WASM In the Browser, GitHub Codespaces integration.

* Control over the VS Code API. They can add just the functionality their extensions need and nothing more.

* They own the LSP specs. They can add just the functionality that VS Code implements and nothing more.

* Control over the VS Code "proposed" API. If you want to use these APIs in your extension, you have to be whitelisted by Microsoft (or ask users to install a non-VS Code version of VS Code). Gitlab can offer a Web IDE, they can't offer integration with desktop VS Code to provide those nice features like desktop-level keyboard shortcuts, Git Clone, compare with working tree, etc as that would use the "proposed" APIs.

Re: Web IDE Beta

#6

Post by lozenge »

lozenge wrote: post #5
oblio wrote: post #2

Interesting, I think several websites are doing this. I wonder if at some point VS Code will add some enterprise editions, these feel like the perfect place to do it.

They have one, it's called GitHub Codespaces. (Remember, nobody wants to sell software any more, only services). Microsoft's strategy is to build a moat around VS Code/GitHub. Compared to GitLab, they have: * Brand recognition of VS Code * VS Code extension gallery that only VS Code can connect to * Buttons in the Desktop version of VS Code to connect to GitHub Codespaces, Azure etc * MS-written closed source extensi…

Right, I just realised the GitLab Web IDE is running fully in the browser, so there is no Terminal. Maybe they are considering a later version which is more like Codespaces, letting you develop and run your code, keeping the browser as the user interface.

Re: Web IDE Beta

#7

Post by rkagerer »

I bet this eventually evolves into something like "VB for the modern web" where you go to the website, just start coding, and all the heavy-lifting of app hosting is taken care of for you. Next up, a visual point-and-draw editor.

Re: Web IDE Beta

#8

Post by TAForObvReasons »

epolanski wrote: post #4
oblio wrote: post #2

Interesting, I think several websites are doing this. I wonder if at some point VS Code will add some enterprise editions, these feel like the perfect place to do it.

I think the biggest risk for those companies (see GitPod who had multiple blog posts about it) is that the good parts of VSC really are closed source or not MIT-licensed so you can't use things like share or extensions and many others. I think cloud vendors like gitlab and others should actually work on rewriting or maintaining a different fork or write an entirely different web editor altogether. VSC is not a piece…

VSCodium, aka VSCode without the Microsoft proprietary bits, uses https://open-vsx.org/ as the extension registry. The hard problem is convincing devs to cross-publish

Re: Web IDE Beta

#9

Post by Hamuko »

"Only results from opened files are shown. Full project search to be enabled at a later date."

Rather useless at the moment. I at least can't really work around in a codebase without project search.

Re: Web IDE Beta

#10

Post by oblio »

lozenge wrote: post #6
lozenge wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have one, it's called GitHub Codespaces. (Remember, nobody wants to sell software any more, only services). Microsoft's strategy is to build a moat around VS Code/GitHub. Compared to GitLab, they have: * Brand recognition of VS Code * VS Code extension gallery that only VS Code can connect to * Buttons in the Desktop version of VS Code to connect to GitHub Codespaces, Azure etc * MS-written closed source extensi…

Right, I just realised the GitLab Web IDE is running fully in the browser, so there is no Terminal. Maybe they are considering a later version which is more like Codespaces, letting you develop and run your code, keeping the browser as the user interface.

https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/web_ide_beta/#known-...
Post reply on HN