Container IDE with cloud connection

Something for Everyone

Classic IDEs usually come with an editor, a compiler, and a debugger. Gitpod Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), on the other hand, provides an integrated development environment with an editor plus a run-time environment as needed, which you call in the browser without having to worry about the technical underpinnings.

The Rub

Everyone will be familiar with this scenario: A project you recently discovered and find pretty exciting provides detailed documentation; however, for the build process, you need the A, B, and C libraries and some additional tools – all of this, of course, in versions that your distribution choice does not provide. Developers either have to grin and bear the installation overhead, or they can resort to a virtual machine or Docker image.

Although this solution might work well for individual developers, this is not the case in teams. Companies usually roll out development environments centrally to ensure uniformity. Local installations on developer PCs sooner or later diverge, and setting up central test servers to recapture the differences between development environments comes with its own set of problems. For example, sys admins prefer to manage production systems rather than test systems. Shared use also requires caution on the part of the developer. Otherwise, one developer could destroy another's carefully constructed test record in the shared database.

Docker instances are a potential solution. Docker starts and configures its images reproducibly according to configuration files. If these are also in the project's version control system, theoretically all developers should get their own image, but with identical software stacks. However, managing Docker is not a developer's core business. If the development environment removes the need for this work, it leaves more time for more important things. This is where Gitpod

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