Ask HN: Why would you use a cloud IDE?

2 points by kolektiv 13y ago ↗ HN

This question is genuinely asked. Over the last few years various companies have started work on cloud IDEs, with admittedly impressive results in many cases. But personally, I've never been able to really identify a motivation for me to use one. Perhaps this is because I'm not very web-centric in terms of the code I write.

I feel like I must be missing something significant if people are putting a lot of effort in to something, so how do other people feel? Is the cloud IDE approach scratching a real itch, or is it being done because it can be? (My admittedly slightly pejorative initial reaction a few years back).

3 comments

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josephpmay 13y ago ↗

I see two reasons to use a cloud IDE:

1) Device independent. If you want to start writing code on your work computer, work on it on your laptop when you get home, and debug it while at your mother-in-law's house, using a cloud IDE makes this much easier than having to sync files and have programs installed on all computers

2) Mobile. If you think of a breakthrough in your code when you only have your smartphone or tablet on you, being able to access it and work on it on devices that may not even support native development could be really useful.

monkbent 13y ago ↗

#1 was a huge deal for me. I only use a cloud IDE for web development, and the ability to edit something no matter where I am or what computer I'm using in an environment I'm used to is simply awesome. It's had such an impact on me that I'm moving everything I do to cloud services; the value of not just having my data everywhere but the tools I'm used to everywhere is very significant.

mostlystatic 13y ago ↗

My main reason would be not having to set up my computer for development. When you're new to an ecosystem it can be super painful to get set up.

Example: I use Python a lot, but had never used it with MySQL until yesterday. I had MAMP installed and I just wanted a Python package to run queries. I tried to install MySQL-Python, but it couldn't find mysql_config. So I find it and update my PATH. Then it can't find some files. I google it and it turns out MAMP MySQL doesn't include some parts and I need to install another version of MySQL to make it work. It works now, but the MySQL Workbench export/import feature isn't happy with the MySQL version number.

Especially since many open source projects are compiled from source and have many dependencies I'd love an environment that just works.