Earlier quoted context omitted.
GitLab team member here. We released a beta version of our new Web IDE which is built using VS Code. The new Web IDE will provide users access to more features, improved performance, and the ability to securely connect to a remote development environment directly from the Web IDE.
With all due respect (big GitLab fan here) there are at least two features that are missing that for me makes this product unusable: 1. Inability to switch branches in the editor [0] 2. Full project search "to be enabled at a later date" So I can't switch branches off of the default branch and I can't search the entire project. To me, this undermines your claim that the new web IDE "will provide users access to more…
As a work-around, if you know the name of the existing branch you want to switch to, you can change the URL in your browser's location bar for the IDE. Here's the URL format:
https://gitlab.com/-/ide/project//[/...]/edit//-/
This will re-load the IDE on the different branch.You can also switch branches in the GitLab UI's Files view, before launching the Web IDE with the "Web IDE" button (or the `.` shortcut).
Also pressing "Web IDE" from an MR in GitLab will open that MR's branch in the Web IDE.
So it depends upon your workflow currently, but I agree it will be nice to be able to swap within the IDE itself later (also when the GitLab Flow extension is added).
The built-in git support in Code is already an improvement over the old Web IDE's Stage/Commit workflow, IMHO, and after the first load, the new Web IDE also loads faster than the old one, for me at least.