IDE in the browser is the future, similar to how people no longer install Microsoft Excel and instead use Google spreadsheet. Github codespaces, replit, hony.ai ... will replace installing VScode.
I hate to break it to you - excel is still the king in the spreadsheet world. Excel has decades of momentum to start with, and still gets continual upgrades. Moreover modern excel can also be web-based like Google and honestly it has very powerful features
The browser certainly has unparalleled deployment advantages. Though for sustained use, I would recommend going desktop (there's a download link on the page). Java still does good desktop. :-)
Or maybe using new "Web Apps" feature like MacOS has to turn web app into desktop.
The trick is to untangle the mental equivalence of runs-in-the-browser versus mobile code (code on demand) and/or cloud-thingy-accessed-via-thin-client, which are all orthogonal concepts. To often these get confused. But just like you give people a Java, Python, whatever bundle comprising an app that targets its associated runtime, you can give people a bundle to download and launch from their own computer where the $RUNTIME it's meant to be launched with is /usr/bin/firefox (or whatever).
(And no, this doesn't require browser support for unstable/experimental APIs like Chrome's newest proposed APIs for filesystem access. There are ways to get by with HTML5 stuff that's well-supported by every mainstream browser released in this decade.)
Comments
IDE in the browser is the future, similar to how people no longer install Microsoft Excel and instead use Google spreadsheet. Github codespaces, replit, hony.ai ... will replace installing VScode.
FYI, you don't have to install vscode (https://vscode.dev/). The announcement is a good overview of when that makes more or less sense: https://code.visualstudio.com/blogs/2021/10/20/vscode-dev
I hate to break it to you - excel is still the king in the spreadsheet world. Excel has decades of momentum to start with, and still gets continual upgrades. Moreover modern excel can also be web-based like Google and honestly it has very powerful features
I'd rather jump into a pit full of rusty spikes
The browser certainly has unparalleled deployment advantages. Though for sustained use, I would recommend going desktop (there's a download link on the page). Java still does good desktop. :-)
Or maybe using new "Web Apps" feature like MacOS has to turn web app into desktop.
The browser^desktop thing is a false dichotomy. You can write browser-based programs that nonetheless aren't Web apps.
<https://wiki.triplescripts.org/wiki/NOT#Not_a_cloud_IDE>
The trick is to untangle the mental equivalence of runs-in-the-browser versus mobile code (code on demand) and/or cloud-thingy-accessed-via-thin-client, which are all orthogonal concepts. To often these get confused. But just like you give people a Java, Python, whatever bundle comprising an app that targets its associated runtime, you can give people a bundle to download and launch from their own computer where the $RUNTIME it's meant to be launched with is /usr/bin/firefox (or whatever).
(And no, this doesn't require browser support for unstable/experimental APIs like Chrome's newest proposed APIs for filesystem access. There are ways to get by with HTML5 stuff that's well-supported by every mainstream browser released in this decade.)
Do they really need Excel if they use Google spreadsheets ?
The 'future' likely doesn't have a browser in it at all.
The industry is settling on the browser as the remote rendering platform.