Show HN: SnapCode – a real Java IDE in the browser (opens in new tab)

(reportmill.com)

42 pointsjeffreportmill12y ago25 comments

25 comments

22 comments · 6 top-level

saga812y ago· 8 in thread

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.

CharlesW2y ago

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

dgrin912y ago

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

zilti2y ago

I'd rather jump into a pit full of rusty spikes

jeffreportmill1OP2y ago

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.

cxr2y ago

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.)

reportgunner2y ago

Do they really need Excel if they use Google spreadsheets ?

mobiuscog2y ago

The 'future' likely doesn't have a browser in it at all.

erik_seaberg2y ago

The industry is settling on the browser as the remote rendering platform.

javajosh2y ago· 2 in thread

Fascinating technology - it's good to see good ol' Swing and Graphics2D being used to target browsers in the same way React Native has gone the other way and allowed swapping the DOM renderer for a native renderer. I have a couple of questions, though. What is the pricing strategy? (Programmers who'd use it will grumble that its not FOSS, then those same programmers will grumble when the maintainers quit maintaining it. I suggest ignoring the grumbling entirely.) It's also a bit awkward in that my sense is that most (enterprise) UI programming is done with web tech, and has been for at least 10 years. Where are these Swing programmers going to come from?!

mdaniel2y ago

I think they folded this technology into their Gateway but IJ had a Swing surface that was built for "IDEA on the Web," too: https://github.com/JetBrains/projector-server#the-state-of-p...